by Jamie Dillon
Paul's right, we had a great time. Two solid hours of bright windy skies. Plus the level of humor was high.
Second fugitive night in a row for me. Had pulled Felix into the yard soon's I got home from work Friday night. Jo and Liam took ganders at Jupiter and Saturn, never get old. The dew was serious, but I got to explore the top of Orion's sword, which was my one goal. Susan French (Jan 00) and Alan Robertson (Jan 98) in Sky and Telescope had included tours of these 2 degrees of sky. Got the two clusters at the north end of the sword sorted out, NGC 1977, an open patch of bright big stars, then NGC 1981, the tall W. Didn't catch the nebulosity in 1977, but mind you this was a night when M1 was a faint pale blur with no structure. Transparency was 4.0, seeing fair to poor.
Saturday night the seeing was moderate to fair, real variable with the wind, the transparency was 5.0 at best. Fun level was 10/10. Jason was showing real talent locating M31, then M41 and splitting doubles with his needle sharp optics.
My one intriguing find was studying NGC 3077, one of the M81 group, just SE of M81. At that moment M81 and M82 were showing all kinds of structure. I'd seen 3077 from Pacheco, but here I was finding more structure (changes in the observer). It looked like a spread-out elliptical with irregular projections. Sure enough, in Burnham's it's described as an E2, Ip: a slightly tipped elliptical, just off face-on, with peculiar shape, mag 11. I love this stuff.
The night was way worth it. Company was jovial, great companionship.
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