by Jamie Dillon
At sunset, Coe was nicely socked in. Bruce the film imager was there; Nancy had brought a set of her Planetary Soc pals to show 'em the real sky. Craig and Elena, they of D&G eminence, brought a fine 100mm Genesis. By 2130 things still looked like skunk city. At 2200 we were looking at a sky getting better than 5.5 LM, with Morgan Hill and San Jose snugly under dense fog.
Not long after, a whole crew of Chinese American folks traipsed into the middle of the lot, set up chairs and watched meteors for a chunk of the night. Bright, quick Orionids rained all night.
There were several features. NGC 7793, as you know, had eluded me, playing peekaboo behind the Peak last Saturday. Last night it played peekaboo with low cloud bands right in the low south. Line up the Telrad, clouds moved up a hair. Got the galaxy in the 22, change eyepieces, clouds move up a hair. Right in that one part of the sky in Sculptor. Perseverance furthered and I got two good views at 126x. Close neighbor at 9 mly, with gradual brightening toward its core, arms splayed out, big (ca 8' wide in 10mm).
Enceladus was clear, wheeling around Saturn. After midnight Saturn held up fine at 420x. Jupiter was as good as it was at Cone Peak two years ago, and that was in Jeff's big boy 14.5 scope. 'Sub-arcsecond' seeing isn't a term I throw around a lot, but it impressed me to see all six stars in the Trapezium bright to direct vision at 126x, consistently.
Went back to the Perseus Cluster and got 3 more galaxies, bringing a total of 7 in the close central field around 1275. There's a parallelogram of galaxies that Albert had been showing me at LSA, that took some work in Felix but were way worth it. Some 200 mly away.
(Felix is a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians and a TV 2x Barlow, with a Lumicon OIII.)
The Bowl of the Dipper was up and clear, later, and I got back onto my project from last winter and spring of learning all the little galaxies spread thru there. Got onto 3888 and 3898 the SE corner, off Phecda. 3898 has a neat shape, an oval lens with pointed ends.
After midnight there were just 3 of us swapping views. Elena is a patient, canny observer, and Craig has been observing seriously for 16 years. He got me to look at 2 things I didn't think were possible in my scope. G76 is the 2nd brightest globular in M31. Obvious at 126x. Then later, 7335, a close little neighbor of 7331, showed up in Felix in spite of my protests. Is it actually a companion?
Finished up the night in Canis Major and Puppis. Took the sun to chase us. Venus was rising in Virgo, a beacon against the deep blue of predawn.
Such a night.
Forgot one important galaxy, my first in Eridanus, 1332, pretty with bright core and a long body. An E7, 64 mly away. Eridanus is an area I've eagerly been waiting to explore this winter. Have fond memories of Nilesh with his hands on a 14.5 at CalStar I, hardly taking time to breathe, scooping up galaxies in Eridanus, several at a time.
We miss you guys, Paul and Nilesh. Your names both came up several times last night. And remembering LeFevre's Law: Best way to avoid seeing stars is to stay home <copraphagic grin>.