I've got clear skies where I'm at, and I'm ready to try and cross some things off my observation list.
Some targets I'm planning on trying to hit:
- M79 (this one's been a real PITA, tried about five times and finally just saw a fuzzy little cloud last time I looked)
- NGC 2419: I think this one's also going to be a huge PITA to starhop to, but I'm up to the challenge.
- Rosette Nebula
- M108
- M97: M108 and M97 seem like they shouldn't be too hard to starhop to, I guess we'll find out.
- M105: tried to find the Leo triplet once or twice before and got nowhere, but I was on more of a time crunch. I'm hoping with a slower pace and Leo being higher in the sky, I'll be able to pin it down.
- I always like to peek at Jupiter, and I'll probably snag a look at Trapezium while I can.
Known Conditions:
- 12" 1520mm f/5 manual dob
- low mag wide aperture binoculars
- predicted clear skies
- ClearDarkSky says Bortle 6 but I think it's closer to 5. In either case, not great, but I've still managed to catch some faint fuzzies from here.
- I'm going to be using a combination of prepping with Stellarium and a star chart to try and augment my star-hopping. I'll be using an 8x50 RACI to jump from bright naked-eye targets to less visible ones, and then a 2x Barlow/30mm wide field eyepiece to nudge onto target.
Anybody else planning any observing? What's your list look like?
Follow up:
Got moved to tonight at my spouse's request, didn't get out until 2100.
Seeing was good, not the clearest I've seen, but not bad. The stars seemed overall dimmer than usual, but not shimmering or twinkling. Light pollution was definitely slapping though
What I managed (using 12" f5 dob, 30mm wide field eyepiece in 2x Barlow):
M65 and M66. Took me two or three tries to starhop to them. I did not manage to visualize NGC 3628, but m65 and M66 appeared as vague foggy shadows, oval in shape, both tilted to point upper left and lower right, the right above the left. Very difficult to visualize directly, almost had to visualize exclusively via averted gaze.
Bode's Galaxy: this involved more dumb luck than I'd like to admit. I tried to starhop here by using the bear's neck stars to form a pointer to a dimmer bunching of stars that would point to the galaxy. I tried probably four different times until I got on the same group of stars and slewed a bit right and maybe a degree down. Bode's Galaxy has a more circular appearance than 65 and 66, the core is brighter, and it's beefy enough to tolerate direct gaze. Still a faint fuzzy, but it left me in less doubt about whether I was just imagining it.
What I missed:
Jupiter, Rosette Nebula, everything in Canis Major, Orion, Gemini, and Monoceros: just didn't get out in time and my views got blocked =(
NGC 2419: The moon stole the show here, unfortunately. It wasn't directly blocking my view, but it was bright enough to wash out my view in this area
M97 and M108: Tried maybe six different times and got nowhere fast. Not sure why, but trying to star hop here just showed me a bunch of fairly unremarkable stars and that's all. Maybe I needed higher magnification?