Paul Cézanne's Astronomy Observing Reports

Well, this is is. I have 4 Messier objects to go to complete the list with my Canon 15×50is binoculars. I’m going to make the attempt on 3 of them tonight. The 4th, M76, needs to wait until a bit later in the year. I set the alarm for 2:45AM.
Here are the field notes:
2:56am – [...]

Now that my Binocular Messier list is almost complete I need to start another project. This will be the Herchel 400 which I’ll attempt with my 1963 vintage Edmund Scientific 6″ reflector. I’m very new to this scope so I expect that there will be some teething problems. So actually, I plan on trying to [...]

I have very few Messier objects to complete and I’m getting excited about doing so. The clear sky clock looked good so I set the alarm, with red LED numerals of course, for for 3:15AM when the objects (M2, M5, M30, M72, M73) I cared about would be visible. Here’s the field notes:
3:19am – quarter [...]

Yes, I set the alarm for 3AM trying to complete all but one of my Messiers with the binoculars. It was nice stepping outside already completely dark adapted. Here are my notes from my brief session.

It has been rainy and cloudy here for probably the last three weeks, there has been no astronomy at all. Last night was the first good night in a long time and I went with 2 friends to Pilgrim Heights, my favorite nearby dark site, only to find that the winds were making it through [...]

I was quite worried about grabbing the dim galaxy M91 in my quest to see all 110 Messier objects with my Canon 15×50IS binoculars. And this was with good reason, you M91 had alreday eluded me a short while ago, twice actually but the second attempt was pretty short.
So you can imagine my surprise, when [...]

One of my current goals is to see all 110 of the Messier object with my Canon 15×50IS binoculars and I’m closing in on my last few. It turns out that I had 1 more in Virgo to find (not countly the pesky M91 which will take a special effort to find), 1 in Coma [...]

When my wife is away I often sleep poorly, I wake up in the middle of the night and I can’t get back to sleep. One obvious advantage is that this can be some prime observing time! I knew this would happen so I planned out a few Messier object to grab and had my [...]

Last night I almost made it completely through the Virgo Cluster with my Canon 15×50IS binoculars. I posted my experiences in the Cloudy Nights binoculars forum where I asked, “Just how difficult is M91 anyway?” More than one person reported making the find, but all assured me that it was a hard one, probably the [...]

The Virgo Cluster is spoken with dread for those doing a Messier Marathon. It isn’t that people are afraid they won’t get the galaxies, for the most part, that’s easy they say. The problem you face is getting too many galaxies. You see, the Virgo Cluster contains between 1,300 and 2,000 galaxies. With our modest [...]