by Nilesh Shah
This was the first time I took Papa Joe(the 12.5" f6 PLD) to a dark sky and I had forgotten that I need a step tool if the scope is pointing more than 45 degress or so, so I didn't start working on my H400. I decided to look at some bright objects and wanted to see how they looked in Papa Joe.
I saw some bright ones that were slightly lower in the sky including M104, M57, M13, M4, M80, M81, M82, M10, M12, M14, the Leo triplet. It was Saturday night when I saw the Leo triplet in Papa Joe and I'm still having a hard time on this Monday morning to get that eyepiece view out of my mind :)
While looking at Leo, I also looked at some NGC galaxies(sorry I don't have an atlas in front of me and I have a short memory span) galaxies in the sickle of Leo. These Non messier NGC galaxies, which would be some faint small stuff in my 6" f8, were showing like what messier galaxies would show up in my 6". Needless to say I was having a blast.
After this observing session at the peak, I've realised that I would be able to put more observing details in my logs.