Issue 617: The Messier Project Runs with the Hunting Dogs

Well, muchachos, down the Messier Road we go. Again. I’ll have some different articles for you in the coming months so the Messiers don’t get old (could they, really?), but tonight we are in for some Messier Masterpieces. Though, by midmonth, I began to wonder if I would bag a single M for you. Our formerly dry spring is a thing of the past down here in the ‘Swamp; as that old Moon waned, the rains came—did they ever. I had to strategize. The SeeStar images here are older ones, both dating back to the time when The Suzie first came to stay at Chaos Manor South. I figgered it was best to concentrate on visual in the limited amount of time I’d have under the stars. That visual telescope? I won’t lie; Unk was awful lazy. It’s already warm tending to hot, even into the dark hours—when they get here, damn this DST—and so humid that I felt like I could cut the air with that proverbial knife. So, no 10-inch Dob. The scope of choice would be a Dobsonian, yes, but Little Debbie, the 6-inch f/5…