Goodbye Winter, welcome Spring.

[John Baars]

Unexpectedly, on April 01, it suddenly turned out to be bright for a while. And no, it was not an April Fool's joke.
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.

"Tho we gotta say goodbye for the summer", (Brian Hyland 1962)

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.

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.

[Bigzmey]

Great report and sketches John! Yes, summer brings better weather, but shorter nights.

[Lady Fraktor]

A wonderful observation John!
I am also glad to hear you have the refractor working well again.

[Thefatkitty]

Nice read John, I envy you... Some nice targets in those springtime skies!
And yes, good for you getting your 'frac back in action!

All the best,

[kt4hx]

Very nice indeed John. Glad you are still able to pick up some galaxies in your brighter skies there. Also that is great news that your refractor is back in prime condition again.

I checked my logs and the last time I had observed M94 was 11 years ago from our then Bortle 5 backyard using my 10 inch. Canes Venatici is a terrific constellation for galaxies and one I haven't ventured into for a while. Though I am not much of a double star observer, agree that Cor Caroli is a beautiful pair.

Congrats on what is certainly a VROD worthy report my friend.

[StarHugger]

Nice report John, Cool your are getting in some observations !

[John Baars]

Great report and sketches John! Yes, summer brings better weather, but shorter nights.

Thanks! Although the summer nights bring us lots of beautiful objects, pity those nights are a lot brighter too!

A wonderful observation John!
I am also glad to hear you have the refractor working well again.

Thank you! It took me more time than I thought it would take. An instrument that already is on the 0.25 Wave- limit should not be bothered with more aberrations. And we all know that these F5 Strartravel-telescopes already are on the limit.

Nice read John, I envy you... Some nice targets in those springtime skies!
And yes, good for you getting your 'frac back in action!

All the best,

Thanks. Here, under urban circumstances extra galactic objects are rare.

Very nice indeed John. Glad you are still able to pick up some galaxies in your brighter skies there. Also that is great news that your refractor is back in prime condition again.

I checked my logs and the last time I had observed M94 was 11 years ago from our then Bortle 5 backyard using my 10 inch. Canes Venatici is a terrific constellation for galaxies and one I haven't ventured into for a while. Though I am not much of a double star observer, agree that Cor Caroli is a beautiful pair.

Congrats on what is certainly a VROD worthy report my friend.

Thank you for the recommendation. Galaxies are quite difficult here. In a 14 inch SCT the situation is less poorly. Luckily the wide-field refractor is quite useful on open clusters. I looked it up and I already posted the M111 sketch almost one year earlier on our forum.

[John Baars]

Nice report John, Cool your are getting in some observations !

Thank you!

[Unitron48]

Nice session and reporting, John! Love your sketches!!

Dave

[John Baars]

Nice session and reporting, John! Love your sketches!!

Dave

Thanks!! I mostly try to add at least one sketch to a report of mine. To spice it up a little bit..

[helicon]

Quite nice sketches John and some very valuable written statements about the three objects you observed (one last year). Congratulations on attaining the VROD for the day!

[John Baars]

Thanks Michael for the award and Alan for the nomination!

[Bigzmey]

Congrats on the well deserved VROD John!