3 May observing from Oakridge Road
By Matthew Buynoski

Most of the Bay Area observers must have been down at Fremont Peak. The lazy or otherwise less dedicated three of us who ended up at the PAS Oakridge Road site found the "prime observing night" (weekend close to new moon) to be almost deserted.

The evening started with high, thin clouds all over everywhere and the possibility the evening was going to scrub out. However, as it got a little darker they dissipated or were resolved into individual mosquitoes. Bug season is back.

The evening's observing started with a mix of things. The fellow with the Pronto was busy finding all sorts of nice double stars, the guy with the 8" dob was looking at clusters and galaxies here and there, while I on the 8" SCT banged my head against the wall (again) trying to find M101 (again) and not seeing it (again). I suspect the more experienced observers were sucking up all the photons further south and leaving none...:-). This three-scope circus worked out very well, with all of us getting to see more things than if we'd been by ourselves.

Having given up (again) on M101, I went over into Leo and looked for galaxies there, to regain self-confidence if nothing else. There they were, all over the place. The only real difficulty in finding them was knowing which ones were in your field of view. Seeing was getting better later into the evening so I was able to see some little amount of detail in some of the brighter ones like M65 and M66. Looked at M104 a bit later as well, and could see some trace of the dust lane. This view brought some confidence that my recent collimation tweak on the SCT (after I slipped and dropped me and it) was on target.

I even entertained, now that I was doing well on galaxies, going back to M101 (again), but I resisted. Instead, I went for my first globular cluster. Typical 6-month newbie goof of finding the "wrong" keystone stars in Hercules slowed the process somewhat, but after straightening that out, it came into view easily. What a sight! Masses of sparkling stars, with that brilliant central core. The 8" resolved a lot of stars on the edges, and some were arranged into sweeping arcs. Seeing had improved enough that I was able to put 230X on it, but at this size it was less appealing. While it was all there, it seemed dimmer and duller than at lower mags (90X, 150X). I spent easily the better part of a half-hour on M13; just couldn't get enough of it.

Unfortunately, my eyes started to fatigue not long after that so it was time to pack it in. After the scope was put away, I took one last look around at the sky. Orion and Hale-Bopp were gone, signalling the end of the 'winter sky" that had started me in this hobby. But coming up over the horizon was the head of Scorpio, presaging the coming of the summer Milky Way and all its as-yet unseen glories. Someday I might even find M101...