The satellite pictures were so encouraging Saturday afternoon that I headed off to Coe despite the clouds still present in the sky. I arrived about 6:45 pm and found only 2 other optimists in the parking lot. Paul Levere had already set up his nice newly finished 12.5 inch Dob. Phil Chambers had a C11 still in his truck, and was getting satellite and e-mail updates with his laptop and wireless modem. When I first arrived Jupiter was only dimly through the high clouds, but the skies began to improve steadily. By 7:30 or so, the winter constellations had emerged in all there glory and it looked like we had a good night coming. We all began observing happily, and enjoyed clear skies for an hour or so. Paul was even encouraged enough to set up his new Meade 8 inch SCT. Four scopes going at once proved to be too much for the skies, however. Nearly as soon as Paul was done aligning,the clouds were back in force. By 9 pm, not a star or planet was visible in the sky, and dew was beginning to build up heavily on everything.
I moved the solid tube of my 7 inch Starmaster Oak Classic into the car but left the base outside, hoping that conditions would improve. I ate a bit, read a bit, and looked up some objects in my observing logs and charts. After forty-five minutes or so with no change, Phil and Paul finally began to pack up. We chatted and munched on fudge cookies that Phil had brought. Just before 10 the skies began to tease again. Phil and Paul were now fully packed, and decided to call it a night. With the usual perversity of winter skies, the stars began bursting forth again just as they were warming their engines. As Paul and Phil's taillights went out of the parking lot and down the hill, I dropped the Starmaster tube back in its base, and found myself under clear dark skies for the second time that night.
Low clouds and fog in the valley suppressed much of the light glow to the west for the rest of the niqht. Temperatures ran in the mid 40s, with not much wind. Nice conditions, except dew was everywhere: scope, charts, chair, finder, etc. If I hadn't had a solid tube Dob, I wouldn't have made it very long. (Actually, if I didn't have a zero set up time, solid tube Dob, I would have already driven off down the hill with the others). As it was, the simple battery-powered resistor setup I described last year around the time of the Messier marathon did a fine job keeping the finder clear (see construction notes in "Swimming a Marathon," March 1999 TAC archives) . The primary and secondary mirror stayed clear all night, protected by the solid tube of the Starmaster. The only problem I had was slow fogging of the eyepiece. I found I could solve that by switchinq eyepieces from time to time, and warming the unused eyepiece in a pocket. That is a nuisance, however and I need to rig up some resistors or heat rope for the eyepiece to match the setup for the finder.
And what to observe when you finally have clear dark skies in February? I started with some old favorites in Orion, Canis Major, Puppis and Monocerus. M42 was a delight. Six stars in the trapezium were easy (though E and F were brighter in Phil's C11 earlier), and the NGC 2024 nebula near Zeta Orionis was detectable as twin light separated by a dark lane (also brighter in Paul's12.5 earlier). The Tau cluster in the tail of CMa was tight, sparkly, and brilliant. I put in a 35 mm Celestron Ultima eyepiece to view the Rosette. An OIII filter really helped bring out the wreath of nebulosity surrounding open cluster 2244. Without the filter, the nebulosity was still detectable but only as a grey, muted, star-poor region The nearly 2 degree field of view of the 35 mm eyepiece was great for exploring the M46/47 region. The striking contrast in richness and brightness between these clusters, and the planetary nebula (2438) at the edge of M46, are wonderful. Two other contrasting clusters are found to the north. 2423 ls large and coarse, while the more distant Melotte 71 is smaller and very concentrated. This region is one of the best places in the sky to see the variety and beauty of star clusters.
I started the Herschel 400 last year, and am about 3/4 done with the list. I missed a bunch of objects in both UMa and Virgo during the rainy season last spring, however, and am now looking for chances to fill in the gaps. Last night I turned to Ursa Major for some H400 galaxy hunting. NGC 2787,2976, 2985, and 3077 were all easy to find in the area near M81,82. M81 and M82 stole the show however. I hadn't looked at them recently under dark skies and I uttered an audible WOW as the two giant interacting galaxies floated in the eyepiece last night. Back in the bowl of the big dipper, NGC 3610 and 3613 both made nice companions to a small trapezium of stars. (Both galaxies were close enough to this stellar quadrangle to remind me of dimmer E and F components of the real trapezium. Too bad the positions are different)
I picked up several other new galaxies and double stars, but then the wind began to pick up. When my favorite Vixen zoom eyepiece steamed up yet again around 1 am, I decided to call it a niqht. Fog was hugging the lower edge of the parking lot as I packed up, but the skles were still clear and if anything getting darker as low clouds thickened over the valley below. I was back in Palo Alto by 2:15 am, happy to have gotten in several good hours of observing after lots of recent clouds and rain.
-David Kingsley (optimist).