I created of list of target from Stephen O’Meara’s book, “Hidden Treasures” as well as our usual favorites.

NGC 1535
“Ghost of Neptune” or “Cleopatra’s Eye”

PNe mag. 9.1
Found in 17mm – Small, with a dense core; very bright! I could not detect a central star; it more like a “central core”.Looked awesome in 9mm. This object has been added to my “favorite” list!

NGC 2440
“Albino Butterfly” or “Kiss Nebula”

PNe mag 9.1
Small, very bright and elongated. 9 mm eyepiece revealed detail - the “lower” section was quite bright and looked stellar, almost like a star out of focus. Wide-field view resembled a papaya cut in half. No central star was detected.

NGC 2683
“UFO Galaxy”

SB mag 9.7
Very large and bright, elongated. Breathtaking! A hint of dust lanes was seen in 17mm.

NGC 2841
“Tiger’s Eye Galaxy”

SB mag 9.0
Core very bright, easily located. The galaxy appeared “lop-sided” with the eastern edge appearing longer. Looked best in 17mm. 9mm did not reveal any further detail.

NGC 3184
“Little Pinwheel”

SB mag 9.4
Heartbreakingly dim, hardly any detail seen. While the 9mm resolved the core, it did nothing to reveal the arm structure.

NGC 3344
“Sliced Onion Galaxy”

SB mag 9.3
Quite bright core, looks as through the core “smears out” to be arms. The are two, possible three stars in the “arms”. In my 17mm, M105 is just on the edge of the same field.

NGC 4216
“Silver Streak Galaxy”

SB mag 10
Bright, edge-on appearing galaxy. It looked quite similar to NGC 2683, except oriented in the opposite direction. Detail was not visualized due to failing skies.

NGC 2903
SB

Beautiful galaxy, a hint of a deep dust lane on the eastern edge. Did not take 9mm well.

NGC 2916
Sp

Very dim in 17mm, 9 mm greatly improves overall “shape” of object, but does not reveal detail. In the same field (17mm) as NGC 2903 (edge to edge)

54 Leonis
Double Star

Bright double! One appeared to be a hot; blue-white while the other star appeared bluish.

M98
SB gal

Bright; edge-on appearance. The core is quite bright; almost stellar.

NGC 4212
Sc gal

Bright “blob”. Absolutely no detail or even a hint of spiral arm structure is seen.

NGC 4206
Edge-on Galaxy

Edge-on, dim. No detail in structure can be detected. Oriented similarly to NGC 4216

NGC 4193
Sp Gal

Dim “blob” in 17mm. Higher power does not reveal any detail in shape or structure of arms; however appears to be rounded or even oval.

M 99
Sp Gal

Bright, almost rounded appearance. Unable to “fish out” any detail with higher power, despite it’s brightness.

We arrived just after sunset and set up quickly. While we waited for it to get really dark, the kids discovered and instantly fell in love with fireflies.

The sky was very clear and appeared steady. However, there was no contrast in the sky. I showed my husband everything exciting I could think of, but it all lacked punch. Saturn was incredible, of course! But, M81 and M82 were "blah".

Nicole did get to play with her scope and got to "discover" many things up there. She really seemed to enjoy it, and I look forward to helping her grow and learn.

All in all, a bad night observing is better than...... well, anything else. But, I sure was hoping to knock my husbands' sock off!
Doesn't it always seem to go that way?

The sky to the south and southeast was milky. Omega Centauri was never found. The southern tip of Corvus was really all we could get. I called it a night around 2am.

Leo Trio - Fairly low in the sky and somewhat lacking in contrast, this was one of the first objects I observed. They lacked a certain "punch", yet were still quite pretty to look at. They all held up to the 9mm, but were not at their best.

R Leporis - A subtle change in magnitude, however poor skies cannot be ruled out as the cause. It is still one of the most beautiful carbon stars out there! It was low in the sky and seeing was not very good.

Saturn - Not a very good night to observe the planets, but Saturn has yet to disappoint me. The skies simply weren't steady enough, but some detail on the surface was seen.

NGC 4038,39 in Corvus - Dim and diffuse, did not hold up for the 9mm. Very little structure detail could be seen.

M109 (NGC3992) in Uma - This galaxy suprised me tonight. While it did not hold up so well in the 9mm, it was beautiful in my 17mm. The detail in the spiral arms was readily apparent, though not particularly bright.

M68 in Hydra - Beautiful in my 9mm, the outer stars formed a "pinwheel" shape almost as if there were large, airy spiral arms.

Y CVN - No change in this carbon stars' magnitude; it continues to glow a bright yellow.

The skies clouded over on Saturday evening and never cleared. I got up several times through the night, but no openings available! Satellite images showed that the clouds were developing over us and "training" off to the northeast.

Special thanks to Raoul for sharing his observing logs and spectacular drawings with me!

On a positive note, bugs were at a minimum Friday night.

Unfortunately, on Saturday, the love bugs swarmed in and the high temperature hit somewhere near 92! Night temperatures were a comfortable 65.

The Preserve is beautiful and is Florida at its' purest. We went on a few hikes and Nicole found a barred owls' feather and then we saw the owl itself. We will be back................when it cools off and the weather is stable.