WoW! It sure was great to be under the stars again! What a gorgeous night!! I saw two meteors. They were very faint. Maybe mag 3 or 4. ;-)

On Saturday, I viewed from the Bonny Doon Airport for the first time. I will join the others in thanking the SCAC for inviting us to your beautiful site. Thank you! And thanks to Jeff Blanchard for posting the directions. It was nice to meet you and other SCAC members.

It was cloudy in San Jose when I left, but the satellite pictures showed hope. When I arrived at the airport, there were clouds at the horizons, and thin clouds overhead. It seemed like a big hole was opening up right above us. Marsha asked seriously, "Mark, will these clouds disappear by nightfall?" I quickly retorted with a resolute "Yes." She asked how I knew and I told her, "Because I want them to." I don't think they appreciated my scientific methods. ;-)

Mark was generous enough to bring me his 14.5" scope. It is superfluistic kewl! Thanks Mark! I was using the 27 panoptic for most of the night, which gave me a magnification of 76 with a 4.8 mm exit pupil. For those of you who know that I've been talking about putting together my own 10" scope, now I'm all like, "Aperture, aperture!" I'll look into mirror prices next week.

Marsha had the wonderful idea to practice for the Messier marathon that will be at the end of March. Thanks Marsha! We had fun talking and helping each other. Even if I don't get all 109 on the night of the marathon, I'm sure I will make good progress towards my Messier certificate.

I think it was close to 6:30 p.m. when I got out my beloved star atlas and began. I didn't want to start in the west right away, because it was still a little bright over there. I started with M41 in Canis Major. I enjoy using the telrad much more than the viewfinder. I can just line it up and then look. That's a lot easier than finding every single star on the Atlas and then hopping from star to star. The telrad is definitely much quicker for me. It was nice to start with a beautiful open cluster. Oh! It was like a dream to look at the stars again! I hadn't been out viewing since last year.

Then I decided to go over to M74 in Pieces before it was too late. I lined up the telrad and was scanning the scope really fast looking for another big open cluster. Then Mark explained that it is a faint spiral galaxy. After he showed me, it was easy to find because I could line the telrad up closely enough to find that little triangle, and I knew it would be just above that. WoW! The M47 picture on my Messier poster looks beautiful!

Next I found spiral galaxy M33 in Triangulum, M31 (Andromeda Galaxy), and elipticals M32 and M110 in Andromeda. M42 and M43 in Orion were beautiful as usual. I really like the two bright stars in the small round cloud of M78, also in Orion.

In Gemini I saw the open clusters M35 and NGC 2158 in the same view. M35 has about 120 stars and looks like a beautiful open cluster. NGC 2158 has about 40 stars, but looks like a tiny smudge in the field of view. That is because NGC 2158 is nearly 16 thousand light years further away!

Next were M1 and M45 in Taurus. The Pleiades is my favorite asterism.

I slowed down in Puppis and Cancer because I didn't know those constellations very well. I'm not used to the springtime stars! M46 and M47 in Puppis are very nice. Both clusters are only about 20 million years old. M46 is bright and open, and M47 is faint and dense. The planetary nebula smudge NGC 2438 in M47 was easier to see in Marsha's scope, because she was using more magnification.

Then I found M44 (Beehive Cluster) and open cluster M67 in Cancer. M44 is very easy to see naked eye.

I took a break to see what others were doing. Mike and Jay both showed me M47, the Owl Nebula. Oh! I've been waiting to see that for a long time! I saw a round cloud with darker areas. I couldn't say the darker areas were eyes. I couldn't even say there were two darker areas, but I did enjoy the view. Thanks guys!

I went back to the Messier practice in Leo. I am familiar with this constellation because of the Leonids. But this time I didn't have to wait until 2:00 a.m.! I lined up the telrad for M95 and M96, but couldn't see a thing! I saw some very faint light. I had to move the telescope a lot just to find a star that I could try and focus on. Then I couldn't even focus completely. I tried and tried. Marsha was finding and showing me incredible views of M95, M96, M105, M65 and M66, and I was seeing nothing! I figured I was getting to tired or it was getting too cloudy or something. It was approaching 10:30 anyway, so I packed up and sat down in one of Mark's comfortable chairs to socialize a little before taking off. Just then Marsha came over and told me that the secondary in my scope was completely dewed over. No wonder I was having problems! I did find 16 Messiers and two NGCs in four great hours of viewing. The sky was clouding over anyway. Then again, a half an hour later after everyone else was just about packed up, the sky cleared again.

I know that I also have M13 in Hercules, M36, M37, and M38 in Auriga, M57 in Lyra, M34 and M15 in Perseus, M27 in Vulpecula and M29 in Cygnus. I believe Mark has verified these all for me, but if not I can find them again fast. That means I am almost 23% complete towards my Messier certificate!

I am looking forward to checking out the websites with the Messier lists posted by Richard and Bill. I will have to study up before my next viewing session so I can make good Messier progress.

I'm also looking forward to checking out the eclipse photos and glossary websites. Thanks for sharing all the great info! I'll let you know what I think when I have time to review next week.

Looking forward to clear skies!