Backyard Downtown S.J. 10 Dec - fooled the clouds

by Mark Bracewell

At 5 pm set up scope in backyard in case the clouds cleared. At 6 pm took down scope as of course the clouds got worse. Drowned sorrows in Shiraz, watched Apprentice, 2 people fired. 10 pm, lo, tricked the clouds, clear and still! Set up scope again.

Saturn

4.8mm nagler in 80mm f/6 nighthawk - 100x bright, sometimes extremely crisp, cassini division very well defined 50% of the time good wheat/pear color, just barely purplish-grey eq band and pole ring covering all but a sliver of ring shadow Titan easy, Iapetus and Hyperion in and out with averted vision. Spent an hour on it, only my second time seeing Saturn. Contrast not all I could wish for but seeing very very steady at times, transparency middling, not high enough to be really out of the downtown glow. I'm liking the nagler now :)

Beehive Cluster

3 triples in the center, third triple-third star very faint, maybe hallucination, whole fits in 25mm plössl (2.5°) very well, cluster is perhaps 1.5°x1.8°, about 60 stars resolved. Down in the muck from city lights though

Tried to find M67 but too faint.

Pleiades

cluster only, no nebula w/ 25mm plössl, it was so clear I almost expected to see a little bit of a glow, but no luck. Layer of bright stars over layer of tacks, snakelike asterism in back layer, I like those. Transparency failing to 45° above horizon, last object of a short but sweet night, first good night since calstar. Dew all over by the time I packed up ep's. What timing.

Adobe Building Nebula

Well, if I squint 'til my eyes water and look at downtown I can pretend it's an aurora. I saw stars though, I'm happy.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 10, 2004 01:24:34 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 22, 2005 12:39:31 PT