The night of 23/4 September 2000 at Coe started off somewhat windy before sunset, but the wind died down by dark. The night was fairly warm and dry. For the first few hours the sky was cruddy. It was best to the North and East. Later, as the night wore on towards moonrise, viewing improved.
I had two goals this night, to work on the H400-1 list and to try a new observing aid (the music stand as several people called it), a small near-vert tray with a lip to hold star charts or books.
The viewing aid tray had a lip just large enough to hold an open MSA, and wide enough for the MSA or SA2000 desk edition. It turns out I should have made it as high as the MSA, or a bit more. I attached it first to the tripod with rope, and then moved it higher so it rotated with my Vixen binoculars. The only things I used to hold items to the tray (other than the lip) were 2 stainless steel "Banker's clips" (2 for $.99). The Banker's clips worked wonderfully well, I could safely insert and remove a chart with one hand in one motion. The tray also worked pretty well. It was a big help in finding targets quickly, as I could just glance down to see the charts. This tray was an experiment to see how small a tray could be to be useful, would it get in the way, was it useable with objects at all angles, etc. This worked, but I am now planning a third prototype (the first, a rather large/heavy tray, was a Mt. Lassen. Both of the first two have problems when observing in even light winds.).
Observing the Herschel 400 list also went well. I finished observing all the Herschell 400-I items in 8 more constellations and saw 29 new-to-me Herschel 400 objects with my Vixen binoculars, or about 7% of the list. I also found a dozen or more non-H400 NGC and IC items
Just before moonrise I and several other people saw some special treats, including M45, the nebulosity in M45 (and also the two IC nebulas a degree or so to the upper left), the California nebula, the flame nebula, and the Horsehead in the 30x125 binoculars, all without filters.
I also met a number of people whose articles I had read before but not met face-to-face and some new people.
It was, for me, the best observing night of the year (so far).
Thank you.