by Richard Ozer
Coe, on Sunday night, had exceptional viewing and it was a treat to catch that unsurpassed view of M51 in Bruce's scope. I was after a handful of planetaries and globular clusters, interspersed with revisiting some objects I've only recently found (such as Ghost of Jupiter... thanks to Mark for showing me where that was, a few weeks back).
One object particularly worth persuing was NGC 2419, otherwise known as the Intergalactic Wanderer. This is a mag 10.4 globular cluster in Lynx that is off by itself, alongside some mag 5 stars. It's a very sizable globular, and is a good example of Mark's recent post on why many large Globulars appear faint.
While in Lynx, I swung over to Gemini to take a look at the Eskimo Nebula NGC 2392, which showed a great amount of detail. Bruce pointed out NGC 2371 (also in Gemini), a mag 13 planetary (which I was surprised to see at all in my scope), that is visible from the side (much like the dumbell).
Both Bruce and I pointed our scopes at the Antennae Galaxies which were somewhat disappointing, but while in the area, I took a look at NGC 4361, a bright planetary in Corvus.
It was a short night for me, as I had to work the next day, but one worth remembering. For me, it was probably the first night of really good seeing under a dark sky since last year.