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Even though the weather reports made the trip to the Sierra foothills "ify," I went charging anyway. What I got was 4+ hours of pristine dark skies.
My first object was to capture NGC 2964 which had alluded me at the Peak (remember, Richard??). No wonder I couldn't see the pair of galaxies (+2968) at the Peak; those guys were faint! Steve Gottlieb showed me how the stars made a "V" (like ducks flying south) that pointed right to the faint fuzzies. Bingo!
I went on to Virgo and ended up with 15 objects there--and it was fun!. NGC 4536 gave me the award for the night. The pair was just one degree above imagination (OK, mine). I don't know how my eyes caught them, but it revived some faith in my observing.
As Virgo was getting too far west (traveling 15 degrees/hour--right, Steve?), I turned to Ophiuchus. I started with NGC 6369, a planetary neb at 14 mag. It actually was a piece of cake to find. Cutest little guy! Steve said it is called, The Gem. He pumped it up on his scope and you could see the annulus properties. Just gorgeous!! I located 5 more objects, globular clusters, and as always, the last object I wanted to find before the moon rose, NGC 6235, alluded me. I seem to get one a night. That will be my first hit in July.
The seeing was so steady, I saw Venus as clear and steady as if it were the moon. With John Gleason's 6" refractor and Steve Gottlieb's 5mm eye piece, Venus was the best I've ever seen it. Mars, too! Other memorable objects in John's scope was M82. Wow! In Steve's, the Ring Nebula was bigger than life and actually showed color--I swear!!! It was greenish! It was better than any Hubble photo I've seen! Steve had others that he can tell you about, but there is always something exciting in his scope. I can't remember the "Death Star" galaxy (or whatever John named it), but that was most impressive with detail. What was that galaxy, Steve?
I made a sweep of Sagittarius (just to say hello to an old friend) before the moon rose. Along with Cygnus, it looked like a real summer sky. Although we didn't need jackets, with the weather we have been having, it still seems like winter. So, seeing the summer sky felt odd to me. M5, M4, M9, M13 were 3D bright and beautiful due to the clear dark night. What a night! So serene and peaceful, I moved through the constellations effortlessly. Here's hoping for no thunderstorms at Lassen this year!
As we were taking our first peak at Venus, each of us on our own scopes, Steve and I let out a yelp because we saw something tres bizarre pass right by Venus moving upward--no, Richard, it was not the mothership, but maybe her baby. This object was traveling at a fairly high rate of speed, but I was able to track it with my dob. It was round, dark gray and moving at a consistent speed and in one direction. The direction was moving east as my scope would be tilting higher and higher as I tracked it. Our first thought was a weather balloon, but I don't think they use them any more (plus it was really moving!). I think it was too high up to see if there was any texture to it, but I may be wrong on that point. Steve or John will have to comment on that.
No one had ever seen such an object before. Any guesses or answers? Master Bruce Jensen, any weather equipment?