by Jamie Dillon
Having gotten very little out of playing in Canes Venatici. I had two projects in mind Saturday night, exploring the galaxies around M106 and working up the Milky Way thru Scutum.
Nilesh and Minal Shah hauled scope, getting Pluto and two 13th mag planetaries in a 6" amid a crummy sky. To them goes the glory.
Jay was polite about conditions, there are more problems about the Peak than one can readily count. I went around M106, just south of the Dipper, having seen a lovely chain of 4 galaxies heading NW of that lovely spiral, from Coe not long ago. Could see the brightest one, 4220. Now 4242 is on my Terence Dickinson chart in Edmund's mag 6 atlas, therefore not supposed to be a Gottlieb, so here I was all set to go see it, 11th mag, 4' long, ca 2 deg due south of the Messier, well within my scope. Sucker wasn't there. Even begged Nilesh and Jim Bartolini, and no one found that galaxy. Decided it most likely was washed out.
So I just spent the rest of the time following the chart around in Scutum. Most arresting and worth a look among the new objects was the newly dubbed Veronica Lake Cluster, 6704, just north of the Wild Duck, with a trailing arm of stars curling out from the center, like Ms Lake being sultry with her hair over one eye. 6712 is a compact, barely resolved globular south of there (distant?) that's remarkable for being in the midst of a knock down gorgeous star field.
Liam was asleep in the van, we were the last to leave. Realized the person I said goodnight to at the end there was Jay in the dark. Sat and watched the sky, measured the blue light dome to the West at well over 30 degrees and was filled with regret to see such a marvelous resource for now spoiled. A 5.5 sky, not a whole lot better than in town.