Thursday Night Astronomy!

by Peggy Bernard


Despite the 1/2 waxing Moon and some stiff breezes, I set up the New 10" DOB in my backyard here in deep south San Jose.

Did work in Leo since it was furthest away from the Moon's light at the start of the observing session.

Found: M95, M96 (both showed nicely in my 32 MM eyepiece), M105, M65, M66. Also found M98, an edge on galaxy; it was very faint but definitely showed a nice edge. Swung the scope around to Mars and could just make out surface markings at 107X. Moved over to Hercules for a spectacular view of M13 - its one of my favorite Messier objects. It looked really nice at 107X, being able to see stars deep into its core.

Finished with a nice survey of the Moon. Examination of the terminator at 107X showed mountain and crater detail I'd never seen before.

That's about it. Time to sign off as its almost 1 AM.