Messier M79 in Lepus
By Rony De Laet
Here is an observation of M79. From my location, the object rises only 15° above the horizon. 15° sounds like a solid number, but it is not when tried out in the field. I was surprised to find M79 easy at low power. The sketch is made at 63x. The core appears almost stellar. One faint star was visible with averted vision N of the globular.
Date : February 5, 2008
Time : around 20.30UT
Scope : Skywatcher 102/500
Eyepiece : Hyperion Zoom at 8mm
Power : x63
FOV: 65′
Filter : none
Seeing : 2,5/5
Transp. : 2,5/5
Nelm : 4,8
Sketch Orientation : N up, W right.
Digital sketch made with PhotoPaint, based on a raw pencil sketch.
Rony,
Excellent globular sketch in a field of foreground stars. This unresolved globular looks much like a comet.
Frank