Friday night

by Dennis Beckley


Friday night at Fiddletown was one of those nights that I live for as an amateur astronomer. Maximum darkness and transparency, decent seeing, no dew or wind, and great company!

I got there about 5:15 with just enough daylight to get started setting up before having to resort to the flashlight for the finishing touches. I was a little apprehensive before leaving Benicia because of the approaching weather system but since I'm trying to complete my Herschel II list in one year I've got to keep up with the seasons or spend all my time looking for dim fuzzies along a light-polluted western horizon.

Rashad and an Orion SF rep, named Casey soon joined me. It was the perfect company because both had a lot of infectious enthusiasm to keep me going all night long. Rashad is truly amazing - I'd tell him which NGC H2 object I was going after next and within less than a minute Rashad had it centered in his scope (How does he do that?). Casey's interest is in astrophotography and he spent the night shooting multiple shots while painstakingly guiding his scope while stretched out on the ground (good thing tarantula season is over!). I heard he had some donuts so I went over about midnight to bum one. He has this neat pair of eye glasses with small side lights that he got from ACE Hardware that he's covered with red gel so he can work hand's free. I couldn't help stifling a chuckle because he reminded me of Capt'n Picard when he was briefly a Borg with that red laser eyeball!

What a night! Twenty one H2's (5 in Triangulum, 2 in Aries, and 14 in Perseus). That plus Supernova Plettstone 1999, the Horsehead Nebula and 6 stars in the Trapezium!

At 5:00 in the morning or so, Casey and I were the last one's standing - munching on the last donut and watching the thinnest of crescent moon's arising in the east framed by the pines, with a bright Venus over the top and beautiful Arcturus just off to the NE.

At dawn's light I was packed up and heading back down the winding Sierra Gold Country road through sleeping Fiddletown - already looking forward to Tuesday night (and the predicted weather break) to bag those H2 objects in Eridanus, Taurus and Auriga. What a great hobby!