OBSERVING REPORT FOR MARCH 25, 2022

Location:  Prince of Wales, NB, Canada

Date Time :  March 25, 2022 2320-0025hrs

Weather:  Ground fog almost the whole way from Saint John to Prince of Wales.  Mostly clear at observing site. A comfortable 1C at first.  Windchill really cooled things off after midnight and froze dew to car. No wind to slight breeze, very humid 99% humidity, lots of dew, Barometric pressure was very low at 900hPa.  Ground fog moved in at 0025hrs.

Equipment:  Canon T3 attached to Canadian Telescopes 80ED/APO at prime focus.  Images processed on PhotoShop.

Objective:  To improve stacking/processing skills on M 104 the Sombrero Galaxy, which was supposed to be above the treeline, near Corvus, after 2300hrs.

Report:

• Aligned and focused scope on Aldebaran (low in western sky), Procyon (high in south western sky) and Spica in the south eastern sky.  All three imaged below and processed the same way to give a color/brightness comparison.  Procyon, according to Richard Hinckey Allen's Star Names Their Lore and Meaning:  Procyon, alpha, Binary, Mag 0.4 and 13, yellowish white, and yellow.  "...has been the name for this from the earliest Greek records, distinctly mentioned by Aratos and Ptolemy,...".

Aldebaran, single shot, uncropped, processed, 30 sec, ISO 6400.

Procyon, single shot, uncropped, processed, 30 sec, ISO 1600.

Spica, single shot, uncropped, processed, 30 sec, ISO 1600.

•  On the way to the main target of the night M 104, decided to image M44 Beehive Cluster. 

Beehive Cluster, single shot, uncropped, processed, 30 sec, ISO 1600.

• The main target of the night was the Sombrero Galaxy, located about midway between Spica and Algorab in Corvus.  Took many images to stack to get a better quality image. Stacked 23 light images and 25 dark images.  The first time going after this target.  It's very small, much smaller than I thought it would be.  Bright central region washes out the amazing dust lanes that show up in Hubble images.  This object may be too small to get much better resolution with my equipment.  Note the lack of stars in this image, compared with others.  This area of the sky is better for deep sky objects because of this.
  

Sombrero Galaxy, cropped, processed, 23x 30 sec, ISO 1600 stacked images

• Tried for Comet C/2019 L3 Atlas, which was near Alhena in Gemini.  It was reported to be 11th magnitude.  A very star-like comet with a faint, fan tail.  It happens to be passing in front of a very rich background of stars that made it difficult to pick up in the camera view screen.  While I was in the field, I thought I didn't get it.  The comet showed up right away, though, during processing.

C/2019 L3 Atlas, single shot, cropped, processed, 30 sec, ISO 6400.

• No satellites or shooting stars were seen.