On the evening of April 14, I took my 55 mm Vixen fluorite refractor into my yard in Palo Alto for the third time. The sky was faintly hazy. I started hunting Messier objects, and found both M44 and M67 well resolved at 37x, with a 12 mm Brandon eyepiece. Passing clouds made galaxy hunting in Leo most frustrating, but at that same magnification I not only detected M104, well down in the light dome of the cities to the south, but was able to see its elongation. Perhaps a darker night would have revealed the dark lane.

After the telescope had settled down, I put in an 8 mm Brandon and a 2x Celestron Ultima Barlow, for 110x, and took another look at gamma Virginis, which I had just barely split last time out. The seeing was better, and it was again split, but again just barely. Polaris was a cinch at that magnification -- no clouds dimmed out the companion this time.

I am hoping for good weather this weekend. It will be fun to go through the Messier galaxies in Virgo and to the north with the little fluorite, from a site with less light pollution.