The famous double galaxy of Ursa Maior is an easy target with any kind of telescope. The brighter M81 spiralgalaxy can be detected even in the finderscope. Its smaller and fainter companion, the irregular M82 is interesting especially when looking at larger magnification levels, with several clearly detectable dense areas. Looks best when having a FoV of at least 1°, as in that case both of the galaxies can be fit into one picture. The nearby NGC 3077 is also worth a look, although it's even smaller and fainter than the M82.

NGC 3184 is much brighter, a perfectly round, face-on galaxy, while its companion is a much fainter nearly edge-on galaxy dancing on the border of direct visibility. The 3184 has a brighter core that isn't round but rather amorphous, and features a brighter arc on the SW side of the galaxy. Later by checking photos I've found that these are all spiral features, it's a really exciting object. NGC 3179 has an almost star-like core, with a real star nearby.

Extremely faint - at least to my little Newtonian. Elongated by 1:4 in the E-W directions. It has a somewhat heavy position, and to tell the truth, I've found the galaxy after a longer search. I can detect the GX only with averted vision most of the time. Its core is only a little bit brighter than its surface, and has a shape of an almond. Sometimes its Southern half appears brighter than the Northern.

An interesting and very spectacular trio of galaxies in the constellation Leo. NGC 3222: the westernmost member is a really faint slightly elongated galaxy of about 13 magnitudes only. Its core is like a star, with quickly increasing luminosity. To the SW of this I can detect a faint little star in front of the galaxy. NGC 3226 and 3227: spectacular, closely interacting couple, no wonder it was included in Halton Arp's famous catalogue of peculiar galaxies with the number 94. Among them the latter is much brighter and larger with a star-like core which brightens quickly. The 3226 is the opposite of this with a really homogeneous surface and almost no visible core.

Faint but star-like core with a magnitude of about 13.5. The galaxy itself is faint, does not show any structures. This may be because of the terrible atmospheric conditions, as on astrophotographs it shows arms that seem quite an easy catch. These arms can only be suspected because of the slightly elongated ellipse shape, as the galaxy is in fact almost perfectly face-on - this means that the ellipse shape is formed because of the two arms in the N-S directions. An interesting feature is a bright foreground star.

The galaxy is also in Arp's catalogue with number 206 has an interesting bent shape thanks to the nearby interactive galaxy of PGC 32617. Its brightness is defined between 11 and 13.6m according to various sources, I estimate it somewhere closer to 10 magnitudes. Three foreground stars make the view more spectacular.

Shiny, elongated galaxy near the famous Owl-nebula. Its core looks almost like a star, I estimate a brightness of around 12m. More dense parts are visible, the most notable is the very shiny area towards the Western end of the galaxy.

The M97, also known as the Owl-nebula is a very spectacular, famous planetary, in the vicinity of M108. It's a nearly regular circle, slightly elongated in E-W directions. Also on the Eastern and Western corner one can find two darker spots, the eyes of the owl. The planetary itself is quite an easy object, looks much brighter than the 11m as listed in catalogues, a homogenous shape with sharply fading edges. Discovering the eyes is a bit harder: especially the Western spot is tend to blink. Using your averted vision helps a lot to see the details. I was using my Baader UHC filter to finish this sketch, however according to my experiences a slightly better seeing helps much more than the filter.

This triplet of galaxies always make me smile: I'm calling it a "dumb face" cluster. The M65-66 double is a classic, easy Messier-object: both can be well seen - perhaps the latter having a brighter, almost star-like core region. It's not clear for me why the NGC 3628 was left out of Messier's catalogue: it's not at all a difficult object either. Its brightness is quite close to that of M65 and while wandering around looking for its more famous companions, you may most probably bump into this one also.

A very spectacular interacting couple in an environment sparsely populated by field stars. NGC 3718 is much larger, a perfectly face-on spiral galaxy, that is also catalogued by Arp with number 214. It feels as if it has a much larger area than what can be detected by direct vision. To the East of the galactic core I notice a brighter arc, however apart from this little detail and the little bit brighter core it has a really homogeneous look. The smaller NGC 3729 shows the typical core area of an edge-on galaxy, however according to astrophotos, what I see is a bit tricky, and the galaxy itself is far from being edge-on.

Two bright but small galaxies are visible in the exepiece. Although the catalogues say that the face-on NGC 3738 is is almost 1 magnitude brighter than the nearly edge-on NGC 3756, visually the later one is clearly a lot brighter. The NGC 3738 is barely brightening near its core, and shows no star-like nucleus. The oval shaped NGC 3756 is almost perfectly even in brightness, displays no brighter parts. I notice that it's a bit asymmetric, the Western side of the ellipse is a bit flatter. SQM reading: 21.19,/arcsec², 0°C (guess we're having a negative temperature record, where's the global warming?).

Large, spectacular galaxy. Perfectly round, shows no sign of a star-like core, although its central region is a bit brighter. It's very faint, but I can observe some brighter details around the core. By checking out photographs today, it's now obvious that these spots are parts of a spiral structure. SQM reading: 21.20m/arcsec², 5°C, very humid.

My original plan was to observe the supernova SN 2011by, the newest celebrity in the stellar world. However, as it is located in an area full of spectacular galaxies, I decided to sketch the galactic neighborhood too. The supernova itself is very bright, even brighter than what I expected, and compared to the nearby stars, I estimate a brightness of abour 13.2m! It is by far brighter than the surface of the parent galaxy, NGC 3972. The two large face-on galaxies (3998 and 3982) are the brightest in the FoV, the tiny 3990 is only slightly fainter than these, The 3972 is however very faint, and I cannot detect the nearby 3977 at all. Perhaps I should try again on a night with better seeing. SQM: 21.12m/arcsec², 2°C.

A very faint galaxy, I see no star-like nucleus, however the central regions are somewhat brighter, and show many barely discernible brighter knots on the long axis of the galaxy. High humidity kills details.



This is my first real observation in self-made observatory (besides a quick check of Jupiter without proper collimation after I've transferred my light-bucket to the dome). Climate is excellent, plenty of space, the radio is on, very cozy place. What I've quickly discovered is that I must pay attention not to reach the side of the slit with the OTA's light path plus I've found that the SQM sees quite a lot in infrared despite the block filter in front of its detector. I have a strong infrared floodlight to support my security cameras that are watching the dome, and if I leave the infrared lights on, the SQM measures about 16 MPSAS instead of 21. Sorry for this interruption, now back to the observations. ;)

Small galaxy with a fuzzy star-like core. Elongated to the SW-NE directions, I suspect a spiral arm on the Southwestern edge of the galaxy, however the sight is very uncertain.

The Eastern member of the couple, NGC 3512 is somewhat brighter, face-on galaxy that looks perfectly homogeneous without any particular detail. The Western NGC 3504 has a gradually brightening core, and a stellar object can be seen to the East of the core that looks as if its situated in a spiral arm of the face-on host galaxy.

E-W elongated elliptic galaxy appears in a nearly edge-on angle. Not particularly faint, with a homogeneous surface. Many faint stars appear around the body of the galaxy especially around its long axis, adding much to the looks of the FoV.

The tiny, faint spot of NGC 3414 appears instantly in the FoV, it has a stellar core with strong knots around its longer axis. I also suspect some brighter triangular areas around this axis. To my surprise, NGC 3418 is also visible in the eyepiece with direct vision, its NS-elongated body is very tiny and faint. The faintest star I see in this field is 15m.

WNW-ESE elongated, almond shaped galaxy. Visible directly at an instant. Small, no stellar core visible. Its Northern half appears slightly brighter. I've observed this galaxy as a mistake, because I've already bagged it almost exactly one year ago: here. Seems that my logs are not really accurate and some of my observations may be missing from the "already observed" list of mine. :)