Telescope Reviews: Another night: mostly great hits, one glaring miss

Hey all,

Clear skies again last night here in Austin, so I got to spend a few hours in the yard, and found some great stuff!

First, someone mentioned seeing Andromeda and both companions recently, and I wondered if I'd actually seen both (I'd assumed I had). But when I went looking for M110, it was nowhere to be seen. It took a lot of time (and a photo from Harrington's book Star Watch) to help me follow asterisms to the right spot. Once there, I got it! Very faint, had scanned right over it previously, but knowing where to look always helps. I could not make it out at all in my low-power eyepiece--it required 100x before it showed up against the skyglow. Visible at 200x also, but more magnification caused it to vanish again. Score 1!

Second, I just realized a couple nights ago the Cat's eye was still up, and I hadn't seen it yet. This one is not too tough to find (NGC 6543) in Draco, and stands out well in LP. Very cool! At low power, it looked like a halo glow around a bright center, and I assume the bright point in the middle was the central star. Increasing magnification tended to dim the center for me without adding extra detail. Nebula filters made it stand out from the background more, but didn't really add to the detail, in my opinion. I'm sure as I get more chances to look at this one, I'll catch more detail. But for me, it will have to wait until next year.

Draco is sliding behind a tree to the north, and last night, I was a little late starting my hunt and had to drag the scope over a few feet to avoid a branch!
Score: 2!

Then I thought, as long as the O-III was in, could I get the Veil? YES!

I've seen it under green skies, but this was a backyard first! Could only barely get a hint of the western portion around 52 Cyg, but the eastern portion was visible as a slight light band in the sky. I couldn't make out the wondrous filaments like are visible under dark skies, but still a thrill just to catch it.
Score: 3!

Then it was off to NGC 7331 (Peg), got it again, and yet one more failed attempt at Stephan's Quintet. I think that might just have to wait for darker skies.
No points

Checked out the Blue snowball again, that one's becoming a favorite for a quick peek--Until the Ghost of Jupiter returns!
Already seen--no extra points.

Then on to my nemesis: M74 (cue appropriate nemesis music). I had a better idea of where to look, scanned and scanned, tried different magnifications, still nothing. Went to M33 (Triangulum), last year's big failure, and found it with ease. *sigh*. Back to M74, trying to remember how tough M110 was for me, but still no joy. Ended up having to leave that one, but came in later and made myself a post-it note asterism map to get me to the exact spot next time. That way, at least I'll know if it's possible from here.
Score: no points--airball!

Then, ready to pack it in for the night, I decided to do a quick planet round-up...only to discover Neptune and Uranus had MOVED since the last time I checked on them (can you imagine?). I figured they couldn't have got far, however, and a bit of deducing and looking, checking in the atlas turned them both up.
Score: 1 point (1/2 point each for finding them again--hey, I can be generous since it's my own scoring system!

)

So for the night, that's 4 points total for new stuff, with some extras thrown in, and one big miss.

M74: you can't hide from me forever!

--------------------
Tim

Zhumell Z10 dob
Meade 60mm refractor
Zhumell 1.25" eyepiece and filter kit
Zhumell sky-glow, UHC, and OIII filters