Observing Report -- March 8, 2013

All right, this was a frustrating night. It was clear and moonless and lovely, but I spent much of my time looking for faint fuzzies and not finding them. Which is probably not surprising since I'm in the goram suburbs, but still. I prepared for this run by getting my maps out in advance, and printing out sketches of stuff I was looking for...but all for nought. NOUGHT, I say.

M33: Just for fun, before it sunk out of sight. No.

M1: No, 2x. First with the manual setting circles, and then another attempt following an actual chart. The second attempt actually got me in the right area, but I still couldn't see it. I realized that the chart I'd printed out seemed to be about 5 degrees off in azimuth -- not good. Same thing happened with M50. (Pretty sure I aligned with Polaris this time...)

X Cancri: A carbon star. Found, hurrah! Very nice.

Castor: Resolved to double at 100X, and maybe to triple at 160X. Interestingly, it looked like a sheaf of wheat at 160X. I wish I'd collimated before heading out.

M66: I spent a long time tracking this down, and the best I could get was maybe-possibly with averted vision. Maybe.

Other than a mandatory quick look at Jupiter, that was pretty much it. Not much found, not much accomplished. It feels a bit likewhen I was first starting out: can't find things, can't see them when I do. Grrr.