M74 and some really dark skies

We've been traveling through the western states the last couple of months and I took my ETX70 along, expecting to do some viewing in dark skies. Ha! I took it out exactly three times. The first was an impromptu star party at 'the ranch' in Montana with my brother in laws and their wives. The moon was pretty bright so we didn't get to see a lot. The skies are clear, no humidity to speak of, but aren't really all that dark. There's lots of light polution from the nearby town and neighbors. One other time, I couldn't get the thing leveled but the skies were really dark at Great Basin NP. The third time was at Mesa Verde with very good luck. I used the ETX's guided tour and was actually able to see several of the Messier galaxies. The best though was at Doc Hudler's cabin in the Wet Mountains of Colorado. The skies were so dark I saw a black cloud. Yup, with no light polution, clouds at night are actually black. Very startling. The Perseids were wonderful that dark night. I tried for M74 but just couldn't quite pull it out with my 7x50's. When I got back to Rolla, last night, I tried again after the moon had set about 3:00 am. Thin clouds (white this time) were rolling through but I managed to get in a quick peek at M74 with my 8" dob. The star field was right on and M74 was rather large with my 27mm ep but fairly dim. It would be nice to revisit this when the seeing conditions were better. I might be able to see some detail in this face on spiral galaxy.
With M74 gone, that only leaves 3 more Messiers.

My Equipment

Thought I'd add this while I'm at it and figure out later how to make it easier to find. I'm always trying to remember the specs on my equipment!
1. Orion Skyquest Classic Dob 8" 1200mm f5.9
2. Meade ETX-70 70mm 350mm f5
3. 27mm 25mm 10mm 2x barlow

Washed out

We've been washed out in more ways than one lately. It has been rainy or cloudy almost all of May so far and now the moon is coming on strong. Tonight (and last night) it is passably clear but a first quarter moon is just too bright. Arcturus and Ursa Major are high overhead and quite visible as is Spica in the South but dim stars are invisible. I did manage to snag a satellite traveling fast from S to N in the vicinity of Arcturus about 10:51 but heavens above didn't have it listed. I could see it easily with my 7x50's but not unaided. I may try for Scutum's treasures later tonight after the moon sets... and then again I may not!

Fun with the ETX70

The last few nights have been clear with no moon but the last few Messier objects I'm missing aren't visible yet so I decided to see what the ETX could do with a dark sky. It does better than in Texas but galaxies are still a challenge. I was able to see a couple of globular clusters ok but even M83, the brightest galaxy I tried, was visible as only the slightest smear in my eyepiece. M3 and M92 GCs were fine.
First off, I had to find north and found out that 75 degrees of altitude is the right setting for the north star at my latitude in Rolla. I used a small wooden stool from the shop as a table and after leveling it was off and running.
Limiting magnitude is about 9, even at my Rolla home. I checked this by sketching the field around Alchiba, Alpha Corvus, and comparing to CdC.
The ETX works fine with my pocket sky atlas. I could easily see all of the stars in the atlas and then some. I found out though that there is quite a limit to the ETX's database. It seems that some entirely useless objects are there and other brighter objects are not. For example, guided tour tries to point out several galaxies which would not be visible but NGC5466, a globular cluster, was not. I'll need to find the RA,Dec for the NGC's and other objects I want to look at and have them ready next time. I also need to get the ETX70 working with CdC.
Both nights were dry with about 55% humidity, temp in the 60's, light breeze.

M83 down, four more to go

Finally after weeks of either bright moon or rainy skies, a dark clear night. Hydra was up in an almost perfect spot for viewing M83 at 9:30 tonight so I grabbed my 7x50's and pocket atlas and headed for the deck. On a line between Menkent and Gamma Hydrae, there are two small asterisms: one a group of four mag 4 stars (1,2,3,4 Cen) that look to me like a satellite dish on a pedestal with the dish pointed at M83, the other is an arc of three mag 6 stars with a group of two stars off toward the dish. M83 forms a triangle with these two just to the west. It's big and almost covered half the field of my 10mm ep. I thought the view was a bit better in my 27mm ep though and was able to clearly make out the bar and at least imagined I saw one of the spiral arms.
Leo was chasing Mars tonight and Saturn is the olive in Virgo's martini. It was getting a bit damp from the dew so I quit early at about 10:30.

The (Almost) Final Four

I'm down to five. It was partly cloudy today but mainly cleared off by 9:00 so I decided to try for the final four in Coma B and Virgo: M61, M85, M88, and M91. I had tried to find these previously but had no luck. Tonight I found out why! All but 61 are in an area almost devoid of bright stars and they are super dim, all lying about 60M light years away. Armed with my pocket sky atlas I was able to hop from either Vindamiatrix in Virgo or Denebola in Leo using some of the very dim stars that the PSA shows on its chart. It took awhile though. I was out from about 9:15 to 10:45 and by the time I started hunting for M61 at the end, I was getting kind of punchy and making dumb mistakes. It was also a bit hazy from a few light high clouds moving through. At first, even fairly bright mag 4 stars would kind of come and go but it cleared up toward the end and I rewarded myself with a nice crisp view of Saturn, who was in the neighborhood, to round things out. I was able to sketch all four along with whatever stars were in the FOV of my 27mm ep but they were all nondiscript fuzzy blobs in my 8" dob. Getting to the right spot was difficult but once I had the scope pointed to the correct location, they were all four readily apparent and the sketches even match the pictures at SEDS fairly well!
M85 is closest to Denebola and there is even an Aquila-like asterism nearby that points the way to 85. M88 and 91 are closer to Vindamiatrix so I started there to find them but kept getting lost in the dim starfield along the way. There are a pair of very dim stars that bracket the two galaxies and I was finally able to find those and zero in on my targets. M61 was the easiest as the visible star 16 Vir makes almost a right triangle with Zavijava and Zaniah, two of the bright stars making up Virgo's cup. By the time I got to M61, it had cleared up enough that I could make out 16 Vir unaided, pointed my red dot at it, and zero'd right in on M61 with my 9x50 finder. It was also dim but perhaps not as much so and fairly large.

Galaxies Galore

A temperature of 67°F and a humidity of 48% with light winds, no moon, and clear sky made for a perfect night of viewing here in midmo. Last night was hazy but tonight was ideal. I took advantage of the good viewing to snag a few of my Messier holdouts: M81, 82, 102?, 87, and 90. M81 and 82 in UMa are in an area north of the Big Bear with few bright stars so I've avoided these in the past. Armed with my new pocket field guide though, I was able to zero right in on the area of interest. 24 UMa is just about diagonally opposite Dubhe and Phecda in the cup of the dipper and makes a handy place to orient. I found the pair easily after that. M81 aka Bode's nebula appeared as a bright fuzzy blob while M82 aka the cigar galaxy looked like a fuzzy needle in my 8" with 27mm ep. Both were well within the fov and made a nice sight although my rommate wasn't able to see both of them. After admiring these two I decided to try for M102? The question mark is there because Messier apparently mis-identified this one. A likely candidate is NGC5866 in Draco which appeared as a tiny, fuzzy dim irregular blob in my 8". I used iota draconis as my guide star which was just barely visible unaided. Nudge about a binoc fov toward Alcaid in the dipper's handle and look for a triangular group of three 7th mag stars. M102 is near the closest of these to iota draconis.
By the time I finished admiring M102, Virgo was high above the backyard oak tree and I slewed around to tackle the Virgo Cluster. The last time I visited this area I saw too many galaxies! The star field is too dim to get a good fix on the faint fuzzies and they can be hard to identify. M87 and M90 are two of the harder ones. After a few trips back and forth between binocs, 9x50 finder, and my pocket guide, I realized that the reason I didn't find these two last time was that I had the wrong star field! This time I started at Denebola in Leo, slewed a bit toward Vindamiatrix in Virgo (that's the northermost tip of the 'cup') and looked for the first fairly bright star, 6 Com which is barely visible unaided at mag 5. It is part of a distinctive asterism that looks a bit like a 'T'. About a degree toward Vindamiatrix is a dim group of 3 mag 8-9 stars barely visible in binocs. Another two degrees down and look for a triangular group of 3 very dim stars. M87 is very near that group. M90 is a bit to the left in a box-like group of four dim stars. All of these 'guide' stars are very dim in binocs or my finder. Both M87 and M90 were faint smudges, much like many of the other faint smudges in this area!
To add icing on my cake tonight, our pack of coyotes decided to howl about 11:00. It sounded like they were in the front yard!