Last night was unexpectedly clear, so I popped out for a quick view before bed, my first in 58 days!! I carried out the Heritage 130P + GiroWR + photo tripod and was up and running in a couple of minutes. The warm, calm and transparent conditions were perfect so I ended up staying out until 1am! The sky was quite bright though and I think there was vapour in the atmosphere as I could clearly see beams from a passing aircraft’s landing lights (I think the pilot must have left them on by accident!).

Of all the seasons I am probably least familiar with the spring skies as they don’t seem to hang around for long. I did know where M65 and M66 were in Leo and instantly found them, surprisingly bright with discernible shapes and brighter cores. Using the zoom I found that around 12mm gave the best contrast so I swapped in my nearest non-zoom, the 10mm Hyperion (which seems to be an eyepiece for just about every occasion) giving 65x.

Next was M105 with NGC3384 (Mag 10) close by, but the nearby NGC3389 (Mag 11.8) eluded me.

To the south of M105, both M95 and 96 were clearly visible almost in the same FOV, hints of detail there but nothing I can describe. To the north of M105 was NGC3412 fainter and less interesting.

Then on to NGC3607 and 3608, again both easy and in the same FOV.

By this point the eyepiece seemed to be swimming with galaxies and just scanning would reveal a profusion of faint objects. There were a number of bright galaxies in the bowl of Virgo, which I did not have the inclination to identify, I should really have gone out with a list of targets (schoolboy error). I can see how galaxy hunting at this time of year can turn into a challenge to observe as many as possible, they are just so numerous.

Moving overhead to Ursa Major, M97 (Owl neb) and M108 were very clear, almost in same field FOV. I considered getting out the UHCE filter to try and get the eyes of the owl, but was enjoying the simplicity of the session too much. M109 was easily found and NGC 3959 nearby.

The highlight of the evening was the Whale (Caldwell 32), unmistakable whale shaped galaxy, large and with even brightness throughout. Interesting to observe as I had imaged this recently. Searching for the Silver Needle galaxy (Caldwell 26) I found a galaxy which was not very needle like, I suspect this was the nearby, and brighter, NGC4214.

A good haul and definitely worth staying up for.