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by Howard Lazarus
On May 27,1997 the night was clear so I thought I take my scope out on the deck and see if I could find anything of interest. I add anything because in New City, all you have is polluted sky which comes from the residences and businesses from the surrounding area. Also, I have neighbors who delight in showing off their lawns at night with lawn lighting,deck lights even when no one is one the deck and extremely bright street lighting. However, in the true sprit of the amateur astronomer, I set up my Astro Physics 130mm and started my observations.
Naturally, M3 and M13 along with its partner M 92 were within the scopes objective, however, the lighted sky prohibited one from seeing good detail. I did not get discouraged and went on to view M67, although not entirely sharp in view this cluster was very pleasing to view.
There has been one object that has always eluded me in the past, never, to get a really clear view. I had no hope of getting a clear view tonight since my observing site(my deck) had the badly polluted sky. So I turned my scope to the constellation Ursa Major--and not believing my eyes there it was the OWL NEBULAE (M 97). I just was stunned to see the 14 magnitude star that was off-center in this grayish nebula. I immediately pulled out my Messier guide book and sure enough the view and the picture in the book was identical.This object that is some 2,400 light years away was in my scope clear as a bell!!!
This is the wonderful thing about our hobby,
that if you persist and go out even though the conditions are not 100% you
will be rewarded with sites that few have seen.
Howard Lazarus
Member--RAC
