Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsA clear Sunday night at Tuckahoe was too good of an opportunity to pass up. With the spring and later sunset I really didn't begin observing until almost 9:00. On the Scene were Jean Paul Richard , Tim Milligan, Tom from Dover, Dave from Wheaton Md , Nathan from somewhere nearby and myself. With the Milky Way below the horizon and a clear and dark moonless night we were able to get some outstanding galaxy and cluster viewing in. With the benefit of my LX 90 autostar, I was able to view many of the Messier Galaxies in the Virgo Cluster including M49. M61, M84, M85, M86 as well as M98, M99 and M100. M104, the Sombrero was quite outstanding and I just never tire of seeing M65 and M66 in Leo in the same low power Field of View. New objects for me included NGC 4365 which was excellent at about 11 limiting Mag, NGC 4343 at 12.1 was a little more difficult to discern but evident with averted vision. NGC 4526 was also quite nice at 9.6 limiting mag. We had some wonderful shared views of M53 and M3 as well as M5 in Jean Paul's obsession. Dave pointed us to the Distant Galactic Cluster NGC2419 in Lynx which according to my autostar was Caldwell 25, also a new object for me. It was almost nebulae like but I was not able to resolve any stars in my 8 inch. Dave also pointed me to another nearby Galaxy in Lynx, NGC 6383 which was quite outstanding. Very nice views of the M13 as I was beginning to break down at just after 11:15. All in all a great evening. Ralph Dominica |