Lion's Den

Leo is a magnificant constellation for its meteor shower and closeness to equator, Regulus (alpha Leo) is about 1 degree north of equator.

NGC 2903 is a spiral galaxy close to the mouth, put Lambda Leo at center of finder, about 2/3 of the radius south, looking for a star of 7 mag (unique in the area), center finder there and look through ep. the elongated faint smudge of light at east south edge of ep should be it!

M105/NGC 3384/NGC 3389, draw a line connect Alpha and Theta, put the finder on the line around 40% of the distance from theta, looking for two stars, of 5.5 mag, vertically separated 3.5 deg, and center the finder in the middle of these two stars, M105 should be in ep!

M105 is round and easy to see, NGC 3384 is elliptical and darker, south east of them are three stars line up in ep, around the barycenter is NGC 3389, it is very dim and negligible!

Going south for anothe degree, M96 jumps into my ep, it is elliptical, about same magnitude as M105, continue going west while keep M96 in ep, M95 will be included, it is round, also same magnitude.

Leo Triplet refers M66/M65/NGC3628, put the finder on Chort (theta leo), there should a 5 mag star around south edge of finer, assume it is 6 o'clock, center finder around 7 o'clock, M65 should be in ep, hove around east, the leo triplet should be contained within one ep! M65/66 are elliptical, NGC3628 looks like cigar!

Rose on Qilin Head

Orion is famous for its M42, where massive star formation occuring. Another this kind of area is orion's neighbor,  Monoceros (Qilin). A line between head and right should of orion, (Betelgeuse) and extending the line east, until see a 4.5 mag star (Epsilon Mon), center finder here! there should be a star cluster on north east edge of the finder (NGC 2244), center on the cluster and observe with low mag eyepiece (22 mm is the longest focal EP I can find, 41mm pan has two big exit pupil.), don't forget OIII filter. A foggy background is confirmed as the rosette nebula!

Gemini - Brothers

After we had all the excitement about the wonders of orion constellation, we move to Gemini, which is located north east, next to orion's right arm.

Castor is a visual binary, it is seperated nicely under 220x.
Eskimo (NGC 2392) and M35 open cluster are the enjoyables among my 16" in santa clara, to find Eskimo, we start from the torso star of the elder brother (delta), in the finder, there should be three bright stars (5 mag) north east ward, they are forming a 'L', move scopy among the upper part and start to scan within EP. Eskimo is a grey/bluish planetary nebula, enjoy!

M35 is near left foot of younger brother (eta Gem), center the finder on it, M35 is on the east edge of the finder, there are several dim nebulas within finder circle, IC443 is between eta and mu, IC444 is around north of eta, SH2-247, NGC 2174/2175 are in south area, they are just dim, requires 5-10 hours of exposure to capture