Dave Goggin
My observing buddy and I decided to do a brief session this evening. Once we got to the upper Land's End parking lot, we started to have second thoughts - the wind was blowing like crazy! We then checked out the lower parking lot... more nearby lights but much less windy. So we set up the 9.25" SCT to look at a few things.As astro. twilight ended, the zodiacal light was again quite visible.
Sky darkness at zenith was 19.15 by the meter.
- comet Lulin. Looked like your typical faint elliptical galaxy. I was surprised it was still so visible after it's main season has passed.
- NGC 1535. This is a planetary nebula in Eridanus and we saw it, alright. Didn't see much detail in it, not even the 10th mag. central star that is supposed to be easily visible.
- LDN 1594. This is a dark nebula not far from alpha Ori. We didn't have much hope for seeing this but figured we might as well try 1 dark nebula. Sure enough, sky was much too bright.
- Abell 12. Another planetary, dimmer than NGC 1535. Didn't see it.
- NGC 2141. An open cluster. This should have been easy but neither of us could find it - even with help from digital setting circles.
- NGC 2194. Another open cluster. Finally, a positive observation. It looked quite dim and not especially well resolved but we saw it. We think it might look better in a darker sky.
While we were out there, a few random people dropped by so we took a break and showed them some 'crowd pleaser' items (saturn, M81/M82, M37). And of course I emphasized and pointed out the light pollution and exhorted them all to participate in GLOBE at Night.
ps: Looking forward to meeting you all at GSSP.
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