| Reports | TAC | Join mailing list |
by Jamie Dillon
This past weekend we went camping in the hills just out of Mariposa, took along the binocs and tripod. These are my old Swift 7x50's, not fancy gear, but in fact the gear that got us into this whole stargazing thing over years.
Not that I didn't miss the 11" Dobs at all, but it was fun finding stuff with just the binocs again, going back to the Dawn Age before last January. Caught M13, M51, M5, got Albireo, Mizar and Cor Caroli to split, and discovered a big cluster in Sagittarius, which turned out to be M22 (first time I'd seen this cluster at all). Spent a long time scanning the Milky Way in Cygnus, an old favorite thing to do.
By the way, does anyone have a name for that pretty asterism, the arc of stars around gamma Cyg (Sadr)? It deserves one.
The big discovery of the weekend was the second night, Saturday, just because I woke up enough to look upward every couple of hours or so. Fall and winter had intervened since I'd last slept outdoors, during which time I'd started to systematically learn the constellations. Sure I'd seen them come up in the East and move West, But Saturday night was the first time I'd seen them wheeling! Watching Cygnus esp pivot thru the night, it was astounding to see the stars roll around Polaris.
Early Sunday AM I poked my head up to see Saturn and Jupiter. Not being a morning person, this was the first reunion with Jupiter and the moons (kept the binocs and tripod by the ground cloth). Saw the Double Cluster naked eye for the first time.
Implicit is the point of this being a good spot, an easy 2.5 hours out of Salinas, good dark skies. And the astro gear fits in the backpack.
Much comma later, hope to report from Myrtle Beach and the Eastern Shore.