My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 04.2019

knowing that the galaxy was somewhere in the 50× ﬁ eld. I moved off M74 and quickly picked up wonderfully high M33 and M110 so that I didn’t have to worry about those two sinking into the murk while hunting too long for M74. Then I dug out a Guide 7 chart of M74’s ﬁeld that I had printed some years ago, with a proven star-hop marked on it with arrows. Thus I knew exactly where amorphous M74 was supposed to be in the ﬁeld of view. The transparency was varying by about four magnitudes, as shown by nearby Venus. When Venus returned to its full proper brilliancy, and I could see that the sky was apparently clear 6° above right of Venus where M74 lay, I rushed back to M74’s ﬁeld. It took only moments to get there, with Venus as a convenient starting point only a ﬁnder ﬁeld away, and I knew the ﬁnder star-hop from a few minutes previously. Almost as soon as I star-hopped to the exact spot with my detailed Guide chart, there was M74, between cirrus patches. Minutes later M74 was clouded out. So it was just a matter of luck in nailing M74, greatly aided by Venus as an indicator of the changing transparency.” It was great to start a marathon by getting all the evening objects, but we were clouded out after we got to Hercules. Guy Mackie, whose sketches have appeared in many S&T articles, declared the Seyfert galaxy M77 invisible by March 30th from my latitude. I use a star chart showing the exact location of M77’s relatively bright nucleus, which may shine through cirrus clouds near the horizon if the rest of the q TAKE A MOMENT Although he’s racing the clock, the author likes to spend extra time with southern objects like M83 in Hydra since he can’t see them from his home observing site. A FAR NORTHERN MARATHON (CONTINUED) Object Constellation Type Mag(v) Size/Sep. RA Dec. M106 CVn G 8.4 19′ × 8′ 12 h 19.0 m +47° 18′ M94 CVn G 8.2 7′ × 3′ 12 h 50.9 m +41° 07′ M63 CVn G 8.6 10′ × 6′ 13 h 15.8 m +42° 02′ M51 CVn G 8.4 11′ × 7′ 13 h 29.9 m +47° 12′ M101 UMa G 7.9 22′ 14 h 03.2 m +54° 21′ M102 Dra G 9.9 5′ × 2′ 15 h 06.5 m +55° 46′ COMMENT: M95 COMMENT: M96 COMMENT: M105 COMMENT: M65 COMMENT: M66 COMMENT: Leo 9.7 4′ × 3′ 10 h 44.0 m +11° 42′ 9.2 6′ × 4′ 10 h 46.8 m +11° 49′ G 9.3 2′ 10 h 47.8 m +12° 35′ G 9.3 8′ × 2′ 11 h 18.9 m +13° 05′ 8.9 8′ × 3′ 11 h 20.2 m +12° 59′ G Same ﬁ eld of view as M96 Leo G Same ﬁ eld of view as M95 Leo 48′ north of M96 Leo Same ﬁ eld of view as M66 Leo G Same ﬁ eld of view as M65 M104 Vir G 8.0 9′ × 4′ 12 h 40.0 m –11° 37′ M68 Hya GC 7.8 11′ 12 h 39.5 m –26° 45′ COMMENT: Need clear sky to the south M53 Com GC 7.7 13′ 13 h 12.9 m +18° 10′ M64 Com G 8.5 9′ × 5′ 12 h 56.7 m +21° 41′ M60 Vir G 8.8 7′ × 6′ 12 h 43.7 m +11° 33′ 9.6 5′ × 4′ 12 h 42.0 m +11° 39′ COMMENT: M59 COMMENT: Same ﬁ eld of view as M59 Vir G Same ﬁ eld of view as M60 M58 Vir G 9.7 6′ × 5′ 12 h 37.7 m +11° 49′ M89 Vir G 9.8 4′ 12 h 35.7 m +12° 33′ 9.5 10′ × 5′ 12 h 36.8 m +13° 10′ COMMENT: M90 Miserable star-hop at the zenith; could leave until later COMMENT: Same ﬁ eld of view as M90 Vir G Same ﬁ eld of view as M89 M91 Com G 10.2 5′ × 4′ 12 h 35.4 m +14° 30′ M88 Com G 9.6 7′ × 4′ 12 h 32.0 m +14° 25′ M86 Vir G 8.9 8′ × 6′ 12 h 26.2 m +12° 57′ 9.1 5′ 12 h 25.1 m +12° 53′ COMMENT: M84 COMMENT: Same ﬁ eld of view as M84 Vir G Same ﬁ eld of view as M86 M87 Vir G 8.6 7′ 12 h 30.8 m +12° 24′ M99 Com G 9.9 5′ × 5′ 12 h 18.8 m +14° 25′ M98 Com G 10.1 10′ × 4′ 12 h 13.8 m +14° 54′ M100 Com G 9.4 7′ × 6′ 12 h 22.9 m +15° 49′ sk yandtele scope.com • A PR I L 2 019 31

My first Magazine Sky & Telescope - 04.2019 | Page 33