And it almost wasn't! As I said it was predicted to be a full day of clear sky. At 7pm it was already clear. And at 11pm when I wanted to sleep before going out I look out and... completely covered with clouds!! I look at the forecast in 2 places, it showed clear-clear-clear and still!! I was calming myself: just some fluke clouds, they will pass. I couldn't really sleep... woke up at 00.12, look out... still covered in clouds!! Shxt starting to get real... Pff sleeping a bit more, wake up at 1.30 AM, and afraid to look out... and it's starting to clear, only a few clouds! Then I knew it would be a night to remember!
I dozed until 2... I knew I would have to go out at 3-4 AM to get a good elevation... but I just could not sleep anymore. 2.10. 2.20, that's it, I'm gone! I got dressed in total silence so as not to wake wifey, of course mission impossible. Whatever, I opened the balcony door and out I was!! Hello Virgo you beautiful maiden, you!! The elevation was good enough!I found the place in one minute with no map, no image, no nothing, I knew the way by heart already, from Virgo's right shoulder star. I'm there! Look, galaxy! In 25mm no sn visible yet. I put in the 6mm, stars getting fuzzy a bit, but supernova!! Yey!! My first real one! It is my third one logged but the first two were very unsure, lost in the fuzz of the galaxy. Now this one clearly out of the grey, beautiful, glorious lil point of light! 46 million light years from here! Grand... Pulled it back a notch to 10mm so the stars got back to normal instead of fuzzy, still the SN was there! Actually pulled it back to 25mm, I could still pick it out now if I paid really much attention! My best view was with the 10mm, made it brighter but not fuzzy, watched it for half an hour!
Of course I could not resist looking at M100 too, but like Bryan said, just the grey patch, I think with or without the sn it would have looked the same, so fail on this one. But I expected that. Went back to 2020ue and delighted my eye some more on this rare beauty! Magnificent... this experience is on the top of my list, together with the 8 billion ly quasar from 3 years back, the Mercury transit of the Sun... these are the unique images that one will never forget, right? I mean we have plenty more spectacular views, but as they say, our astronomy is more in the head, right?
I got back at 3.07 and patiently waited for about an hour to calm down, warm up and actually be able to get back to sleep. Good night!
