My name is Christian and first of all I'd like to say Hello to everyone. I'm living near Munich in the south of Germany and I use to observe the night sky mainly in the Bavarian and Austrian Alps. From time to time I also observe in really dark places like La Palma (hosting the European Northern Observatory) or Namibia.
My main scope is a 12" F5 travel dobson. Compared to most of the telescopes here in the forum it is rather small - however, there are more objects out there than I'll ever be able observe with this aperture.
Attached three sketches taken during the last night at Sudelfeld, Bavarian Alps (mid of April). The conditions were good (at least in the second half of the night), i.e. fst 6m5+, seeing II and dry.
IC2574 - Coddington's Nebula ...
... is a dwarf irregular galaxy and member of the M81 group in Ursa Major. The object was discovered by Edwin Coddington in 1898. In my 12" dobson it was faint but easy to see with averted vision. Even the main area of massive star formations (on top) was visible. The center of the galaxy was slightly brighter than the outer areas (except the massive star formation area on the top end). Eyepiece was a 20mm Nagler (4mm exit pupil). IC2574_042013_comp500.jpg
NGC3115 - The Spindel Galaxy
Small but intensely bright, stellar nucleus, bright central belt and a distinct bulge NGC3115_042013_comp500.jpg