Equipment: 18" (0.457m) F/4.5 dob reflector, various widefield eyepieces for magnifications ranging from 51x to 290x, plus a 2.5x barlow for magnifications up to 725x, and broadband/narrowband/O-III line filters. Sky Atlas 2000 (Tirion) and SA 2000 Companion were used as the references unless otherwise noted.

Weather/Sky: The sky was hazy at sunset with bands of cirrus moving in the from the northwest; it looked somewhat threatening from an observing perspective. These continued throughout the evening, but the easterly wind cleared the haze away quickly after dark. The seeing was quite good however, much better than the previous Friday evening, and occasionally it would snap to exquisite sharpness. Limiting magnitude estimated at 5.6 by Paul S. based on star counts in Ursa Minor, but I suspect that the sky was darker than this overhead and to the southeast based on the general aspects of the sky.

Paul Sterngold and I gave a whirl to observing and photography at Del Valle Regional Park Wednesday evening January 13, 1999. It was not the best of nights, but after 1998 anything with more stars than Old Glory is a welcome sight. Paul had set up his 5" Meade Refractor that has gotten many high marks for optical quality of late, with the intent to photograph various deep-sky objects. I came to look as usual, in my quest to see every object in Sky Atlas 2000 while seeing other unlisted denizens of the sky along the way.

Normally, my rather vague observing program would typically include lots of galaxies (the staple, the bread-and-butter of many observer's visual diets), but this evening I thought, in light of the attention recently being paid among local astronomers to the Herschel 400 list and it's galactic/open clusters, it would be fun to snack on a few of these and some other tasty tidbits such as nebulae. I have traditionally ignored most open clusters - for some reason they just don't have the glamour of a showy emission nebula or an intense globular cluster - but I think a person cannot claim to be an all-around observer without a hefty helping of these lean side dishes to complement the extragalactic entrees. So with that, I dug in with relish...

Observations

Name	Constellation	Mag.	Description
NGC 1027	Cassiopeia	6.7	OC bright and medium-sized with a lovely smattering of stars at 92x, one bright star estimated at about mag. 9.
Melotte 15	Cassiopeia	7.9	About 40 stars with a wide range in brightness, brightest star mag. 7.9. Involved in emission nebula (EN) IC 1805, a very large patch that was invisible even when viewed with filters in this sky; EN IC 1795, about 0.75 degree to the northwest, was faintly bit plainly visible however with an O-III filter, size about 20' x 20'.
IC 1848	Cassiopeia		Very large poor cluster, only 10 stars and elongated in shape; this object too is involved in a large EN 30' x 60' in extent, which was visible as mottling of the sky using an O-III filter on a 40mm MK-70 eyepiece.
IC 286/PK138 +02.1	Cassiopeia	13.2	Planetary Nebula (PN), 34" diameter and visible both with and without O-III filter at magnifications ranging from 92x to 290x. It bore a smooth disc and a barely visible apparent ring structure. This was a fairly easy, lovely object in it's rather rich starfield.
IC 1747	Cassiopeia	12	PN, 13" diameter and visible as a mottled disc with a hint of ring structure, compact and bright in a fairly rich starfield.
M78 (NGC 2068)	Orion		This fan/comet-shaped reflection nebula involving two bright stars and a third dimmer star was easy to spot, but it's many small companion nebulae in the heart of Orion (NGCs 2064, 2068 and 2071) were virtually invisible both with and without filters; I suspect that these require a *very transparent* sky, which was not available that night.
IC 2162	Orion		EN in east Orion, very faint mottling against background at 92x with an O-III filter, quite large in extent.
NGC 2169	Orion	5.9	OC, at 92x I counted 20 bright stars in two distinct halves; a most interesting and attractive cluster.
NGC 2194	Orion	8.5	a rich and lovely OC in E. Orion, 80 stars in an irregular pattern, approximately a jagged C-shape.
NGC 2141	Orion	9.4	OC, very rich cluster consisting of about 100 faint stars all mag. 13 or dimmer, appears as a diffuse glow with a few superimposed bright stars. It almost has the appearance of a nebula and could be mistaken as such.
Abell 12	Orion		PN lying so close to a fourth magnitude star in Orion, benefits in two ways from an O-II filter; first, to increase the contrast of the object and second, to dim the brilliant star that lies practically on top of it. At 290x, the PN showed a smooth and round fuzzy disc practically in the glow of the star itself.
Abell 21 (The Medusa Nebula)	Gemini		PN, the Medusa, is a large irregular-C-shaped object that can reveal considerable detail in a dark and stable sky. At this time of the night the sky was stable but not fully dark, and so the object was rather faint; yet it presented a better view than at dark Fremont Peak on a windy night in December, because the still atmosphere allowed finer detail to come out. Within the visible 3/4 arc of the PNs ring, considerable variation in thickness of the ring was seen with some faint stranding and variation in brightness. I look forward to seeing this under superb conditions.
M42, The Great Orion Nebula	Orion		Never have I seen this nebula so beautifully as in January 1999. Up until this month I have had a few lingering doubts about the 18" scope because it had always given less-than-sharp views of the Trapezium of M42; but by now the atmosphere had fully settled down, and the Trapezium easily presented all six brighter stars unambiguously and cleanly at every magnification from 92x to 290x. Last Friday evening we had exceptional views as well, with some viewers (all in fact, except me!) noticing reddish fringes on the outer portions of the nebula's wings with the customary brilliant blue-green in the central area. The children in the group especially found the red easy and striking. This night, the clarity of the sky was not quite as good but the seeing made up fully for that shortcoming.
NGC 2392, (The Eskimo Nebula)	Gemini		PN, very bright and distinctive. The seeing was so good by this time that it easily took 725x using a 7 Nagler and the barlow. The central star, the archetypal PN ring, and the outer fringed "hood" with radial striations were all evident and cleanly defined. Extraordinary.
NGC 2360	Canis Major		Near M46 and M47, this lovely rich OC contains 80 stars that fit perfectly in a 92x field.
NGC 2440	Puppis		PN, quite bright, about 18" diameter, pretty at 290x. At its low elevation, this PN did not show quite the detail that I have observed in the past, but it's double-lobe and central brightening were discernible if fuzzy. Under good conditions this is a beautifully detailed object and one of my favorites.
IC 2165	Canis Major		PN, 4" diameter, very high surface brightness at mag. 10.5. At 92x it was almost stellar, but it flashed readily using an O-III filter and it was easily identified. At 290x its disc became more obvious and even betrayed a possible darkening in the center.