Montebello observing

A fine start

What a wonderful night.

Although I have been observing, on and off, since the 60s (age 8 :-) I have never acquired much in the way of sky hunting skills. I know the naked-eye stars pretty well, and I can find all of the really easy objects. This limited me to Ms 13, 42, 57, 8, 20, 6, 7 etc, a few naked eye stars that are double and the planets.

After finding TAC 2 years ago I have been observing much more and enjoying it more than ever. The many wonderful views I mooched from many friendly TACyons inspired me. I tried this year's Messier Marathon and Swim but, as the name implies, met with less than ideal conditions.

After a long gap since the last observing session I headed up the Montebello on Wednesday. I had a feeling that the number of tentative attendees, the nice weather and the preceding clouds would make for a lively session. It sure was. Mark detailed the people and scopes so I won't get into that. I set up and shot the breeze with the gang waiting for it to get dark. I even drummed up a bit of moral support for my new crusade, I want to reform the California Department of Education textbook approval process.

I spent alot of time looking at Mars through William's 7" AP. It was incredible. The seeing started at about a 0.1 on a 1-10 scale. As the evening progressed it improved and at times the views were marvelous. This is also attested to by Mark's description of Omega Centauri.

I went back to my scope and decided to take the leap into galaxy hunting. My first targets were M65 and M66. Took a while but using a big wide field care of my new 2" diagonal and 50mm eyepiece I got them both and in the same field. Next M95 and 96. This was a bit harder to see, but took less time (never did find M105). Next the beautiful edge on galaxy M104. Confidence builds. I checked the charts and noticed that NGC3268 should have been visible with M65 and 66. I went back and there it was. Nice view, 3 more-or-less edge on galaxies all at different angles in the same field.

Time for the big plunge. VIRGO. Remembering a point from Don Machholz's book I knew I should start at the insignificant star, 6 ComaB. Going back and forth many times between the binos and Norton's I found the star. Scanning around it I found both M98 and M99. Two pretty large and bright galaxies one face on, the other almost edge on. Now I was the many choices paralyzed me. What should I go for next. A quick visit to Mark and I was off to find M100. Got it in no time. This stuff wasn't exactly easy but it was happening and it was FUN. Now I wanted a bit more of a challenge. I had really enjoyed previous views of NGC4565 (thanks Kukl) but I had no idea were it was. Another quick visit to Mark and Peter and I was off. Got the sucker! Dust lane and all.

I know that these are easy targets for the experienced fuzzy finders in our midst but I hadn't done this before. I was thrilled. The sky was not very dark but seeing was superb and that probably helped.

I had a great time, thanks to everyone that was up there. Hope to see the rest of you on many more nights as lovely as Wednesday was.