Observing nights beginning of March 2021

The winter was not very good for observing.  In December, there were a few good nights, but at that time, my telescope was not accessible because we were rebuilding our veranda.  In February, there were a few good nights, but it was so cold outside, that I could not force myself to go outside.  Finally, in March, there were two clear nights with no moon-light.

It were two quite cold nights.  On March 5, the temperature dropped from 0.0 (69%) to -2.3 (82%).  On March 6, the temperature dropped from 0.7 (73%) to -1.3 (85%).  No wind.

The sky was not very dark.  The SQM value only was 19.83 at best (on the first night).  The second night, the SQM was only 19.73 at best.

The first night, Sara and Lotte joined me during the first part of the observations.  We observed Mars, M 45, M 35, M 36 and M 42 together.  Mars is too small again to see real detail on it.  I could also observe Uranus, as a green-blue, but small dot.  I observed Thor’s Helmet, but without a filter, the object was very faint.  M 42 was visible with a lot of details,  with six stars of the trapezium clearly visible.  M 1 was very faint.  I ended with some Messier objects: M 36, M 37, M 38, M 76, M 34, M 81, M 82.  I tried to see Sirius B, but I'm not sure I could see the pup.

On the second night, I started with an observation of M 42.  I made a drawing of M 36.  After the observation of NGC 1931, I toured the messier objects.  Highlights were the very nice open cluster M 37 and M 46 with the planetary nebula NGC 2138.  I tried to see Sirius B, but I could not see the pup.

More information can be found on DeepskyLog:

https://www.deepskylog.be/index.php?indexAction=adapt_session&sessionid=1522

The timelapse of the observing evening: