It's great to hear that quite a few TACos had a fine night at Montebello, and that sky conditions were wonderful the night of Jan 1/2. I headed for Pacheco, figuring a few TACos would likely head that way as well. To my surprise, I ended up spending the first full night of the new millennium observing in solitude. Okay, save for a rabbit who wandered through the area early in the evening, just as I was setting up.
I spent most of the evening with my TV-101, tracking down objects listed in
DeepMap 600. I really enjoy using that particular chart; simple and easy
to use, and holds up to the worst dew around. Steve Gottlieb did a great
job with its content. I also had my Celestron Ultima 9x63 binos with me,
which I'd set up on a tripod. Yeah, I'm probably a wimp, but I just find
those binos *so* much easier to use when *I* am not the one doing the
supporting!
I wasn't certain what the night would be like. The temperature dropped
quickly, and by 9:00pm it was already down to 41F, with the humidity at 89%.
The good news was that the temperature stayed relatively steady through the
evening, in the upper 30s. Dew definitely hit, but I used the Jay Freeman
trick of placing a chemical hand-warmer in the extended dew shield, so the
TV-101's main objective was moisture-free all evening. Additional
hand-warmers in my jacket pockets took care of rotating eyepieces, and two
Thermos bottles - coffee and Chai - took care of me. :) A jacket hung over
the binos when they were not in use.
For most of the evening, one aspect of the sky was pretty strange. Looking
East, I couldn't see anything low in the sky, say to within 15-deg. of the
horizon. And I mean absolutely nothing. This extended to the Southeast as
well. Is this normal for the area this time of year? Just a moisture
thing? Around 8:00pm it was strange to look over at Orion, see Rigel
blazing away, but I couldn't make out Kappa Orionis (Saiph) at about Mag 2.
An hour later, up and out of the muck, Saiph was just fine, but it initially
seemed like ol' Orion had lost a leg. ;) This time of year I usually judge
the general transparency of the sky by checking out M1, and the Crab looked
fine, even at 45x (12mm Nagler) with the Moon out. Views of Jupiter and
Saturn were very nice, and I successfully bumped the 101 up to 180x (3mm
Radian) on several occasions. Yep, there were times I'd wished I'd had one
of the Dobs with me, especially after Moonset.
Most of the night was spent chasing open clusters and Messier objects. I
spent my time going back and forth between bino (20%) and refractor (80%),
having a great time in the process. Believe it or not, I never took a
single look at the Moon, even though it lit up the entire countryside for
most of my observing session. I started the night to the West with M39 in
Cygnus, and finished up with two galaxy pairs in the North and East - M81/82
in Ursa Major and M65/66 in Leo. A very enjoyable night with the TV-101,
but wish others had been around to share the views.