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An expected night - 23/4/17 - Victoria
The forecast wasn't great but we headed to the ASV dark site anyway for the weekend. The fact we were the only punters there should be a hint. Saturday night no good. We nearly drove home, but Sunday night we stuck it out against our better judgement... Well we were rewarded.
Some of the best views I've ever had of Jupiter, Red Spot transit ... amazing detail in the equatorial bands and beyond. Just beautiful.
It was a decent deep sky evening too - bit too much dew, and some damp in the atmosphere for sure but still nice. We punched through a bunch of objects but here were a few highlights.
NGC 3521 - Nicely elongated galaxy in Leo
NGC 3576 - Little Tarantula - Little Bright Neb.
NGC 3623 - M65 - Part of the triplet
NGC 3627 - M66 - Part 2 of the triplet
IC 2948 - Running Chicken Bright Nebula - Large, diffuse, beautiful
NGC4038, 4039 - The Antenna ... Not as dramatic visually as photographically but still nice.
NGC 4254 - M99 - Beautiful face on spiral.
NGC 4030 - M61
NGC 4030 - M100
NGC 4372 - Globular Cluster in Musca - Bigger than you expect.
NGC 4594 - M104 - The Sombrero ... always amazing
It's a great time of year to be looking up... Get out there gang.
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