Rattlesnake Lake, 4/30/2

Sunset at 8:20, arrived about 9:25, observing by about 9:50, full darkness about 10:15. Quit at 12:30.

Viewed Jupiter, M35, Kappa Bootes, M101, M97, M81/82, Cor Caroli, M13, M5, Epsilon Lyrae (the Double-Double star), and Albireo.

Seeing on Jupiter very bad, again low position over hill may be disasterous. Moved on.

Kappa Bootes not a very exciting double star. Easy split, both looked white.

M101 barely visible with direct vision in mak with 32 mm plossl (49 x). Just a bit easier to see in binoculars. Saw in Steve's 10" LX200, more clearly bounded but didn't see any structure.

M97 a pale dot in binoculars. 32 mm plossl was best eyepiece im mak. With averted vision, shape is neatly round, faded to a smear with direct vision. UHC filter the same or just a little worse--just not enough aperature. 25 mm plossl and 21 mm Siebert both a bit too faint. Nebula is visible, but doesn't look as good as in 32 mm. 25 mm seemed barely better than 21 mm. A fun object.

Viewed M81/82 only in binoculars and LX200. M82 nice in that scope (10 mm Radian, I think). Saw a couple of dark lanes and imagined a bright knot or two.

Couldn't see an color in Cor Caroli either.

M13 looked best in 21 mm. A few foreground and peripheral stars resolved. Much better than M53 a month ago. Too dim in 9 mm Nagler, no resolution in 32 mm.

M5 almost as good as M13, a hell of a lot harder to find. At least these globs are actually visible in the finder. Need to get a bigger finder and a red-dot or Telrad. Both globs were very large and easy in binoculars.

Couldn't split Epsilon Lyrae in any eyepiece (didn't try orthos). One side (northern?) showed some elongation. Still poor seeing??

Albireo VERY colorful. Nice!