Most supernovae are beyond my standard reach - a 6 to 10" scope plus suburbia awash in lights. But the recent explosion in M82, the thin cigar-shaped galaxy in Ursa Major, sounded like an awesome opportunity. With articles indicating it was peaking at magnitude 10.5 it also seemed like capturing it on video was not out of the question.
The skies Saturday seemed to have a small window of opportunity - average transparency and seeing predicted from about 9 p.m. until 11 p.m. by the CSC. I took a little extra time to set the tripod on Polaris and then scanned the northeast with some binoculars to locate the target area. I've seen the M81-M82 galaxy duo before from home many times in the past, but mainly from the backyard (which was a muddy mess with the defrosting temperature we had during the day). I spent about 20 minutes sweeping the area at low power to no avail. Granted, it is harder to sweep for a circumpolar object when using a GEM, but I think the real culprit was just the abundance of outdoor lighting. Our neighbor across the way has recently 'upgraded' the lamp post light to a glaring 250 watt (my estimation) mercury vapor style light - which was striking me in the face as I panned for the galaxies. Moments such as these are a downer - makes me long for putting some distance between my telescope and neighboring lights.
With the scope and video already set up I opted to swing over to Jupiter, climbing pretty high into the sky by this time. The seeing ended up being fairly good, and I took about a dozen 1 minute film runs of Jove.
In the B&W shot above, the NTB, which in years past has been a bit more distinct, is pretty visible in the preceding half of the hemisphere but then seems to blend into the amorphous NPR (no real sign of a NNTB). Hints of festoons arcing southward off the NEB can be glimpsed as well. NEB and SEB are about the same intensity. No sign of a separate STB.
