weather has been kinda bad for the last several weeks. I managed to get the scope out the other night when we had a small break in the summertime haze. Only this new that I spotted was M4. Here's a pic I found on the web

Star Clusters

So last night I looked for some star clusters. I found a couple Open Clusters, M41 & M44, not much to them just an eyepiece full of stars. I've found Globular Clusters to be much more interesting. M3 & M53 both looked like tiny cotton balls when I first spotted them but when I cranked up the magnification they showed swarms of individual stars all packed together, very nice to look at.

While I was out there I thought I'd look for a Galaxy or two. I found the Black Eye galaxy, M64, but couldn't see much detail, just a small blob of light. I tried to find M101 again. I've hunted for this thing many times without much luck. M101 is a magnitude 7.9 Spiral Galaxy close to the handle of the Big Dipper. I've found objects above magnitude 9 so I didn't know why I couldn't find this thing. Well, last night I finally found it and it is way bigger than I expected, way dimmer too. I could just make out a misty patch of light, but I found it none the less and I know what to look for when I get out to a darker site than my light polluted back yard.

Here's a pic of M101 from the Hubble.

april 28, 2011

Spotted M104, the Sombrero Galaxy tonight. Couldn't make out much detail, the air is pretty thick, it was raining most of the day. I checked Saturn and I couldn't make out the Cassini Division so I knew there wouldn't be much hope for datail in the galaxy. It was nice to find it though, now I know where to look on a good clear night.

Here's what it looks like through the Hubble telescope

New Telescope

I got a new telescope for Christmas 2010, a Zhumell Z8. I thought this might be a good place to keep track of what I've seen though it.


Mercury
Venus
Our Moon
Mars
Jupiter and 4 moons
Saturn and 5 moons
Uranus


M1 Crab Nebula
M3 a Globular Cluster
M31 Galaxy
M41 Open Cluster
M42 Orion Nebula
M44 O.C.
M51 Whirlpool Galaxy
M53 G.C.
M64 Black Eye Galaxy
M81 and M82 Galaxies called Bode's Nebula
M101 a Spiral Galaxy
M104 the Sombrero Galaxy