by Jamie Dillon
Heartiest congratulations to Nilesh and Paul for doing a virtuoso marathon. Don'll be proud of the new guys.
Aperture Man, that knowledge of the galaxy hop between 6 Coma and rho Virginis is all of a week old. The route thru Markarian's Chain was the way Wags had shown it to me last Saturday week. Memory still green, after those 2 hours barely breathing, there for the first time.
April first was a huge night for me, too. Knowing I was no way doing a marathon, the focus was on the big galaxies in Ursa Major and Canes Venatici. In all, logged 14 new Messiers and 8 new NGC's. 14 Messier objects still to go for that AL certificate.
There was some high comedy in store. M71 in Sagitta was on the to-do list several nights last summer, who can say why? Got that pretty puppy finally. M9 and M62 were more serious: I'd spent a chunk of my youth hunting those tight globs last summer and fall. Jeff Blanchard can tell you about teeth-gnashing up to Cone Peak. Got those two as well, with a victory lap around the two companion globulars around M9.
M72 and M73 I'd seen thru Jeff Nowell's scope in front of the Observatory last spring, and I had no intention of hunting them in the pre-dawn. But all that hooting from Nilesh and Paul got me going. Paul helped out huge, when theta Cap was barely naked-eye, with sunwash advancing. Nailed M72 and found M73 in a hurry, the only rushing I'd done all night (being allergic to such enterprise).
You know, compadres, the transparency was 5.0 thru the night, 5.5 at best, and the seeing was good-moderate. (Using an 11" f/4.5 Dobs, with a 22 Panoptic and a 17mm Celestron Plossl. The seeing left the 6mm Radian out of the loop, except for those globs in Ophiuchus.) But oh the weather, like eating chocolate for us survivors of winter. Four of us had our kids there, and they all had a big time. And you just can't say enough about the companionship, all the way to Rich and me shooting the breeze quietly after sunup. Nancy, Nilesh, Paul and I formed a beginner's corner, with Jay quietly working over behind his van. And the infield chatter of Sterngold and Navarrete makes for a great background. New people and old - Andy, Jim, Karinna (sp?), Baldwin - Glenn and Maria back after the winter. On and on.
There was actually some big astronomical excitement thrown in, exploring M106 and its outrunners. Never seen it before, a captivating big spiral. SkyAtlas showed a cluster of satellite galaxies right there, so there was the work of a very fun hour. With averted vision I found the one that sits right on top of M106, NGC 4248. So I ambled over to Mark W with the big one and asked to take a comparing look. Now just over the same distance from M106 was another galaxy that to my eyes was dim in the 18. Mark pointed out 4220, over a short ways, a lovely feathery spiral. Also oohed and aahed over 4217 with its foreground stars.
Back to Felix, running over the field. And damned if that dim little thing didn't show up about 20% of the time with averted vision! Hollered at LeFevre, and sure enough he saw it too. Turns out to be 4231-2, a pair of spirals with combined magnitude of 14.
Several things are good about this. 14 is the theoretical limit of an 11" Dobs, and this was not a killer night. Neither Paul nor I are near our potential, either. Plus, this was a magnitude past my earlier best of the week before. So aesthetically, and in terms of eye athletics, this was fun and deadly encouraging.
Paul was right, this is the gang of one's dreams. Couldn't have been more fun.