Here's another observing report from Del Valle on Friday, December 3, 1999. I left my 12.5" dob at home and took my 8" SCT on it's GEM mount. My plan was to do some relaxing observing, without worrying much about finding many new objects. I hadn't used this scope much in the past year, so it was fun using it again, and enjoying it's tracking abilities. I ended checking out a few of the highlights. Jupiter, Saturn,and the Orion neb with a Lumicon bino-viewer were terrific. We tried two 22mm Panoptics, and despite their size, they worked well. M35 and it's little neighbor NGC 2158, Double Cluster, and the Eskimo nebula in Gemini were also observed.
I didn't bring an observing list, so decided to check out the items in the book, The Universe from your Backyard, published by Kalmbach. It's a nice book, divided by constellations and giving a list and descriptions of some of the highlight items. I decided to check out Auriga, which was well placed. The objects mostly turned out to be open clusters, not usually my favorites, but fun for this night.
My observing list was generated with The Sky software.
******* 12/3/99, 8:40 PM ******* Cluster+Nebulosity NGC 1931 Other description: Nebula surrounds group of stars. Constellation: Aur Dreyer description: Very bright, large, round, bright triple star in middle. Magnitude: 11.3 Size: 3.0' 8" SCT Del Valle Small but obvious diffuse glow, hint of a group of stars. ******* 12/3/99, 8:50 PM ******* Open Cluster NGC 1907 Other description: Open cluster dense. Constellation: Aur Dreyer description: Cluster, westward rich in stars, westward compressed, round, stars of magnitude 9 to 12. Magnitude: 8.2 Size: 7.0' 8" SCT Near M38. Smaller, not as dense. Pretty. ******* 12/3/99, 8:55 PM ******* Open Cluster NGC 1664 Other description: Open cluster rich. Constellation: Aur Dreyer description: Cluster, little rich in stars, little compressed, pretty large. Magnitude: 7.6 Size:18.0' 8" SCT Del Valle Sparse group with bright star. A tail of stars connected to a jumble. ******* 12/3/99, 9:00 PM ******* Open Cluster NGC 1893 Other description: Open cluster with nebulosity. Constellation: Aur Dreyer description: Cluster, large, rich in stars, little compressed. Magnitude: 7.5 Size:11.0' 8"SCT Del Valle Scattered grouping, many faint stars. ******* 12/3/99, 9:20 PM ******* Planetary Nebula IC 2149 Dreyer description: Planetary nebula, stellar. Size: 0.1' 8" SCT Del Valle Stellar, disappointing. UHC didn't help.