by David Smith
I was at Coe Saturday night, too, on the northwest edge. It seems to have been a good night for NGC 891, as I picked it up for the first time too. Also NGC 2683 and 2841, the latter being visible in my 50mm finder. These could have been Messier objects.
There were a couple of objects I spent a lot of time looking for with no joy. One was NGC 1232, a galaxy in Eridanus. I noted that there were two explanations for this: The Gilroy light bubble, and the star chart not matching the real sky. SA2000 (1st ed.) sometimes is maddening in this way. The other object I couldn't see was NGC 7635, a PN in Cass. Maybe the sky was just too bright for it. Bruce Jensen was showing PN Pease-1 in M15 with his 18" Dob, but I couldn't discern it. Bad eyes, I guess.
I met Maria and Glen, who were exhibiting the Veil nebula through an O-III filter. They had an Ultrablock, too, so we spent some time comparing them to each other, my broadband LPR filter, and no filter. That was pretty interesting. The punch line: O-III was a little better on that object than the Ultrablock; the Veil was hardly noticeable without any filter; and the brodband filter was in between none and the narrowbands. It was obvious in the broadband, but not as clear and contrasty.
I added 5 objects to my life list of things I have found for myself, which may be low compared to what some people report they did, but I had fun.