Finally got a good clear night. Set up the scope around 9PM. Venus was bright but not particularly exciting. I can see some detail on the surface of Mars now. It's really incredible. I must not be using Magellan correctly, because I can't seem to find M51. I took the suggestion of someone on the net who said the Magellan seems least accurate near the pole, and instead I looked to find a deep sky object near the ecliptic. Punched up the star cluster M3, and bingo, there it was. My first DSO. At low power it looks like gray fluff. At high power it looks like gray fluff with chunky bits in it. Then, I looked for M5, no problem there. Looks similar to M3, just a bit chunkier looking. So, I pressed my luck and punched up the galaxy M87, and there it was, almost right on to where the Magellan told me it would be. I wasn't very impressed, of course its nothing like the pictures you see taken with 40 inch telescopes on top of Hawaiian mountains, but I was expecting something a little more interesting than just a fuzzy blob. Oh well, at least I've seen it myself in my own back yard.

May 17 1999

It was cloudy when I got home today, so I packed everything away. I happened to look outside at dusk and it was clear! So, I dragged everything out again. Tonights observing menu consisted of the usual serving of Mars along with the star cluster M13 in Hercules and the galaxy M51. M51 shows its two bright cores and some fuzzy nebulosity but no actual structure. Also I found M44, an open cluster in Cancer, which was really amazing. It looks like what you would get if you opened a cosmic jewel box. That's worth looking at again.

Still can't seem to get a fix on M81. The accuracy of the Magellan system is really bad around the polar region. I studied some charts in detail and I think I'm learning the neighborhood where it is pretty well. I was going to try for it again but the scope dewed up on me and I didn't feel like blow drying it off. Will try for M81 again tomorrow.

May 20 1999

It was exceptionally clear, cool, and dry tonight. I looked at some familiar objects again tonight. M5 was looking better than ever. I found M105 in Leo, nothing really spectacular to report. Galaxies are not too exciting visually. Coolest thing of the night was finding the Ring Nebula. Wow, that was really amazing to see. Still can't seem to figure out why I can't find M81. The Dumbell Nebula also eluded me tonight. Two targets to try again for next time...