A little late but it's been a busy week.

Friday night September 18th I arrived at my observing spot in Los Padres National Forest ready to make up for some missed opportunities this summer. I made a number of observing trips this summer but between weather and some vehicle problems I bagged only 4 solid nights of deep sky work. While the weekend was not all I had hoped for (Friday night ended early because of wind), it was a good ending to summer observing. I was joined Saturday by another observer with 20".

Starting a bit late Friday night after giving my eyes time to adapt and checking the wide field views of a the just acquired 55 TV plossl (it was a pleasure to have the "bigger picture" again) I went after a set of objects new to me and/or new to this scope.. My observing plan starts with the monthly tour in Walter Scott Houston's the Deep Sky Wonders from a 10 year set of Sky and Telescope I acquired last year and then wanders to nearby interesting objects on the map and is supplemented by the large observing list of Boyd Edwards http://www.seds.org/messier/xtra/similar/BElistA.txt. The Deep Sky Wonders often provide hints of details to be looking for which help improve my observing skills. Some of the views I'll certainly return to follow.

First on the list was Barnard's galaxy N6822. The Friday before at Fremont Peak I searched and searched back and forth between atlas, finder, and eyepiece. The sky had not been very dark and I was not using enough magnification (58X) (thanks for the info in the IAAC post Bruce Jensen) and only a couple times did I suspect anything. Armed with darker skies and a bit more magnification (90x and 150x) the galaxy showed up large, and very faint though it was difficult to make out much detail or even shape. On Saturday night which was darker and steadier (the Hercules Cluster and North American Nebula were clear and late at night I convinced myself there was a smudge in the area of M33) the galaxy and 2 bright HII regions on the northern edge were fairly easy. This large galaxy noticeable brightened towards the center but I could make out no hints of structure.

The Helix nebula showed up nicely, slightly green at 90x and with the OIII a delicate outer shell around a bright inverted C shaped bar. I found Planetary N6905 with the 12 Nagler (which I use for probably 75% of my observations), round and bright at 300x there is an S shaped brightening within the nebula.

My favorite view for the weekend was the galaxy cluster around N7331. Check this out on the way to Stephan's Quintet. I saw the mama galaxy as 7'x4' with a bright core of about 3'. There was clearly a dark lane on the preceding edge of the galaxy and with averted vision some mottling in the middle of the following edge. In the same FOV there are 4 galaxies (mag 13.3-15.8) that crown N7331 to the east. N7335 is elongated with a brighter core, -36 is a small smudge, -37 was the only galaxy that required averted vision, and had the look of a haloed double star, -40 was brighter slightly with a slightly larger halo around a stellar nucleus. To the northwest 1 FOV is an anonymous galaxies (mislabeled in some charts as N7325-26) round fuzzy and easy.

The site has great southern horizons (4000 feet down to the Pacific) so I headed to Sculptor next. The huge needle galaxy N253 (30'x5') at 180x was so intertwined in dark lanes and bright regions in the area west of the core I called it the Swiss cheese galaxy. I like to vary my objects so that my ability to appreciate detail remains fresh (after 2 hours of small, round, faint and fuzzy, galaxy hunting loses its luster for me) so I moved on to N6888 (Crescent) an elusive object for me in the past. I suspected this at 90x without a filter and with the OIII I found I was indeed in the right spot. I might rename this Van Gough's nebula, the wispy outer crescent and muddled interior seem to me to be an ear floating through space (hey it was getting late). I jumped next to the Cocoon, the poor placement on the edge of the H-B atlas and my late night brain combined to quickly frustrate me and I left this for my trip in October.

I surely couldn't get lost finding the planets so I set my sights a little closer to home. The week before I finally had a night the showed some of my scope's planetary capabilities on Jupiter. Rick Singmaster is proud of what his reflectors can do on planets and now "I'm a believer." This night Saturn was the winner - crisp, eerie with the gray Crepe ring clearly encircling the orb. My last look with everything put away but the trusty 12 Nag. and Big Barlow was a rainbow (ok so I'm exaggerating a bit) view of the Orion Nebula. The greens grays reds were so stunning I almost broke out the eye case again but I always like to close my eyes before dawn begins to fool my body into thinking it's had a whole nights rest.