I have had the chance to get my 12" Dob out under the moon a few times this week. Jupiter has been quite interesting to watch. One night I saw Io come out from the planets shadow on the west side and the next night see it transit and come out into space on the east side with good viewing of the Big Red Spot. I have also been tracking Neptune and Uranus. I nailed down two more 'Ms" – M30 & M75. That brings my total to 89.
Two nights ago I decided to try and find the Helix Nebula. I spent an hour searching with no results before giving up. I decided last night to try again. After much searching I was Nebuless. Noticing that two very small faint stars looked a bit fishy I decided to put on my OIII filter and try again…Bingo !!! There it was…exactly where I had been searching and it was quite large and quite faint. I was begining to doubt my star hopping ability. It's been a good week.
Happy Trails to you !!
Rick