Great Night in the Foothills!

by John Gleason

That was really quite a night.

Venus, at ~450X was most impressive early on in the 6" f/7 AP. Pearl colored with darkening along the terminator. Mars, although mostly lacking in surface detail, was the sharpest I have seen all season. The planet was a solid, butterscotch colored, gibbous disk with faint traces of surface shadows. Best viewed with Steve Gottlieb's Pentax 5.2 SMC and AP convertible barlow. That is one fine eyepiece. I was amazed how well this eyepiece worked on clusters, galaxies, planetaries in conjunction with the 6 inch. Loved the adjustable exit pupil and tack sharp, color free star images.

Epsilon Lyrae looked like a pair of oncoming truck headlights. Solid airy disks in the occasional subarcsecond seeing.

Got to see the supernovae in M88, the Imperial Star Destroyer, and a memorable view of the Ring nebula in Gottlieb's 17.5". Was that a twinkle of the central star I witnessed?

Finally, a great, quiet night under the stars. Only the sound of crickets and an occasional "Yahoo!" punctuated the darkness.