Sky & Telescope - April 2019 - 31

knowing that the galaxy was somewhere in the 50× ﬁeld. I
moved off M74 and quickly picked up wonderfully high M33
and M110 so that I didn't have to worry about those two
sinking into the murk while hunting too long for M74. Then I
dug out a Guide 7 chart of M74's ﬁeld that I had printed some
years ago, with a proven star-hop marked on it with arrows.
Thus I knew exactly where amorphous M74 was supposed to
be in the ﬁeld of view. The transparency was varying by about
four magnitudes, as shown by nearby Venus. When Venus
returned to its full proper brilliancy, and I could see that the
sky was apparently clear 6° above right of Venus where M74
lay, I rushed back to M74's ﬁeld. It took only moments to get
there, with Venus as a convenient starting point only a ﬁnder
ﬁeld away, and I knew the ﬁnder star-hop from a few minutes
previously. Almost as soon as I star-hopped to the exact spot
with my detailed Guide chart, there was M74, between cirrus
patches. Minutes later M74 was clouded out. So it was just a
matter of luck in nailing M74, greatly aided by Venus as an
indicator of the changing transparency." It was great to start
a marathon by getting all the evening objects, but we were
clouded out after we got to Hercules.
Guy Mackie, whose sketches have appeared in many S&T
articles, declared the Seyfert galaxy M77 invisible by March
30th from my latitude. I use a star chart showing the exact
location of M77's relatively bright nucleus, which may shine
through cirrus clouds near the horizon if the rest of the

A FAR NORTHERN MARATHON (CONTINUED)
Object

M106

Mag(v)

Size/Sep.

8.4

G

RA

Dec.

19′ × 8′

12h

19.0m
50.9m

+41° 07′

+47° 18′

M94

CVn

G

8.2

7′ × 3′

M63

CVn

G

8.6

10′ × 6′

13h 15.8m

+42° 02′

M51

CVn

G

8.4

11′ × 7′

13h 29.9m

+47° 12′

03.2m

+54° 21′

06.5m

+55° 46′

M101
M102
COMMENT:

M95
COMMENT:

M96
COMMENT:

M105
COMMENT:

M65
COMMENT:

M66
COMMENT:

M104

COMMENT:

M53
M64
M60
COMMENT:

M59
COMMENT:

UMa
Dra

G
G

7.9

22′

14h

9.9

5′ × 2′

15h

Miserable star-hop at the zenith; could leave until later
Leo

9.7

4′ × 3′

10h 44.0m

+11° 42′

9.2

6′ × 4′

10h 46.8m

+11° 49′

G

9.3

2′

10h 47.8m

+12° 35′

G

9.3

8′ × 2′

11h 18.9m

+13° 05′

8.9

8′ × 3′

11h 20.2m

+12° 59′

8.0

9′ × 4′

12h 40.0m

-11° 37′

11′

12h

39.5m

-26° 45′

7.7

13′

13h 12.9m

+18° 10′

8.5

9′ × 5′

12h

56.7m

+21° 41′

8.8

7′ × 6′

12h

43.7m

+11° 33′

9.6

5′ × 4′

12h 42.0m

+11° 39′

G

Same ﬁeld of view as M96
Leo

G

Same ﬁeld of view as M95
Leo
48′ north of M96
Leo

Same ﬁeld of view as M66
Leo

G

Same ﬁeld of view as M65
Vir
Hya

G
GC

7.8

Need clear sky to the south
Com
Com
Vir

GC
G
G

Same ﬁeld of view as M59
Vir

G

Same ﬁeld of view as M60

M58

Vir

G

9.7

6′ × 5′

12h 37.7m

+11° 49′

M89

Vir

G

9.8

4′

12h 35.7m

+12° 33′

9.5

10′ × 5′

12h 36.8m

+13° 10′

10.2

5′ × 4′

12h 35.4m

+14° 30′

9.6

7′ × 4′

12h

32.0m

+14° 25′

8.9

8′ × 6′

12h

26.2m

+12° 57′

9.1

5′

12h 25.1m

+12° 53′

COMMENT:

M90
ESO / IDA / DA NISH 1.5 M / R. G ENDLER / S. GUISA RD / C. THÖNE

CVn

Type

12h

M68
q TAKE A MOMENT Although he's racing the clock, the author likes to
spend extra time with southern objects like M83 in Hydra since he can't
see them from his home observing site.

Constellation

COMMENT:

M91
M88
M86
COMMENT:

M84
COMMENT:

Same ﬁeld of view as M90
Vir

G

Same ﬁeld of view as M89
Com
Com
Vir

G
G
G

Same ﬁeld of view as M84
Vir

G

Same ﬁeld of view as M86

M87

Vir

G

8.6

7′

12h 30.8m

+12° 24′

M99

Com

G

9.9

5′ × 5′

12h 18.8m

+14° 25′

10.1

10′ × 4′

12h

13.8m

+14° 54′

9.4

7′ × 6′

12h

22.9m

+15° 49′

M98
M100

Com
Com

G
G

sk yandtele scope.com * A PR I L 2 019

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Sky & Telescope - April 2019

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Sky & Telescope - April 2019
