Driving out to Keller, started to wonder if it was a good idea or not. High up on 40th ST SW and could see quite a few clouds low in the west. Hoping they would stay away.. and they did! 🙂 It was a pretty good night. A little cooler than Friday, a little breeze, but not too bad.
We got there pretty early. Got started on Jupiter, using it to sight in the scope and finder. 3 moons again last night. One of the moons was transitting in front of Jupiter. From what I read and calculated, looks like there was a possibility of that moon casting a shadow starting at 9:22 or so. We would keep going back to Jupiter, but never did see any shadow.
Early on, sitting back and watching the stars come in, Sirius, Capella, Procyon, Arcturus, Betelguese, Castor and Pollux, Regulus.
Much clearer than Friday night. The Leo triplet was better, NGC3628 was much easier to see as well as M65 and M66. From there, went to a pair, M81 and M82 and then over to the Whirlpool, M51. Went over and look at glob M3. Another galaxy, went to the Sombrero, M104. Saw the open clusters from the night before, M37, M36, M38, and M35. I was able to pick up those Auriga clusters with the binoculars last night, not so much on Friday. Able pick up M45, Pleiades, before it got too low. Also, the Beehive, M44.
Went back for another view of the triplets and then went farther down the belly of the beast and got M105 and NGC3384, they're very close together. Looking at the description of them and it also had an NGC3389 there as well. Very faint, but we were able to pull that one out. From there, a very little jaunt and you have M96 and M95. You can get M96 and M105 in the same FOV and same with M96 and M95.
Finished off Messiers with M85, M98, M99, M100 off the tail of Leo. Have to go for more of the Virgo-Coma cluster the next time out.
Finished off the night with Saturn. It's looking good. A good angle on the rings, they show up very well. Seemed to be quite a few moons last night, 3 or 4 very dim moons there.
We left a little after 11:00. All in all a very good night. AGNFA!
Jeff