Back Again I hope I don't burn myself out :-)

[John Donne]

May 23-24, 2023
9PM -1AM
Oakwood, not so dark site.
Bonnie and Mark braving the coyotes and the neighbors nasty barn lights.

Transparency poor.
Seeing poor.

Humidity high.
Temps 55-60

SW Evostar 100ED f9
CG4 mount

Pentax 7MM
TV 22 Panoptic
12.5 Doctor
Leica Microscope EP from JG

M80
M5
M4
Venus
Moon

I posted a photo of the moon that Bonnie helped me capture in the Moon picture section.
We also took more pictures of Venus, but none were as good, relatively speaking, as the ones we captured the last time we were out.

Bonnie chilled out pretty quickly and her joints were starting to hurt so she walked back to the house and left me to wander in the sky for a while alone.

I began my clumsy method of sky hopping and star stoping.

I scanned around, literally driving the telescope by hand with both clutches released, enjoying everything that passed the EP until I hit something interesting…not a star…then I stopped. I figured out what I had landed on if I could but if not I was satisfied to enjoy it for a while before moving on.

I began last night at Antares and moved to M4 which was easy and not really a random move as most everything else was on this outing.

After M4 I was all over the sky east and west of Scorpius. Mostly I hovered close.

I rolled into Sagittarius a bit to find the Butterfly and Ptolemy Clusters. I had to dig for those two as they were nearly on the horizon. The sky was so bad they revealed only a small portion of their resident stars. But I did notice that the Leica EP seemed to pull more light out of these difficult to resolve clusters. I tried to go up “The Chimney” to find the Lagoon Nebula and I think I caught it with the Leica but I am not sure. It was a very poor resolve and mostly a dusty spot. But it was fun to work for it no matter.

I slid back over to Antares and M4…I used Antares as my reference point.

Performing my scan again I hit upon M80 which resolved as a little cotton ball with maybe a few revealed stars but mostly a defuse ball of light. From there I wandered around quite a bit. It may seem fruitless, but for me it was a pleasure. I simply enjoyed viewing the stars. Sometimes I was able to see some color, but mostly the atmosphere killed that joy. I saw quite a few of what seemed to be doubles. I am not at all sure. They may have just been very close stars.

Eventually I stumbled upon M5. This one is hard to misidentify. It was a fine view. Even with only the 4 inch SW I was able to resolve a few stars in the cotton. They view of M5 was the best because I was pointing into the “deeper” sky with much less of the humid atmosphere to cut through.

It does not seem like I had much of a harvest, but I had a lot of fun. I spent about 4 hours out there. It was gooood !

Peace and Strength to you all.

Mark

[Juno16]

Sounds like a tough night Mark.
You pulled in some nice sights, but the skies made it hard and it sounds like the views were quite limited.
Still, I know that you had fun and I’m glad that you got out.

I very much enjoyed reading your well written report Mark. Thanks for sharing it!

[Ylem]

"nasty barn lights.
Transparency poor.
Seeing poor.
Humidity high."

For a report that started out like that, you guys had a nice evening!

My wife's joints have also gotten bad, ugh.

[Bigzmey]

Sounds like fun session Mark. Glad you and Bonnie had a chance to get out. I hear you about the barn lights. My observing site is located on the hill and I swear quite few flood lights are aimed straight at us, which would be up for them. What are they looking for UFOs?

[kt4hx]

Good little globular action there Mark (and Bonnie). Globs are always fun and M5 is one of my personal favorites. Keep it up, as I don't see burn-out in your future at all!

[chris_g]

Hi Mark,

Glad to see you back in action, enjoyed reading your report. Hope to read more

Clear Skies,
Chris

[John Baars]

Very nice report again!
Another candidate for a VROD!

[Lady Fraktor]

A good session Mark, sometimes just wandering through the sky can be a fun and relaxing time.