Observation Session – 09 April 2011

Location: Sahara – Mali desert plateau

Session duration: 2 nights

Sky conditions: Cold and stable atmosphere, seeing ~8/10

Instruments:

  • 250mm Dobsonian telescope
  • 80mm refractor
  • 7×50 binoculars

Targets:

  • M45 (Pleiades)
  • Saturn
  • Albireo
  • NGC 7000 (North America Nebula)

Observation notes:

Transparency improved after midnight and allowed longer visual work on faint deep-sky targets.

The larger telescope resolved dense clusters cleanly, while the refractor was used for wider fields and comparison views.

Members present: Maxime Dallois, Lucille Godefert, Marc Lefèvre