It’s been cloudy and rainy (except for a few brief moments of sunshine) for almost a week now! I’m sure there are stars up there somewhere, but I can see no evidence from here. It’s times like this that “blimp telescope” idea sounds good. So… here is my sketch of M51 through binoculars. This one was faint, very hard in light pollution, even in a telescope. I have an older observation on the same page where I did not see M51. Incidentally, though I did not draw it then, M51 was very prominent in binoculars in Hardy County, West Virginia.