After an observing drought of 10 days, the persistent fog here disappeared suddenly, leaving windy, dry and extremely clear conditions. Fortunately, the moon wasn't due to rise 'till about 10pm, so I was able to get in a couple hours of backyard winter deep-sky observing.

Temperatures in the low 40's prompted me to put on some extra layers and use a hat and gloves. There was a light wind which, at times, was not so light. Another hazard of winter backyard observing: A side light of my neighbor's Christmas light display shined on my telescope setup.

I began with what has to be one of my favorite objects, M42, the Great Nebula in Orion. The blue-green color was obvious. The Trapezium only showed 4 stars. The disks of stars A and C were so large that they obliterated E and F.

This observation established the poor seeing.

Next, I was interested in how the transparency was. I looked for and found M74 (a dim galaxy) with only a little difficulty. It was just a dim smudge at 55x, but I could see it. This established that it was very clear.

Next, I went to M33, a large galaxy. This was an obvious and large circular smudge. I could see tantalizing hints of detail, but nothing specific.

Saturn showed 3 moons: Titan (as usual) and two other dimmer ones. No Cassini Division in the rings. I could see that the atmosphere was darker than the rings, and that the atmosphere had some variations in brightness.

Since it was so clear, I decided to check out the Great Galaxy in Andromeda, M31, and see if I could see any dust lanes in it. I saw a feature on the M110 (a small elliptical satellite galaxy of M31) side of the M31 oval where the light dropped abruptly, as if it was an edge. This edge was not on the M32 (a tiny, compact elliptical satellite galaxy) side. Although I could not see light on the other side of the edge, I'm pretty sure that this was a dust lane boundary.

Also, I can see quite a bit more detail in the central core of M31 than is usually seen in photos, because the photos are always overexposed. There is a very bright point of light in the exact center of the M31 oval. I've never seen this in any photo. It is significantly brighter than the rest of the galaxy. M32 showed a similar bright stellar center.

I spent some time admiring the fabulous Double Cluster in Perseus. This object is fun to observe, just switching back and forth between the two clusters, comparing them. There are some reddish colored stars in the 'looser' cluster (NGC 884).

Next, I picked up M35, a large open cluster in Gemini. A tiny open cluster (NGC 2158) is tucked away at its side.

Randomly perusing the sky, I picked up M78 (a diffuse nebula), which looks like a comet with two stars in it; M1 (a supernova remnant), which showed some non-oval, irregular detail which I've never seen before; and M41 (open cluster) which I viewed through some trees.

I swept up the open clusters through Auriga: M36, M38, NGC 1907 (a tiny one right near M38) and M37.

At this point my neighbor turned on his outdoor floodlight for some reason. After a while, he turned it out and turned off the Christmas display.

M44 was a little low, and I could not see it with my naked eye like I can when it is higher. I found it with my scope. This is a very large, bright open cluster and the stars seem to make several groups of small triangles.

M67, another bright open cluster in Cancer, didn't really look very impressive because it was so low.

By this time I noticed that two of my favorite galaxies, M81 and M82, had probably cleared some trees, so I swung the scope over to them, and got both of them in the same field at 55x. M81 is a bright oval, and M82, somewhat dimmer, is a peculiar, linear galaxy and looks like a wedge, being wider at one end than the other.

By now the moon was poking up into the sky. I quickly scanned Cassiopeia and found M103, a small open cluster. I also looked at NGC 663, a somewhat dimmer, bigger one nearby.

My last object for the evening was M50, an open cluster near the bright star Sirius.

Finally, the moon reared its ugly, bright head and the wind kicked up, and I came in, pleased that the weather had finally cleared up.

It was also lovely not to have any dew whatsoever, but I think I would trade dew for better seeing.

.Date: December 18, 1997 9pm-11pm PST (Dec 19 0500-0700 UTC)
.Location: Backyard in Roseville, CA (near Sacramento) 121W16, 38N44
.Instruments: 10" f/5.6 dob newt, 10x50 binoculars
.Oculars: 26, 17, 10, 7.5mm Sirius Ploessls
.Seeing: 3 (scale 0 (worst) - 10 (best)) poor, constant fuzz
.Transparency: 7 (scale 0 (worst) - 10 (best)) very clear
.Limiting mag.: ~5.3