AstroChallenge is a social network for amateur astronomers.

Very faint visually, I wouldn't have found it if not for m81. It was clearly elongated and needed averted viewing to see.

Bode's galaxy was a much more visible object versus M82. More round and less distinct, though.

SKY: Limiting magnitude: 5.5 - 7 mile away, from a 300K-soul metropolis in the suburban outskirts (a mile or two more, and I'd be under 6.0 rural skies. Someday, who knows!)

MOTIVATION: It had been almost 5 years since I first observed the awe-inspiring (also, ancient) object that this quasar is. So, this is the third time only, as I honestly have no memory of how difficult (or easy) it was to find it then, from exactly in the same backyard. This time it definitely was simpler than what I ac...

two very pronounced belts. two very faint belts. bands had turbulent edges. Callisto and Io were to the East. Ganymede and Europa were to the West.

Huge open cluster highly visible with the naked eye. very bright stars. could barely fit them all in the 2" 28mm eyepiece.

many colors in this open cluster with a lot of bright stars.

hard to find with only a red dot finderscope. could not star hop easily. very spread out. takes up the whole 15mm eyepiece.

had trouble finding this. multi color stars. orange stars are brightest.

very large. very spread out. bright stars.

Orange star in a field of blue stars. very densely packed star field and very large cluster. very faint stars.