I've been a bit photon deprived lately, and sorely needed DSO exposure. I've endured too many business trips and haven't seen anything other than naked eye objects since mid September.
I decided on Coe, knowing it would be a short night. There were a few cars in the overflow lot as I drove to the ranger shack to pay my fee. I paid for two nights hoping for a rare two night sting of good weather. I was partly correct.
I counted only three scopes when I arrived two quieter coffee grinders about 10" dia., and a 6" Intes MakCas.
Though there was a near half moon present, the sky had good transparency and the stars appeared steady. With the moon, I could make out about 17 stars within the Pegasus square at 9:30. In less than 2 hours we'd have a great night.
Those with the Meades were searching for M1, still fairly low, but what the heck! After set up of the CG-11, I dropped by and found the glow near the tip of the horns of Taurus. I had not tried OIII yet on M1, yet. I'm not sure if it made a difference, mainly because the back reflection of the moon to be a bit annoying. I bumped the magnification up to 280X and saw what a got a really nice view. There was filament-like structure, but I could not see the "colors" found in the CCD and photo images. We all agreed that aperture ruled! The view in the CG-11 had significantly more contrast that the M-10s. The Intes MakCas showed little detail above a dull glow.
After this I had some targets to close out: some were spectacular.
Thanks to the horizons at Coe, NGC 253, was an easy, bright target that I could never see from my backyard: found at 80X, savored at higher mastication. 253 belongs in the highlight reels of the Herschel 400.
Next, in Sculptor, there was 288, a GCL that was not too populated and very easily resolved below 200X.
613, though smaller and dimmer than the above was also a fairly easy target at 80X though 110X.
At about 11:30 car showed up: someone that had been to FP. He claimed the SW lot at the Peak was closed; and that there were spotlights on the observing area. He set up his Intes/Orion black tubed MakNewt 6 and enjoyed a few hours of darkness.
Ascending to Cetus, there were 908, 936, 1022, and 1052. 908 had a prominent nucleus; 936 appeared fainter and needed higher magnification; 1022 was just an oval smudge; and 1052 was faint and needed 215x for my eyes that night.
In Eridanus there were there were three targets: 1084, 1407 and 1535 1084 seemed brighter than the references said it was. Certainly, it appeared brighter and 1407. One of hte highlights of the evening was 1535. WOW! This PlN was bright enoght to stop your eye at 80X, and it demanded more magnification. I clearly saw the two layers of nebulosity, the dark inner space and clear view of the central star.
I quickly looked over and saw that Sirius was fairly high in the sky and steady: hardly any twinkle. I jumped over to Puppis and snagged M93 at 1:40, closing out my Messier 110. I can't say why I neglected 93 last year. It is placed high enough to clear my rear fence. Whatever the reason for the omission, there it was: a beautiful OCl, easily picked up in the finder scope. The prominent description in the references is "wedge shaped", but I also noted some filamentary structure perpendicular to the ripples sketched by O'Meara. The eyes and the imagination play strange games, don't they? I sipped a cup of fancy French lemonade for the occasion with some French bread and tepanade (and no raccoons this time!)
Next in Perseus I checked off 1023, 1245, 1342 and 1444. Finally, I began to sense I was getting to be a bit punchy. Objects were getting more difficult to find. Fatigue was getting the best of me. I stuck to a trio of OCls in Taurus and called it a night.
As I broke down the scope, I saw Leo fully risen to the East. Good times are a-coming!
Saturday, I set up at about 9:30 and go zero objects in I tried for 1857, but found that the humidity was quite high: all of a sudden it was in the 90% range, a halo formed around the moon. It was time for the aperture cover, all the aperture covers!
I have to say that the show that the moon made with the clouds was one of the more enjoyable phenomena I had seen. We were all small objects in a large wave tank. The clouds looked huge piles of moonlit suds on a rocky beach. Entire hilltops disappeared and re-emerged a few minutes later. Simply gorgeous!
I was home and asleep before midnight. Zero objects bagged, but what a sight!