After taking care of a medical emergency first thing Saturday, I decided I had enough time to make it to Fremont Peak (FP) and set up before dark. I was a little apprehensive because I suspected that space would be at a premium since so many people were planing to make the journey. However, I was pleasantly surprised when I pulled in behind the Ranger's house and found few people set up. I had brought both the NGT-18 and my little Meade 7" Maksutov. My primary goal for the evening was to do a little galaxy hunting (if it's spring, it must be galaxy time). After setting up and collimating the 18", I sat with other observers and enjoyed the nice spring weather. There were several nice telescopes present: a 7" f-7 Astro-Physics refractor, a 5" AP refractor, a 100mm refractor, a homemade 17" Dobsonian, a C8, and my two telescopes.

Just before dark, a reporter from the San Jose Mercury News showed up. Several individuals were answering her question and explaining what it is we do at FP. After a bit she wandered over to the 18" and asked me all sorts of questions. I do not remember all of the questions but I do recall mentioning several times the light pollution problem that has seems to have gotten worse as of late. I also mentioned the International Dark Sky Association a number of times and attempted to make her aware of the general problem of light pollution. I also pointed out the various sources of light pollution visible from FP including the prison, the glow from Gilroy and Morgan Hill, and the streetlights visible from San Juan Bautista. I hope she mentions this in her article and that something positive comes from it. I showed her a few galaxies in the 18" including M65, M66, and M51. By the way, she thought the article would be out two or three weeks from today in the Sunday Magazine.!

My first target of the evening was my old friend, M51. In the 18" at about 70X it was definitely spiral in shape. At 158X, even more detail was visible. The spiral arms seemed to vary in brightness and the gaps between the arms were even more pronounced. Next was M99 that seemed elongated and there were several other little faint galaxies in the field. M100 was a definite spiral at 158X but was more compact than M51. M49, another galaxy, looked to me like the core was split or that there were two distinct components. This was visible at 158X. M88 was an elongated sliver of light that seemed to have a number of dark notches or splotches on the surface. I also looked at the interacting galaxies NGC 4568 and 4567. I thought they made a nice pair bu t were somewhat dim. Both seemed oval and even in brightness. M90, the last galaxy of the evening looked to me oval with rough or textured edges. This effect was readily noticeable at 158X. Several globulars also presented themselves for study. M3 was resolved to the core at 158X as was M13. M5 seemed to be influenced more than the previous two by atmospheric conditions but when the seeing calmed down, it was resolved to the core at 158X. As the evening wrapped up, I had a quick peek at M8 and M20. I have seen both of these objects from really dark locations so I didn't thing the view was all that impressive. The major divisions in M20 were only seen with difficulty at 158X. The poor showing might have been influ enced by the low elevation of the objects as well as the thin high clouds that were drifting about on their way to annoy other amateur astronomers. After a few hours of sleep, it was time to pack up and drive home. Overall a very nice evening.