Algieba, some Leo galaxies, and M101

5-inch NexStar, Hyperion eyepieces . . . morning observations - 5.5 skies, but some high clouds drifting through - at least average seeing, maybe better - using observatory - started at 2:22 am

3 am Algieba - light straw primary, pale green secondary
21mm - Just splits - 60X
13mm - fine -96X
8mm(zoom) - better- 156X
5 mm (250x) and 3.5mm(357X) -X works best for this star.

M51 - looked terrific in 21mm

M101 - this was the shocker - this is better than I can remember seeing it before. Perhaps I'm just learning to see?

M65, 66 & NGC3628 - The two Messier galaxies are easy and look fine - NGC3628 is more difficult, but clear enough. There's 21 minutes between M65 and M66 and they fileld about half the field of the 13mm Hyperion. It's supposed to have a 68 degree AFOV which would figure roughly to 42 minutes - and that fits well with this observation, so it's living up to the advertised value.

M95,96 & 105 - This trio is more of achallenge than the previous one, but still easy enough. What suprized me was M105 has a companion, a bit dimmer, but due north. This two eliptical galaxies look a bit like a fuzzy double stars in this scope. I'm suprized that if M105 has been spotted anbd cataloged, why wasn't it's obvious companion? (NGC3384? There another companion - NGC3373 - I didn't see it.)