Impromptu Star Party Report for April 20, 2026

[Wayne Baggett]

Hi,

After the iffy conditions during the day, the night turned out to be
nearly perfect!  The daytime clouds disappeared by sunset, and the
afternoon winds died completely by the time it was dark.  The
transparency was much better than average, and the seeing was average or
a little better.  The temperature hit freezing at about 1am, so it was
as cold as forecast.  My Sky Quality Meter recorded the sky brightness
as low as 19.95mag/square arcsec; its been a long time since I saw a
value that low, and is probably a reflection of the good transparency.

It turned out that I was the only person in the park all night, and I
spent my time collecting more photons on M81 (Bode's Galaxy) for April's
Object of the Month project.  The four hours I gathered tonight brings
me to a total of 13 hours in LRGB on M81.  I have attached a preliminary
version of the image based on 9 hours collected earlier in the month.

I finished my imaging at about 1:40am, then collected flats, refocused
my guide camera, and packed up.  I locked the park gate at 3:20am.

Wayne

[Dana Porter]

That's beautiful, Wayne! Thanks for sharing. 

Dana L. Porter
301-557-0279
dpro...@gmail.com
🌸

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[Sundar Raghavachari]

Hello Wayne:

I admire (and envy!) your passion and tenacity to be in the park all alone in the freezing cold and take this stunning / amazing image of M81. Thanks for sharing. For a brief moment, I thought of joining you but the freezing temperatures detered me from doing so! 

Thanks ,

Sundar Raghavachari.

'Hope is not a Strategy. Hope for the Best but Plan for the Worst'

On Tue, Apr 21, 2026 at 12:43 PM 'Wayne Baggett' via Howard Astronomical League <howar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

[A Judd]

Absolutely beautiful.

On Apr 21, 2026, at 12:43 PM, 'Wayne Baggett' via Howard Astronomical League <howar...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Hi,

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<M81_LRGB_Try2_crv_GHS_crv_mmt_CCSD_Caption_40pct.jpg>

[John Nagy]

Great image Wayne. Is that a satellite galaxy starting to materialize to the lower right?

John

[Wayne Baggett]

Hi,

Thanks for all the nice comments about the M81 image, much appreciated!

John: the galaxy that's just creeping up through the noise is Holmberg IX (PGC28757) and is part of the M81 Group of galaxies and considered a satellite galaxy of M81.  It is a dwarf irregular galaxy of the Magellanic type and likely formed due to the interaction between M81 and M82.  It is one of the main reasons I wanted to get more data last night.

Wayne

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