Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsJust me at Tuckahoe tonight! Where was everyone?? You missed the glowing NASA cloud. (See below) Location: Tuckahoe State Park, Queen Anne Maryland Telescope: 18" standard coating NOVA optics, Newtonian Oculars: 31mm Nagler Type 5 giving 66x 16mm Nagler Type 2 giving 128x 9mm Nagler Type 1 giving 228x Barlow: 2.4x Dakine Vernonscope (Infrequent) Haze early, but cleared off by 2200 hrs Equipment update: ran my battery to my secondary heater due to malfunctioning dew controller. This will at least keep me in business, but it puts too much heat on my secondary when connected this way. Warm up: 2145 hrs M13 M57 Dbl-Dbl in Lyra (easy at 228x, unresolved at 66x) M104 VIR GX not yet good M3 BOO GX fantastic! Haze has lifted. Main Observing: 2215 hrs Goal: Canes Venatici Galaxies (and there are a LOT of them!) NGC 4111 CVn GX nice but small, good at 66x, okay at 228x, best at 128x NGC 4143 CVn GX nice also small. simalarly best at 128x. NGC 4151 CVn GX tiny, bright core, best at 228x. Next time look for nearby NGC 4145 NGC 4214 CVn GX big and faint. great at 66x. NGC 4244 CVn GX faint very extended, very nice! great at 66x or 128x. NGC 4203 near star, easy at 66x. Nearby NGC 4227/4229 but unsure of sighting these Mag 14 GXs Winding down: M101 fantastic at 66x M108 nice at 128x M51+NGC 5195 best at 128x, very nice No dew tonight, but have to call it quits at 2315 hrs due to work tomorrow. Pack up. Whoa! The NASA Nebula. :) around 2320 hrs, saw a glowing cloud, lasting about 15 mins. In the Ophiuchus region of the sky, slowly moving eastward and dispersing. Overall a great night! Too bad I can't sleep! -Chris |