Ah, the fun of our hobby. Imagine driving for 2.5 hours, truck loaded with telescopes, camera loaded with film, and head filled with images of dark, crystal clear skies. Well, for the most part this is not what a small groups of amateur astronomers experienced over the long holiday weekend. John Hales (with doctor's permission) and myself went to Chew's Ridge (CR) for several days of astronomical photography. We were joined for a few days by Sandra Macika. The weather report looked good the night before the big trip but the weather, for the most part, did not see the report. We arrived Friday and our hopes were high because there was not a cloud to be seen. However, Friday night we had clouds after about midnight, Saturday was a total wash, Sunday had a few hours of clear, and Monday had clouds after about midnight, with a few sprinkles Tuesday morning. However, it was possible for me to squeeze a few hours of observing in between my cussing at the weather.

I planned to use the 4" Vixen Fluorite for photography and the 18" for observing while waiting for objects I wanted to photograph to rise. However, I ended up using the 18" most of the time, with the most productive night being Monday. First was the galaxy NGC 6822, a surprisingly large but dim object. NGC 6835 showed a hint of a dust lane with a 10.5 mm (196x) Plossl. NGC 6818, a planetary nebula showed no central hole even with a 6mm Vixen LV (343x). It was round and of almost even brightness. At this power the edges looked somewhat fuzzy and ill-defined. Next was the planetary nebula IC 1295, listed at magnitude 12.7 or 15. There was a green star in the center. The galaxy NGC 6772 was circular and of even brightness but the planetary NGC 6778 was small with fuzzy edges. Now it was time to really test my skills. Around the galaxy NGC 7331 there are a number of faint galaxies. Of course this is the galaxy near Stephan's Quintet. I was able to see NGC 7335 (mag 14.7), 7340 (14.9), and 7337 (15.7). This last one would pop in and out with changes in the seeing. All of these were at 196X. Next was NGC 7674, at magnitude 13.3, and it formed a nice pair with NGC 7675, magnitude 13.9. Near this last galaxy is the galaxy M+01-59-81 at magnitude 16. I looked at the proper position and thought I saw something pop in and out with variations in the seeing. Hales was seeing it as well, so I will list this one as a probable but magnitude 16 is pushing it, even for an 18" telescope. By this time the lack of sleep caught up with me and the clouds decided to return so I called it a night. Of course, I was awakened early the next morning by the sound of rain drops on the mirror tub of the 18" !!!!!!!