Here are just a few of my December observing highlights on the flank of Hualalai Volcano and at South Point, both on the Big Island of Hawaii. The lowest point in the US, South Point is at 19 degrees latitude. This means some southern constellations and their be-jeweled treasures of galaxies, clusters, double stars and assorted nebulae were waiting to be seen through my travelscope, Strider. During December Strider traveled from California to Hawaii and back home and then on to Florida and back. Just like his namesake from the J. R. R. Tolkien novels, he really gets around and does good deeds where-ever he goes!

Bob Michael is a retired 747 Captain from UAL, and an avid amateur astronomer who splits his time between Boulder, Colorado and Holualoa, Hawaii. He has seen some great green flashes up there in the friendly skies. He was my next-door-neighbor for 10 days. Bob's garage was an astro dream come true - two 20 inch diameter Jerry Wilkinsen (retired from Galaxy Optics) mirrors which are mounted in the largest pair of binos I've ever seen. Bob also has an F4 20 inch Obsession (the Obsession plaque says it's number 4! - the fourth one made). Randy Cunningham from Astrosystems (both Jerry and Randy are members of the same Colorado Astronomy club as Bob) retrofitted the scope for the shorter focal length mirror. He also had a C-8 in the garage, and some four inch binos. I won't even go into his filters and eyepieces. Too many to mention! In Boulder, Bob has an observatory housing an 18 incher made by Obsession, I think. My 12.5 inch scope looked positively svelte and dainty next to the 20 incher!

Bob is known online as Two Dob Bob. He is one of amateur astronomy's treasures, in my opinion. I'm glad I met him, and his partner Linda Chew, and can't wait to go back and observe from his driveway again. Some observers just love to share their knowledge and their enthusiasm for visual astronomy with others.

Bob is one of those experienced observers who enjoys helping others reach new highs by sharing and showing what they know. The night we observed together we also guided some visitors from Germany around the universe.

Their knowledge about astronomy was nil, but was significantly enriched after our celestial tour. Imagine rolling your 20 inch Hawaiian scope out onto the driveway and grabbing the Horsehead nebula a half hour later - in shorts - in December! I also used Bob's scope a couple other nights alone and with Barry Peckham, also visiting Hawaii to participate in the Mauna Kea Club's Telescopes for Kids program. Those nights we went for other targets, and they'll make it into a different writeup.

It's worth a trip to the big island to see Bob's scopes and his observing log alone. Although he now keeps his log on the computer, his old binder, complete with cut out and taped images, sketches, star fields drawn by hand and each observing session where he located a certain object is incredible. His atlas - the laminated Sky Atlas is grease pencil marked up - using this version was like having a tour guide over your shoulder, or better yet, holding your hand. I almost felt like a voyeur, peeking through all the notes and scribbles.

On the garage wall is his recently earned Herschel 400 certificate from the Astronomical League. (The bino and lunar certificates were in Colorado, I think. Both Bob and Linda earned these as well!) Each night I observed (with his scopes or my own) I borrowed his log, even though I brought my own atlases, logs, and my own priceless (to me) binder. At nearly 19 degrees latitude, his driveway faced south, for an exquisite view of the southern constellations in the early evening, and the jewel laden Southern Cross and environs at 5am. Yes, of course I was up at 4 am with my own scope or the 20 incher as often as the skies permitted!

My project list for this trip included some objects in Canis Major I had not seen, Lupus, Columba, Eridanus and Fornax. I hoped to wake up before dawn to see the Southern Cross,and Eta Carina, NGC 3532. 47 Tucanae can be spotted in the murk by observers who climb Mauna Loa, the southern volcano known for the Kiluea eruption which has been flowing pretty much all the time sine 1982, and get high enough and look south. And I hoped to see the Tarantula Nebula, NGC 2070 from Mauna Kea. These last two didn't happen on this trip, however.

A few of my favorite observations happened the first night - Sunday December 13 thru the 20 inch Obsession. Magnification ranged from about 75X to 200X. Bob showed me an object I had not seen before. NGC 2359 in Canis Mjor is sometimes called Thor's Helmet or the Duck Nebula. It is one of Dreyer's very remarkable objects. An Emission Nebula located 4.3 degrees northeast of Gamma Canis Major, it is large (8'), with curving filaments - a little reminiscent of the Bubble Nebula, NGC 7635, but easier to see. I am surprised I didn't know this one already, or that I had not stumbled upon it, while nosing around Canis Major.

Although a nebula filter helps (we used Bob's OIII ) it looked pretty without the filter, too. I also found it in my 12.5 incher on another night, with the assistance of my Orion Ultrablock filter, the only one I brought with me to Hawaii! Bob called this one the Tadpole Nebula, and so will I. That's just exactly what it looks like. I can't find the magnitude, but I'm sure it's quite dim, and a dark sky is required. In its center is a Wolf-Rayet star, several times the size of the sun and thousands of times more luminous. I couldn't find the Tadpole in Florida the next week, but the sky wasn't dark where I was. It'll be my star party showpiece for a while now! I hope all of you who haven't seen this pretty object take a look while Canis Major is rising in the winter sky.

Next on my list of new conquests were the Fornax Cluster of Galaxies, and some in Eridanus, Columba and Caelum. January Astronomy Mag has an article about some of these. I started by starhopping down from Orion. Three visual double stars lead the way to Fornax and Eridanus.

NGC 1350 at mag 10.2 is a little north of the densest part of the cluster, and was my first starhop. It's a pretty barred spiral. The show stopper for me was NGC 1365, the most famous of the barred spirals, and twice as large and at 9.3, significantly brighter than 1350. The central halo is about 2', with a 4' bar. The spiral arms to the north and south make a "Z" shaped magnificent spiral. The center of the Fornax cluster yields 15 galaxies brighter than Mag 13. We did all 15 of these and more, using a chart for identification. (The Herald Bobroff Astro Atlas has a nice blowup of the region on pages C-70, 71 and 72, and even more detail on D-38, 39 and 40.) I sketched some of them. The objects we looked besides 1350 and 1365 were 1351, 1380, 1381, 1399 - 1404, 1427, 1437, 1374 - 75, 1379, 1387, 1350, 1351, 1326, 1317, 1316 and 1341. In any field of view we saw 5 or six galaxies easily. Three degrees east of Rigel is the Witch-Head Nebula, IC 2118. A crescent shaped misty wispy nebula. In the big scope we could see the witch's head. Next Columba's NGC 1851 is a gorgeous cluster - I just kept stumbling upon it.