Montebello Friday night

by David Kingsley


I arrived about 8 pm and found an empty parking lot but clear skies at Montebello. It was cold and a bit windy. I was dressed for winter and found I could avoid most of the wind by setting up close to my strategically positioned car. (It helps that the 7 inch Starmaster is used in a sitting position). The skies were so-so: transparency only fair but the seeing was fairly steady after 10 or 11 pm. I worked on the Hershel 400 list; then visited some old favorite galaxies, clusters, and double stars; and finally had some fairly decent views of Mars at 240x around 11:30 or 12pm . The northern polar cap was clear, and lots of dark markings were obvious at times, including Mare acidalium and Nilacus Lacus in the North, and what I think were Sinus Sabeus and Margartifer Sinus around the Mare Erythraeum region further south. I have to look up more about a white region that I could see even further south. Could be Argyre but it was larger and whiter than shown on any of the maps I have seen.

I had frost and ice on the car by midnight, and packed up about 12:15 when the wind picked up a bit. It was a cold night, but it also felt great to get out with a scope again after all the recent bad weather.