A Night Of Starwatching In March

I came from a night of starwatching with my telescope. It was cold and it was like being in a gondola of a World War I zeppelin. Here are the objects I saw. The seeing was good and the magnitude limit was 3 to 3.5. I used a 8 inch Newtonian.

Mars-The Red Planet. Reddish-orange in color.
Saturn-The Ringed Planet. Spectacular as usual. Never fails to amaze me. I saw Titan, which has an atmosphere, likely what early Earth had.’
M35-Spectacular and bright.
NGC 2158-Fainter and more stars. Right next to M35.
M44-Who left the bees out out of their hives? A sight to behold.
M45-The Seven Sisters.
M67-Faint and reminds me of someone putting a pinch of flour on black paper.
Eskimo Nebula-The cold weather inspired me to see this object. Looks like a small out of focus star.

Objects I try to see.
M65 and M66-Galaxies in Leo. Could not see them due to light pollution. I have seen them in a dark sky location.

M=Messier
NGC=New General Catalog

All in all, a great night of starwatching before to set the clocks forward.

Christmas Observing (Well Sort Of)

My first time I have taken out the telescope to starwatch after a busy semester of school and work. It was truly worth it because I did well in school. The dewpoint and humidity was low after a storm came by earlier in the morning. The sky was clear and seeing was good with little to no humidity. However, the Moon was bright, almost like if it was day time, so it made starwatching harder. If it was a Full Moon, forget it. However, I manage to see a few objects through my 8 inch Meade Starfinder telescope.

Moon-Really bright. So bright that I was blinded for a second. Got Moon blindness!
Mars-Saw some details including the polar ice caps, especially at 368x magnification.
Pleiades-Reminds me of a dipper and never ceases to amaze me.
Orion Nebula-Very easy to see in spite of the bright Moon. Spectacular as usual. I will have plenty of time to enjoy before it is no more and is another star cluster.
M34-Stumbled upon it and was easy to see.
Sirius-Shine like a crazy diamond!

M=Messier

Not bad for someone who has not starwatched in months. If it wasn’t for the Moon, I would of likely seen more objects. Hopefully, when there is a New Moon with clear skies and low dew points and humidity, I will starwatch again.