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About 4 months ago I finally decided to plunk down the money for a good astronomical telescope, deciding on the Orion Skyquest XT6.   Over Labor Day weekend, I finally had a chance to take this scope with me to some real dark skies and take a look through it under ideal conditions! My targets were galaxies.  Specifically Andromeda as well as the major galaxies in Ursa Major.  The first galaxy I spotted through my scope was M82, known as the cigar galaxy because of it’s shape (the one on the right in the above image).  I knew where to look for it, but did not know what it looked like.  At first I wasn’t sure about what I was seeing, but after looking it up on Wikipedia, there was no doubt in my mind.  Through the scope the shape was very similar to this picture, but without color.

The big thrill was seeing, and being able to find, Andromeda.  That was my white whale as a kid, something I always set out to see, but never could find.  Mostly that was due to lack of preparation on my part, not really knowing where to look.   Basically, I’d just go outside and scan the skies with my binoculars, as opposed to consulting star maps, learning how to navigate the heavens, etc.  A soon to rise moon may have, I believe, made conditions less than ideal.  But it was still clearly visible through the scope, and even somewhat visible to the naked eye (came and went).   Basically a big big blurry spot, seeing it was more dramatic and thrilling than the description makes it sound.  Mostly, I guess, from knowing what it was and knowing I was viewing as many as a trillion suns at once.