by Jamie Dillon
CalStar was a blast. If I wrote down the names of the people whose company was such a treat, someone important won't get mentioned for sure, so I'll stick to context. You know very well who you are. This past Saturday night was likely my most undisciplined night of observing ever. I did learn by comparing CalStar notes of the past, that there's an inverse cube correlation between intake of booze and productivity. G. Fiendish offered a beer in the heat, then along comes the long lost and prettier than ever Czerwinski with selections from his cellar, and of course I was set up right next to Mr Effable's single malt bar. Sheesh. In defense, yeronner, it was my 4th night to a dark remote site in September, so there.
Did plenty of naked eye staring, which is an old long habit from a rural upbringing. Got one new object, ngc 7721 in Aqr, long, ragged, some dust, moderately bright core. To clean up pg 17 of SkyAtlas, went for M-1-57-18 not far to the west, then IC 1447 in the same neighborhood, both of which weren't home. At which point I said skeearew it and went off to mooch and yak.
Earlier, there was one notable observation, another look at ngc 6293 in southern Ophiuchus, to show it off to the Goddess. It really is a gorgeous complex globular. Nil suck factor. Then after 0300, did get some fancy looks at Mars, and the first look of the season at M42. M35 was all bright and naked eye and worth it as always.
There is such an interesting and cordial mix of people in our tribe. Thing was, Sunday while cleaning up, there was this lingering sense of something almost tangible about CalStar 6. You know what it was, it was the love. No kidding, there's a whole lot of love in this community. Gives life a certain boost.
You can hear Ray Romano's mammoth in Ice Age, "It's what you do in a herd."
Posted on sf-bay-tac Oct 07, 2005 00:28:40 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 14, 2006 20:19:40 PT