My friend Chris and I braved the cold weather for first light at Six Four Observatory. The telescope was collimated on the star Capella. I then aimed the telescope for the first object, the great Andromeda Galaxy, M31, at 7:20pm. We were both pleased with the view! The seeing was pretty steady and the transparency was excellent. The dark lanes appeared very well.

Andromeda (M31)
Burrell Schmidt telescope

Chris had brought his favorite binoculars and I had my 11x80’s on the binocular stand and we started looking through them and were amazed with the views. The winter Milky Way appeared bright to the horizon in Puppis.

Next we viewed Saturn through the telescope with M1 in the same field. After a break to warm up we moved the telescope to Orion. We viewed M42, NGC1973-77, NGC1999, NGC2023 and NGC2024, followed by M46, M37 and Jupiter. At this time Chris had to leave.

Later I viewed M81 and M82. I called it a night at 1:30am [MST] with the temperature at 23F (-5C) and a strong breeze. Even though it was very cold Chris and I had a great time viewing the stars at Six Four.

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