Since I have been doing quite a bit of CCD work, I seem to have forgotten what it is like to use a large telescope from a fairly dark location. SO, I decided to use my NGT-18 from my yard here in Sonoita Arizona. Sonoita is about 5000 feet in elevation, approximately 40 miles from the center of Tucson. Although there is a definite glow over that city, it will diminish by half after perhaps 11 in the evening. Sierra Vista and Nogales will do the same later in the evening. Using my limiting magnitude stars in the Little Dipper, I was able to glimpse with averted vision a star of magnitude 6.2 somewhat easily, 6.3 occasionally, and I thought 6.4 once; all of this from my yard of course. This was about midnight when the little dipper was fairly high but was near the Tucson skyglow. I would offer that the zenith is somewhat darker. Seeing is often quite good although incoming storms can raise havoc with things. At times we will get subtropical moisture that can hurt transparency, just thin enough so that the sky does not look right. In addition, if it is windy (and April usually is) we can get quite a bit of dust in the air.
These distractions aside, I did have a run of a few good nights. First was NGC 4298 at magnitude 11.4 and its neighbor NGC 4302 at magnitude 11.6. These galaxies were a nice pair and with a 10.5 Plossl (195X) some texture was seen in 4298. NGC 4419 at magnitude 11.1 showed evidence of its spiral shape with the 10.5: a bright core and softer extensions. I also picked up the Zwicky galaxy cluster between NGC 4419 and 4421. Two soft, indistinct glows were seen in the correct position with a 22mm Panoptic (93X). Going a bit deeper, NGC 4883 formed a nice pair with the dim -magnitude 15.5- V7504. The next night seemed to offer better transparency but I decided to start with some objects I had imaged recently. The galaxy NGC 4631 was spotted across its surface with three distinct yet separate glows across its surface. The unusual galaxy NGC 4656 evidenced a distinct hook with two brighter end portions, with a somewhat dimmer center. The portion opposite the hook was somewhat brighter. NGC 4676 A and B looked impressive in photographs; visually they were somewhat less impressive but I did see something of an oblong hooked blur. IC 821 at magnitude 14.5 is next to IC 818. As might be expected, they were not much more than small dim blurs. I did however spot KUG1242+301 at magnitude 16.5. This was a very tough object, a subtle change in contrast and not much more. Aspiring to keep with my good luck, I looked for and found KUG1243+303, also listed at magnitude 16.5. This was another tough object. For kicks, I looked at the area around NGC 4886, which The Sky showed was ripe with galaxies. When I looked I thought that there were a lot of stars. Not stars but galaxies, perhaps 10 or more in the field of the 22mm Panoptic! I wrapped up with M83. Big, fairly bright, several dark lanes, arms tapering to a soft edge.
We must keep in mind that galaxy magnitudes are somewhat unreliable. In spite of this, I did see some rather faint stuff and had a great time doing it. Now if I can get the observatory built before that 22" monster arrives. And, I'm going to look at two 40 acre parcels about 50 miles east of here, sort of near the New Mexico border. If you think Sonoita is dark...........