Good day to you all.
Let me firstly state that it has almost 5 months since I last looked into my 158 mm apochromatic refractor.
Not since the famous Mercury Transit last May 9th had I observed a single object. It was not for want of trying, I do assure you. It was simply that every night I looked out the window when I was free, I was greeted with an overcast sky. It was greatly frustrating for me.
But last Saturday night, I loaded up my apo into my Skoda Fabia Combi and headed to the Sugarloaf Car Park and started observing at 8.30 pm.
I had to end at 9.30 as savage dew began attacking my lovely scope.
However, it was yet another truly historic night for me -even for that single hour.
I pointed the scope at M 31 -the Andromeda Galaxy; immediately saw M 32 below it even at 40X. But I was completely blown away when I headed north of these 2 gloriously good galaxies and found M 110 for the first time in my life!
I could fit all 3 galaxies in my 2" 38 mm eyepiece at 40X! M 110 is extremely faint. Its centre is a little bit brighter and it is larger than M 32. 8 arc minutes versus 3 in length. So it is quite elongated. M 32 is of magnitude 9.5, M 110 is 10.8. (That is according to Robert Burnham). I would not argue with the great man.
I have repeatedly tried to observe it quite a few times over the last 25 years. But failed miserably every time. This is my 1st time to see it.
Before the dew won the battle with the refractor, I did find yet another carbon star for the first time: SU Andromedae. It was surrounded by many other 8.5 magnitude stars. However when I increased the magnification to 112X, it had quite a strong orange colour.
I went home very happy. I must thank Dave Brannigan for organising the whole evening. Dave showed me some colourful double stars in Cepheus. Let's do it all again, Dave. There were about 7 scopes at the Sugarloaf.
Clear skies to all,
Aubrey.
  