Sunday September 20th I went observing near Plymouth California in California's Gold Rush country. My companions were the staff of the San Francisco Orion Telescope store. We struck cosmic gold over and over during a spectacular all-night observing session. Our seeing conditions were very good. The observing site was very dark.

Former Tacite Matt Tarlach was using two scopes - a 6 inch F5 Orion Skyview Deluxe Reflector - its first light ever - I don't think this scope is even in the catalog yet! And he also was using a Vixen 120mm refractor. Other scopes included a C-11, a VISAC 200mm F9 Cassegrain on a G-11 Losmandy mount, an 80mm Vixen flourite refractor and another Visac Cassegrain on a GP mount. Plus 30 X 125 fork mounted binos and some 15 X 70 binos. I rounded out the startools with my 12.5 inch LITEBOX reflector, Strider, the only scope with a name.

Mr. Barnard's discoveries played a significant role in our observing projects on this night. We started with Barnard 86 and the mag 7.6 open cluster, NGC 6520 in Sagittarius. The inky dark nebula and pretty cluster are my seasonal favorites.

Mag 8.8 NGC 6822, Barnard's Galaxy - a large elongated galaxy with low surface brightness of mag 14.5 is a difficult target. Nearby, a little planetary ring, misidentified as the Little Gem at first, NGC 6818 shone a mag 9.4 bluish haze.

While swimming in the silvery Saggitarius Milky Way, I looked at M-8 and NGC 6530, paying attention to the hourglass area and the H-II regions. Nearby "M" objects were all savored for perhaps a last look this season. Goodby Trifid, with your dark rifts. Using the Ultrablock and then the O-III filter on some of the objects yielded spectacular vistas! M-16 and M-17 in particular had three dimensional appearances at 202X in my 22 Panoptic eyepiece.

All the Planetary Nebulae with the big names were spotted and then savoured using the two different filters. NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula, NGC 3918, the Blue Flash Nebula, NGC 6308, the Box Nebula, NGC 6543, the Cats Eye Nebula - hoo boy - I sure do like this one!, NGC 6720, the Ring Nebula, and NGC 6853,the Dumbbell were awe inspiring, especially through the O-III filter! The Cork, NGC 650 (or M-76) a crazy double-lobed glowing peanut with the help of the O-111 filter is a fun visual treat.

I also completed my list of a few remaining Herschel 400 objects in Sagittarius and Ophiuchus while I had the opportunity. NGC 6369 in Ophiuchus, the beautuful mag 11.4 (or is it 14.7) Little Ghost nebula was among my favorite finds as was, NGC 6440 in Sagittarius, a nice round mag 9.7 cluster and 20 arcminutes to the north, NGC 6445, the mag 11.2 Little Gem Nebula.

The Helix Nebula, mag 7.3 NGC 2625 in Aquarius was on everyone's visual and photo project list this evening. And it did not dissappoint us. At low power and with the O-III, the rough and tangled borders of the helical shape were revealed. This object is the closest planetary to us.

While waiting for the winter wonderland of Orion and his friends to rise higher in the sky, we took a diversion and switched eyes for a while. Eyepatches were moved to shield our "deep sky" eye. We were saving our precious night vision for a special target later in the morning.

First a diversion. NGC 6633 is an open cluster in Ophiuchus. Best viewed in a wide-field at low magnification, the 30 star loose cluster, at mag 4.7 resembles a ...retreiver? a west highland terrier? Anyway, it looks just like a miniature Canis Major, complete with ears, snout, bared teeth, 4 legs (long or short, depending on your doggie preference, the stars are there to support either view) and a tail! It's at RA 18:27:7 Dec -06 34. I'd like to know what you see! We whistled, we called "here doggy" and it trotted right into the eyepiece!

Our second diversion, was really our nitecap, but fits nicely here. NGC 2362 in Canis Major is a lovely open cluster surrounding Tau Canis Majoris. I call it the Dog Butt cluster, because of its anatomical canine location. Actually, a friend named it, not me. It is the youngest of all star clusters. Burnham has alot of information about this interesting cluster.

Back to work, sated with coffee and malted milk balls and a fun dog run. This was a good time for a luxurious look at the Veil Nebula and environs. First the NGC 6960 - ribbony part on either side of 52 Cygni. Tattered and lacy, this supernova remnant always gives me the shivers when I imagine the explosive force which created it. But the ropy part, NGC 6992, which one of my observing partners called the smokey part, is a chunky curve of wondrous nebulosity. Wispy tendrils, silvery knots, weaving in and out of the dark, this has to be the showstopper object of all times! I think it is my favorite visual object. A poll in the morning over pancakes at a mom and pop diner in a historic town revealed this was everyone's favorite object on this trip. It's nice to observe with a group that appreciates the sheer beauty of astronomy.

M-33, Pelican, North American Nebula, NGC 6826 - the Blinking Planetary were all easy at high power with filters as was oval shaped planetary nebula NGC 7008, and then on to Andromeda. M31 showed three dimensional curvy edges we had never seen before. The southern tip revealed NGC 206, a star cloud - not a difficult object. Companion galaxy M-32, NGC 185, 205 and 147 are bright objects, as well as clusters in the Northern tip. Most amazing to us was the hook-like curve backwards of the northern tip of the great spiral. Clusters were easy to see here, but that curvy tip and two prominent dust lanes made for a memorable view at 202X in my scope. NGC 7662, the elliptical blue snowball planetary was on my list, another favorite. NGC 891 is a rich beauty with the dust lane bisecting its edge-on middle.

There were other finds and other projects, but earth was racing towards dawn. We had some special projects yet. Jupiter showed us red barges, blue festoons and white ovals. And Europa and Io ended and or began occultations, which we stopped to view. Variable Algol - the demon star, dimmed noticably this morning - and we were able to watch as it happen! The planets looked the very best through Marshall's C-11. I liked that scope alot!

Familiar Gemini, Orion, Taurus, Auriga, Canis Major and Minor began their move into prime viewing position. We flexed our muscles. Gemini's M-35 and NGC 2158, the dainty cluster nearby. NGC 2392, the Eskimo nebula was located, a wintery favorite. M-1, the Crab, a shredded "S" shaped ghost-like apparition rose from the treetops. The Pleiades - wrapped in their nebulous cloak, shone blue. NGC 2237, The Rosette nebula, big, beautiful yet dim. M-42 at low power through both filters was incredible. In the 30 X 125 binos it was even better - etched into our dreams, it was so beautiful. On to NGC 1981 - the open cluster, M-78 a bright diffuse nebula. NGC 1977 - a few stars in a patch of nebulosity - both reflection and emission nebula, so the filters each gave a different and misleading view. NGC 247, 253, and 288 in Sextans were favorite targets of everyone.

Barnards Loop enveloped our hunting grounds like a corral. NGC 2024, the Flame nebula with its dark lane bisecting the firey brightness was a warm-up project. We were getting close, going in for the kill. Off came the nebula filters! On went the 16mm Nagler. Astro-Atlas opened to page C-53. Uranometria open to page 226. We were hunting the wild pony, Barnard 33 within IC 434, the horsehead nebula. We located the guide stars. We quietly discussed our target and location. We could taste success. It was about 3:30 or 4:00 am - but who was watching the clock? Well actually Casey was - to time photos of the Rosette Nebula and Barnard's Loop. The stretch of nebulosity known as IC 434 extends half a degree below Zeta Orionis, Alnitak. A triple star. We moved the brilliant star out of the field of view and removed the eyepatches. Matt saw it first. Not a wild and majestic pony as I had conjured in my imagination, not the sharp crisp image we see in photographs. We saw a little black sock. "It looks like a christmas stocking", Matt exclaimed. We each took turns looking or finding it anew; first Matt, then it was my turn, then Ken's turn. Each of us had captured the Horsehead nebula, the wild pony of the cosmos. No one uttered a word! We shuffled around, mesmerized. It was hard to concentrate on anything else, try though we might. My hunt for the Cone Nebula and Hubble's Variable Nebula was a fruitless waste of an hour.

We each went back to our projects, but exhaustion was conquering us. Our hunt was over, and brightness would soon creep into the eastern sky. We all slept a little. In the morning we discussed our favorite objects. The Veil Nebula. Jupiter especially the occultations. M-33 with its H-II regions. Dust lanes and clusters around M-31. The Flame Nebula. Saturn and the Crepe ring. Maybe spoke-like features or a darkening in the B-ring, maybe not. Oh, yeah, and the horsehead nebula.