It’s Seattle. In the late winter. So it rains. A lot. But we had a clear night, finally, last night, and I got a few good pictures.

To try to identify targets, you can use the eVscope’s built-in library, but if you want to find new and interesting things, I’ve found it useful to try another source. I like https://theskylive.com/whatsvisible — I keep it open in a tab on my phone, and while the telescope is dwelling on one picture, I’ll snoop around for what I should aim at next.

That’s how I found the Southern Whirlpool Galaxy, aka M83. It’s actually got a negative declination, which means it’s above the SOUTHERN hemisphere, so it’s only ever going to get 10 to 15 degrees above the horizon, and only briefly during the late winter / early spring. As a result, when you’re observing it with a telescope, you’re looking through about four times as much atmosphere than you would if you were looking straight up. More atmosphere means means more distortion, less light, and more haze. Even worse, since I live on the north side of town, that haze is getting lit up by a lot of light pollution from Southcenter and Tukwila. Still, it’s a new galaxy for me, woohoo! (Plus, three other pictures, all of which are old favorites.)

All of these will end up in their respective pages.

M83 – Southern Whirlpool Galaxy

19m

2026-03-27

Not great, really. There’s a lot of atmosphere to see through, since this is very low on the horizon. I bet this would be a lot better from, say, Rio. Or Quito.

M51 – Whirlpool Galaxy

46m

2026-03-26

Probably my best shot of the twin galaxies.

M42 – Orion Nebula

10m

2026-03-26

I mean, it’s winter, you gotta get pictures of the Orion Nebula this time of year.

NGC 7023 – Iris Nebula

37m

2026-03-27

Compared to some of my other pictures of the Iris, this one was pretty poor. It seems one of the more variable, in terms of quality.