Telescope - 18" F/4.5 Starmaster dob at various powers from 51 to 290 diameters. Weather - partly to mostly cloudy, including high level cirrus, altocumulus and low-level haze. Windy early, then calmer, and dew formation. Temperatures low to mid 40's.

Approximately seven astronomers from the San Francisco Bay Area Astronomy Connection (TAC) group conducted a brief observing session on Saturday, November 14 at Pacheco State Park, California (elevation 1,350 feet, 411 meters). The weather was less than ideal, with a good deal of cloudiness and wind, and for the most part rather poor atmospheric stability, but in the substantial breaks between the sky was fair and allowed this astronomer to fill in a few blanks in his log. It was not, overall, the most inspiring night this observer has seen, although under good conditions Pacheco State Park ranks with the best Bay Area observing sites. The constellation Cetus was the focus for the evening, although there was a nice surprise in store as the evening progressed.

The first object, and jumping off point for the evening's star hop, was the planetary nebula NGC 246. This is a big planetary nebula and not a difficult object for most scopes from 6" and up, but on this evening the atmospheric conditions made it fairly dim. A narrow-band light pollution filter improved the view quite a lot, bringing out it's more-or-less annular shape with some irregularity obvious toward the center. This nebula also has four pretty bright stars that appear to be superimposed on it's surface, one of which may be the central star.

Thence, to many galaxies - magnitudes are all visual; these plus other pertinent information are taken from SkyAtlas 2000 Companion.

NGC 255, mag. 11.8, small faint round glow with slight central brightening, about 88 million light years (LY) distant.

NGC 309, mag. 11.8, spiral galaxy, faint with slight mottling that suggested a hint of spiral structure, 250 million LY distant. A new galaxy for this observer.

NGC 337, mag 11.6, fairly bright large elongated galaxy with some brightening toward the center. Also a new galaxy.

NGC's 274 and 275, mags. 11.8 and 12.5 respectively, both fairly bright and obvious due to compact size and high surface brightness, as well as their very close juxtaposition. They are interacting galaxies and comprised the most splendid view of the night. NGC 274 was very small, round, and with a VERY bright nucleus, almost starlike, while it's companion NGC 275 was a slightly fainter oval haze with little central brightening. There was a nice view of these galaxies at 290 diameters, at a distance of 80 million LY. (CHECK NUMBERS ON THESE). Also new.

NGC 268, mag 13.1, the faintest object for the evening, was a faint small oval haze with a nearly undetectable brightening near the center. Curiously, higher power made this object less visible. It is 244 million LY distant. Also new.

NGC 245, mag. 12.2, faint and small with a bright nucleus, 194 million LY distant.

At that point, Mark Wagner reminded us that the new Comet 1998/U5 (LINEAR) was visible in outburst in the constellation Camelopardalis at about magnitude 8 to 9. We swung our telescopes in that direction, and sure enough, verily racing across the stars near the nice open cluster Stock 23, was a little fuzzball of a comet with an elongation of the coma toward the south that strongly suggested a tail of sorts. The comet appeared easily in the same low-power view with Stock 23, and it made a fine sight. At higher power the tail was more easily seen, although this observer could see little additional detail near the nucleus. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the comet was the way it's motion could be detected over time frames as small as a few minutes - it really charged across the starfield, and some observers suspected that it's motion could be seen while watching for a few seconds. This was a nice little comet, and a fine surprise for evening.

After this, several easier objects were logged - among these, the great spiral galaxy NGC 253 in Sculptor, showing some mottling but not great detail due to the seeing conditions; the Messier objects M1 (the Crab Nebula), M57 (Ring Nebula), M27 (Dumbbell Nebula), M33 (Pinwheel Galaxy), the Crescent Nebula (which yielded a fine view due to it's position nearly overhead), and Jones 1, a faint planetary nebula that has recently become a favorite object. On this evening, the sky conditions made the image of Jones 1 rather washed out despite it's favorable position overhead and the use of an O-III filter, which usually makes the object quite visible.

After some more views of Comet LINEAR crossing the starry background, four more new galaxies finished off the evening.

NGC 151, mag. 11.6, had a small but bright nucleus at a distance of 163 million LY.

NGC 157, mag. 10.4, was a quite bright oval haze, as bright as some Messier objects, and was easily visible although without a well-defined nucleus.

Finally, a wide pair of galaxies that are the brightest members of a group, NGCs 210 and 178, mags. 10.9 and 12.6 respectively. These were both fairly easy, however, no other galaxies were readily apparent in the field; a better night might have showed more members of this group.

This wrapped up the serious observing at around 9:20 PM for this observer. It was a fairly satisfying short evening despite the weather, in part thanks to the sighting of the comet but in larger part due to the wonderful company of the other astronomers present. May drier and more dependable weather prevail soon!