My original plan for Saturday the 17th was to get an early start and drive down to Dinosaur Point at the San Luis Reservoir for some 3rd Quarter observing with the TAC group. As is so often the case, plans change. After I had finished all of my household chores (I may have been the only one checking out the crescent Venus last night with binos from the Home Depot parking lot, but I can’t be sure) and by the time I loaded my astro gear into the van, it was already nine o’clock.
I decided to head out to a local in-town observing site at Briones Regional Park, only a twenty minute drive from my house. When I arrived the parking area overlooking the reservoir was empty, and I set up my TV102 4” refractor in the far corner of the lot, eager to get an early start on the Spring observing season.
As I was setting up, I was amazed to find that I could see the companion to Polaris- at only 27x in a 32mm Plossl. Definitely diffraction limited optics. Good job Al. The sky seemed to be holding quite a lot of reflected light from the Bay Area light domes however, and there were some clouds moving through to the far north. My first target for the night was M51 in Canes Venatici- I found it immediately, and although I’ve seen much better views of M51 through larger instruments at darker skies and higher elevations, at least you could still tell it was a pair of galaxies! I also looked at M101, which showed the slightest hint of structure about the core, M97, which wasn’t showing a lot of features, and M108, which was pretty difficult to resolve out of the skyglow. I also spent considerable time hunting M109- after using several eyepieces at various powers and averted vision, I had to say that on this night its presence was only suspected.
I decided to swing over to the west, and picked up M42. Always magnificent, under any sky. M1 was also visible, but too low in the Bay Area light dome to make out many features. I then spent some time with the M’s in Auriga, both with my 10x50’s and the 102, and they looked great in both instruments. M37 was just flat spectacular- the cluster has a depth to it, almost a 3D effect, that is incredible! I’ve noticed this with a lot of the fine open clusters, like 869/884, where the stars at the core of the cluster seem to disappear and reappear, slide gently into vision, and then fade back into the dark core of the cluster if you try and view them too long. M37 reminds me of a heavily dark-veined piece of quartz that I once found in the Sierras, that was studded with hundreds of tiny flecks of Pyrite. I also visited the Messiers in Puppis, and spent some time trying to coax the planetary in M46 into view. No luck there, I’ll have to try again in better conditions.
It was about this time that the silence was broken by a pack of coyotes to the north, and I stopped observing for a while to listen. There was also an owl in a tree overlooking the reservoir nearby, who was very active and seemed to enjoy my company. I then pushed the scope back toward the celestial pole, and had a good long look at M81/M82. Even with all of the skyglow, they both looked terrific, and I could even make out some of the dark lanes across the face of M82 using both the 19mm and 12mm. I also spent some time sweeping under the belly of Leo and through the bowl of Virgo with the 10x50’s, watching several tiny galaxies flicker in and out, right at the limit of vision.
Next up I hit M68, the little globular just below Corvus. Even though it was low in the southwest sky, it was till a pretty good view. Then over to Arcturus, and up to one of the hunting dogs, Cor Coroli, which I had also gazed at with the 10x50’s. Nice double. While watching Hercules climb in the east, I decided to call it a night after one more object- M3. Big, bright, and beautiful, I was able to resolve many of the outer stars around the core using the 12mm Nagler. By now it was one o’clock, and the humidity had been steadily creeping up to 93%, although the temperature was still a comfortable 53 degrees- and thankfully, Winter was starting to look like something that was now in the rear-view mirror!