M51, M56, M57, and the Amazing Albireo!

Wow,

Although M51 is called the 'Whirlpool Galaxy' is not much to look at in light polluted skies, I have spent the last 6 or so clear nights trying to locate it. I also have found that an Optical finder is fairly necessary for these 'faint fuzzies' because in my light polluted skies I could not even see 24CVn to hop from, here is what I had to resort to, in order to succeed:

-First after reading my Star Watch and Turn Left at Orion books (i feel the compliment each other great!), I know exactly where to look, but could not see the square of stars which suround it with my 32mm, as the magnification is to high, and I only have about a 1 degree FOV.

-So out came the binos, and was able to see the stars perfectly, so, I switched on my trusty Green Laser Pointer mounted on my scope that I use for a finder, and moved the scope, until the green laser was pointing right at the spot where it should be, and BAM! I caught it!

HAHA I must have looked silly, bino's in one hand, and trying to direct and point my 10" with the other hand! But I must say this worked well!

M51 appeared as a 2 faint fuzzy patches of light, nothing spectacular, but I loved the hunt, and thats what counts!

Also I found another DSO without even looking or one! I was looking for the Ring Nebula (one of my favorites) and i had the stars mixed up where it was instead of looking in between Sheliak and Sulafat, I was looking between Sulafat and Albireo, and found M56! I was like "Hey thats no ring!", so I whipped open my books and found it was M56. Also Albireo is an amazing double! the blue and yellow really stand out!

The Great Globular, The Ring, and Make it a Double-Double

Last night was a great night for viewing, the best night I have had since upgrading the focuser to the Moonlite CR1. I started off watching Saturn dip too low from my vantage point, I could only see it for about 5 min, and it was partially obstructed the whole time, it didn’t really make it for great observing, so that maybe it for Saturn for the Season!

My Goal was for this night was at least to find the Double-Double, this was a little tricky first until I realized the drawings in the book (Turn Left at Orion) and my Sky were not in the exact same orientation, once I discovered this, everything started to fall in to place, and I was able to find the Double-Double for the first time!

Now that I was loaded with a little more confidence, I tired my luck on The Great Globular Cluster in Hercules. Again, I had a little trouble getting my bearings with the book and my sky, but once I figured it out, it was easy to spot. Hopefully the lessons that I have learned with actual mechanics of the book will not be forgot and I have finally learned my lesson! The Cluster was an amazing sight; it was full of what looked like 1,000,000 stars! I have never seen a Globular before so this was very exciting!

Now, Loaded with even more confidence, and feeling that I was finally on a roll, I wanted to find the Ring Nebula, this was an exciting find, it actually is a ring, and looks similar to an explosion caught in a very, very, very slow motion!

Now I knew what I had to find next, and this was the Whirlpool Galaxy, I have been unsuccessful before, but since I was on a roll, I didn’t think anything could get in my way...well it did, and it has defeated once again, I think the score is similar to something like the Whirlpool 5 Myself 0.

I finally had to give up the hunt it was getting late and I had to get up for work, so I had to call off the search for the night, but rest assured I will be back the next clear night!