HAL

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 Baggett NASA, ESA and the Hubble Heritage Team (STScI/AURA)