Noticing the Clear Sky Clock (CSC) predicting a fine night, but checking the maps and knowing lake effect cloud could roll in, I nonetheless packed up and headed for Lynden to do a dry run of the messier marathon to see how I could do on the M74, M77, M33 and M110 while they are still pretty high in the sky.

The SQM read about 17.6 and 16.42 at the zenith and crescent moon respectively.

The Messier Objects taunted me for about 2 hours, while i tried various means to ascertain I was definitely looking in the right direction. The sky-glow over St George is pretty strong and it washed M110 right out of the image, as far as I could tell.

I had 3 mishaps which i plan to avoid next time. I forgot the water bottles and had to rig something up that was using a jug of washer fluid and some baling twine. I neglected to bring my Messier Marathon object list, and therefore, after the first 6, I would have to do some serious book flipping. I knew that it would cloud over around 4 am and that there’s no way I would finish the marathon tonight, so I carried on, regardless.

The third mishap was that Cartes Du Ciel installed on my laptop had only the bright star catalog, and I could not figure out how to add the tycho catalog without the internet. When I zeroed in on something, i was planning to call up the star field and compare it, but alas, not this time.

This was the first time using the GWS since the Astrophotography mod, and as a result I had to realign it. I was pleased that the marked struts repositioned the laser dot in the center of the primary without adjustment.

When I tried the Meade 26MM series 4000 eyepiece, I had to adjust it outwards a bit more before I could bring stars to a focus. (ie, it’s not resting against the focuser stop).

I noticed, to my chagrin, that pointing the scope in a different direction (altitude angle) resulted in a slight shift of the laser dot. I wonder what it means to be aligned, and how far off an unaligned scope is. I know how far it can get when it’s really bad, just not what’s necessary for ‘acceptable enough alignment’. My guess is that the answer is eyepiece specific.
I do know that when it comes to finding messiers, a sharp focus is essential, as some of them appear like fuzzy stars (when there’s skyglow to wash them out).

I looked for M31 and was able to clearly see cassiopia but not much of andromeda, so I had to
verify relative positions of stars to guarantee the place was right. Eventually I got M31 and M32 in the frame, and proceeded to search for M110, but without a decent star chart, there’s no way the pocket sky atlas was going to afford me an unequivocal confirmation of the location matching the eyepiece.

I managed to navigate to M77 and study the space around it. It’s sure faint. Mira was too dim for me to positively identify it against the twilight, skyglow, and approaching haze, and lack of detailed star charts.

Hmmm. I wonder. Is the messier marathon a pointing challenge or a seeing challenge. Since goto is not allowed, I suspect it’s the former. If it was a viewing challenge, then a goto scope should be OK. My 2 cents. So sketching the star field around the putative nebula should count as a ‘sighting’ even if the skyglow precludes positive identification of the item itself. Even the GWS was having trouble cutting through the haze. I am starting to think i need a darker farm. The SQM never read more than 19.7 for the location, even at 10 PM. I will admit the snow reflects a lot of light, but I would love to have equivalent figures from Binbrook for last night.

Dave came to visit me. After explaining what I was attempting, I decided to do some outreach… I slewed to Saturn (actually, a gloved hand can do that pretty fast) and showed my buddy the view. He was impressed. He thought that the yellow spec in the sky might also show rings to the naked eye. I explained that he could probably not see the rings on the planet by looking in the sky without a telescope. I guess he insulted the GWS and I did not notice it.
We also checked out Polaris. I explained it’s a quintuple star, but not the brightest star in the sky.

He wisely headed inside after that, while I considered what to do next.

With M74 all but hidden in the sky-glow, (even though it still had another hour above the horizon) I decided to declare defeat on that one, and try some AP.

Turns out that the GWS is still not astro-ready, (at least for DSLR),
since my T adapter and T ring are collectively still too long.
I can crank the mirrors up some more, but according to my estimate i need another inch,
which is impossible, so i must have something wrong with my estimation.

Without a bright object to operate on, a test of the focal distance on paper was not worth doing.

So it looks like winter 3, smrg 0 for tonight. I will re-pack the car and anticipate the next opportunity. Perhaps lunar observing is the best lemonade.