A nice moment to say goodbye to winter constellation Orion, which with its incomparable M42 disappears behind houses and roofs at my place. Equinox was some days ago.
After saying goodbye, I focused on M94. An extragalactic system in Canis Venatici that can still be observed from the city with smaller instruments. Since daylight-saving had just kicked in, I did not observe it until 10 p.m. local time ( 20.00 UTC). Attached I have a sketch of it. Keen observers will note that the north-south orientation of M94 itself is not quite correct. In fact, it was still too bright for that. I could have corrected it, but that does not give a fair sketch of what I think I saw."Tho we gotta say goodbye for the summer", (Brian Hyland 1962)
During star hopping I shot too far ahead and Cor Caroli blazed into view. The Heart of Charlemagne (800 A.D.), a famous king of the Middle Ages. Also a nice double star. Magnitude 2.9 and 5.5, separation 19". I didn't have a sketch of that yet either. Herewith, this one was made in Paint. I used the heart of Charlemagne right away to briefly test the coma and collimation of the telescope. Since its fall earlier this winter, it had deteriorated significantly and I had been working on it a few times to get it right again. I luckily had it back to its old level. It is the scope you see in my avatar.
And while in the neighborhood, the large cluster in Coma Berenice is too tempting to resist with a wide-field instrument. I sketched Mel 111 almost a year earlier, not sure if I posted it before, but won't withhold it from you. Breathtakingly beautiful. Click on the images for a better view.
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