Since the weather was clear, I decided to use my Meade 7" LX50 to hunt some deep sky objects. I purchased this telescope to use on the Moon and planets, but it was clear so what the heck. I decided to hunt for some of the objects desscribed in the April 1997 Sky and Telescope, pages 56-60. In this article, edited by Alan MacRobert, he describes his experiences in hunting down galaxies in Leo with a 6". I decided to give it a try.

The sky conditions at my location are not great, but tend to get better later at night. My limiting magnitude, using Ursa Minor as a guide, is about 5.0 (I can see all of the stars in the little dipper and the faintest is about magnitude 5.0). Later at night, when people go to bed and turn of their lights, this increases to perhaps 5.2. It is darker towards the zenith and the west. I am perhaps 15 air miles from downtown San Jose, CA! However, there are several mountains/large hills in the way. In addition, most houses in the area are among the trees and this helps to cut down on some of the local light pollution. Speaking to my neighbors also helps, although they think I am a bit strange to be out at 2:00 am looking at faint blobs of light!

The seeing was fair, and the sky transparency was good. I used the 7", which is 2670mm fl, F15. I generally used a 26mm eyepiece, with a 2" mirror diagonal for about 100X.

My first target was the galaxy M105, along with NGC 3384 and 3389. M105 was brighter, a fuzzy blob, slightly elongated. The NGC objects were dimmer, with little or no detail. Next was NGC 3412, with a stellar center surrounded by a soft glow. NGC 3377 seemed dimmer and of even brightness. NGC 3367 was a dim small smudge with no detail. It is important to note that the magnitude of this object, according to MacRobert is about 11.5, with a surface brightness of 12.9! NCG showed a small dim blob, with no detail but a soft glow.

About this time I noticed that more spring sky was cresting the Oak trees which line the East sky. I looked at M51. This was one of the more impessive objects of the evening. It was a circular glow, with a smaller softer glow next to it. It had a somewhat stellar center. Within the glow were hints of dark knots or patches. I did not see the arms directly but what I suppose were hints of them. Also checked some of the galaxies in Virgo/Coma. M87 was large and seemed to be even in brightness. M3, the globular cluster was a little gem! It was resolved about 2/3 of the way to the center at 100X!