May 22 2007, 9:47am Fort Stanton BLM lands

Solar viewing with PST could see a big prominence at the 1:00 o'clock position smaller one between 11 and 12 o'clock and two smaller ones in between. The one at 11:30 is shooting out and curving back into the Sun. The one at 1 o'clock is shooting straight out. Used the 18mm Cemax eyepiece, tried the 18mm with 2x Barlow but could not see the promiences, sometimes that happens. Switched to the 14mm UWA Meade the prominences were still visible using that eyeiece. After viewing for a while I could see another small prominence between 2 and 3 o'clock positions and another a littler bigger than those at the 5 o'clock position. The Sunspot is between 6 and 7 about 1/4 of the way in from the limb towards the center. The Sun is not high at this time and so there was some atmospheric disturbance but after some patient viewing I eventually saw 6 prominences.

9:17pm I set up the C8 beside the trailer, I started by looking at M94 I could see a fuzzy patch, the first quarter moon was a slight problem. M97 is big but very dim, it looks like a nebula with a spot in it. M108 is very faint it looks longish with a light spot in the middle. A satellite went right across the eyepiece while I was looking at M109, which was very hard to make out. M85, is fuzzy spot, I put the dew shield on and it seemed to help. M98 looks elongated like a cigar but it is hard to see. M99 is a fuzzy blob of light, not as easy to see as M98. M100 another fuzzy patch, I'll try all these again on another night when it's darker. M68 looks like a globular cluster, the seeing is not so good but its obviously a cluster, I can make out maybe 20 individual stars. Tried M83, saw a fuzzy very faint blob, another satellite through the eyepiece. Seeing is deteriorating so I packed it around 10:30pm