I was up early this morning, so I dragged the scope from the garage and went after some mid-summer targets. I had tried for M101 on a previous night and failed, because transparency was pretty bad that night. Last night seemed pretty good so I gave it another go. At 70X, with averted vision, I could just make out a fuzzy patch. Occasionally, I thought I caught glimpses of the core. I'm sure it would look much better where the skies aren't lit up. I tried bumping the power up to 120X to boost contrast, but it dimmed the galaxy too much to spot, even with averted vision. Bolstered by my success, I went after another Messier still on my list… M102. Now I'm not sure why the AL requires observing "all 110" Messiers, as there is quite a bit of debate about which galaxy Messier meant when he logged M102, but I chased down the one that was listed on the seds database, NGC5866. This was a nice change – a bright galaxy! I had no trouble using 120X on it, but I couldn't make out much detail. Reminded me a little of M82 in shape. Two new-to-me Messiers in one night. Not bad at all. Only 9 to go now, mostly in Sagittarius, which has been a problem for me until the discovery of Keller. I just need to get down there at the right time.
From M102, I went after some Bootes doubles that I had logged early on in my efforts. Sadly, at that time, I used printouts of the constellations and made my notes on them. Somewhere along the way, that paper got lost and my observations were gone. The good news is that the stars that were impossibly difficult for me to find then are a cinch now. I had no trouble chasing down Pi and Epsilon. Pi was a close fit at 70X, and I noticed some clouds starting to hang around the skies. Epsilon was an "imagination" split. I recalled having to make multiple observations with the 4.5" before I found a night steady enough to split that close pair. At 120X, I recorded what I saw when what looked like one star split into two attached members, noting position angle, and then went to check the list. Sure enough, my imagination was working just fine.
I finished up my session with a check of old favorites M4 and M80 in Scorpius. Both were easy to spot, though M4 didn't show much resolution for me. By then, clouds were messing up the views all over the place, and I think the instability in the air combined with the low altitude rendered high magnification useless. I stumbled upon Rho Scorpius, a very pretty triple in my finder. I'm certain I've seen it before, but I hadn't remembered it. Those kinds of surprises are always fun, especially as I'm finding a new interest in doubles thanks to just finishing reading James Mullaney's book on them.
It was, to sum up, AGMFA (A Great Morning For Astronomy)!