An April Fool's Report

[Don Quixote]

April 1 2020
Fairmount Illinois
10:30 PM -1:30 AM

ES AR 152 f6.5
Docter 12.5
Televue 22 Panoptic
Moon 56% illuminated

The moon was over my shoulder in the west.
Most of my observations were of Galaxies. It has been a long time since I have had this opportunity.

MOON
M106
M104
M3
M5
M49
M51
M58
M59
M60
M61
M63
M64
M65
M66
NGC3628

My first observation was the moon.

The ES AR127 f6.5 performed very very well. In particular I had very high detail in the Montes Apenninus range. The view from Manilius to Conon revealed very nice granularity of detail in the approach to the peaks of the Apenninus range.I attempted a quick cell phone snap through the eyepiece, but it does not reveal what the eye can see through the eyepiece.

I observed no appreciable color aberration in my lunar views, the blue tinge in this snap is due to the camera settings.

With the moon in play I can make a general comment that all of my DSO observations were low contrast views. Some objects were brighter but not much detail was observed although there were some sharp bright points revealed in the core.

M104 gave me less than I have had in prior outings, especially my 2017 season, but even at that I did recognize a transient bar glitter.

For me the notable view was the Leo Triplet.
I found a delightful view of three galaxies in the Docter 12.5 eyepiece, M65,M66 and NGC3628.
Please see Post by Jim, (Juno16), here: Triplet.viewtopic.php?f=66&t=8602

Clear Skies !

[Thefatkitty]

Nice haul and picture Mark, good for you!

Hope you, Bonnie and your mum are well

All our best,

[Don Quixote]

Thank you Mark.
We are all doing fine.
I hope you all are doing well also.
These are trying times.
Clear Skies and good health to you and yours.

[Juno16]

Really nice report Mark!

You sure caught some nice targets with the AR127. I’ll bet it is a fine scope. I really enjoy my ED102.

The moon definitely did take the dark sky away last night.

Thanks for the fine report and for the plug!

[Don Quixote]

CORRECTION PLEASE.

I was using my AR152....NOT AR127.
Sorry for that slip.

[John Baars]

Well done! When the Moon is looking over the shoulder the whole sky is bleached. Taken that into consideration you did very well!!
Thanks for your report!

[terrynak]

Good to see you back out Mark - very nice report!

Caught a lot of galaxies despite the Moon - it must be nice to live in a rural area. Although the Moon has been looking good as well.

[NGC 1365]

Thanks for sharing your observations Mark. sounds like you had a great night.