Obs Report 2/27 Lake Sonoma

I started to write, "what a great night", well it was great, mostly because we've had so long since we could star gaze.

With the clear spell on Tuesday I was really looking forward to getting out under the stars. As it turned out, the conditions were mixed, transparency was very good, and the skies were quite dark, but it was not as steady as it has been, and a southerly breeze sometimes blew across the lot. Interestingly, despite the recent weather, it was very dry at only 35% relative humidity.

Observer	Robert Leyland
Date	27 Feb 2001
Time	2030-2330 PST (UT -8, or 0300-0900 30 Jan 2001 UT)
Location	Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~900 (Grey Pine Flat)
Weather	10°C Temp 35% Humidity, sporadic southerly breeze
Seeing	LM 6+, transparency 10/10
Equipment	8" F6 Dob, Telrad + 7x50 finder scope, Pentax XL EPs, 15x70 Bear binoculars

I picked up my buddy Tom, who had bought one of those small refractor at Orion's closing-the-store sale for $20. He has put some effort into improving the mount, and my advice has been to learn with it, and later use it as a finder or guide scope on something bigger :-)

Early in the evening the moon is still present, and while the telescope cools, Tom and I look at a few brighter sights in his 60mm, and get it polar aligned. The trapezium in M42 is recognizable, and barely split.

Working the Starry Night shared Observing List

NGC 1893	Open Cluster in Auriga
Relatively easy to find, as it is visible in the finder scope. There are two circlets of stars inside a triangle that fills the FOV at 65x magnification. The larger (outer) circlet looks vaguely fuzzy. An O-II filter show distinct nebulosity, an eerie glowing around the stars and extending away from the center of the circlet. Referring to NSOG, this must be IC-410.

While stepping to NGC 1893, we pick up M36,37 and 38 which are easy targets in the finder, and for Tom's scope, foolishly I didn't think to put it on 1893.

NGC 2359	BN in Canis Major
The last time I had observed this was in Steve Gottlieb's 17.5" from this same site, so it was interesting to find it, and compare the view (to my memory). "Thor's Helmet" (or the "Duck Nebula") looked a lot like a bunny rabbit. With a large circular body, extended to form a head and a tendril making an ear. Another extension at the other end provides a fluffy tail. In Steve's 17.5" it really does look like a Greek (or medieval) helmet, sure Thor was a Viking God, but he would have been proud to wear this helmet. It is relatively easy to find, as there are two pairs of stars at right angles that point almost directly at the nebula. An O-III filter brings out a lot of the detail, and drops some of the intervening stars.

NGC 2359

BN in Canis Major

The last time I had observed this was in Steve Gottlieb's 17.5" from this same site, so it was interesting to find it, and compare the view (to my memory).

"Thor's Helmet" (or the "Duck Nebula") looked a lot like a bunny rabbit. With a large circular body, extended to form a head and a tendril making an ear. Another extension at the other end provides a fluffy tail. In Steve's 17.5" it really does look like a Greek (or medieval) helmet, sure Thor was a Viking God, but he would have been proud to wear this helmet.

It is relatively easy to find, as there are two pairs of stars at right angles that point almost directly at the nebula. An O-III filter brings out a lot of the detail, and drops some of the intervening stars.

Meanwhile Tom independently found a couple of M objects, and the double cluster. It was fun to confirm it with binoculars and a planisphere.

We then spent some time looking at some of the showpiece objects in the 8".

M44 -- definitely better in a wide field telescope, or binoculars.
M51 -- simply awesome tonight. This was the best view I'd ever had of M-51 in my 8" telescope. For whatever reason, it really came together tonight. Firstly M-51 was visible in the 7x50 finder, and just popped out at 65x. Both galaxies were quite distinct and the spiral structure of the larger was very clear. Aptly named the pinwheel galaxy, tonight I could really see why.
M13 -- very low in the sky, but quite distinct, Hercules had barely risen, and the south-eastern sky gets close to the low light dome from the next town south (Healdsberg).
M65/66 -- along with NGC 3628 are all easily seen, and very nice

It's a school night, and we pack up and leave about 11:30pm. happy for the time, but sad as another storm is rolling in, and it might be a while before we can get out again.