Good morning

I was out last night despite the half moon! My estimate is that I lose 0.5m with a half moon. What do you think?

I observed some galaxies in Leo and Cvn...My favourite of the night was the "pair" NGC 4389 / NGC 4392.

A lovely rich star field which I think enhances the view of galaxies as the contrast between dots and fuzz is amazing.

So NGC 4389 was the brightest, an oval shaped glow that I could almost hold with direct vision. A faint field star just to the south of the galaxy. I then hunted for NGC 4392. Much fainter but still relatively easy with averted vision. This one is near a field star with two faint companions. NGC 4392 is much further away than NGC 4389 based on its red shift of 7233km/s which I understand makes it about 300 million light years away.

NGC4389.jpg

So if that moon is up its still worth going out observing!

Mark from the UK