2022-03-07

• Location: Cabin: 44.31, -103.88

5:30AM

• RaDec: 20h10m -16°3
• Scope: ST80
• Setting: 80x, ½ stop-down

Crescent visible with light blue coloring. Silhouette of dark side also visible. Lightly hazy probably due to it being close to the horizon.

8:00PM

• Target: M 44, Beehive Cluster (Praesepe)
• Const: Cancer
• RaDec: 08h40m +19.59
• Type: Open Cluster
• Scope: ST80
• Setting: 16x

Not clearly visible to the naked eye. Once I got it in view at 16x, it was breath taking. I gasped so loudly, that I spooked a nearby animal (probably a deer) and I could hear it scamper away into the night. It was at this moment that I realized I just found a life-long hobby.