The Lion's Nose and other fun

by Robert Leyland

I arrived about 5:30 and quickly setup the NexStar with a JMB Solar filter to catch the large sunspot group (9393), that had been the source of the flare and the awesome auroral display of the night before.

As the sun sank the spots were quite nice, with at least 18 distinct spots counting the 9393 group, which was nearing the edge of the Sun's disk. Unfortunately the low altitude breeze, and horizon shimmer prevented extended study. The brief periods of steadiness at least gave a good indication of the clarity of the sky, which was good.

Venus was lost in the glare, and had most likely set before I could find it.

The moon is always a nifty target in twilight, as I had hours before I needed to worry about dark adaption :-). There were some nice bright peaks along the terminator, and good detail to be seen with sharply contrasting craters in the Lunar Seas.

When David Silva arrived, with Dave Van Ness, we set up at the north end of the flat, to get the best northerly aspect. This puts us a lot closer to the road, but gave us the best view if there were to be more aurora tonight.

Just at sunset Michael Scruggs arrived, with Len and Charlotte Nelson close behind. Both Len and Michael like to do astro-photography, for which Lake Sonoma is not ideal, as long exposure pictures are likely to be ruined by a passing car. Tonight they had come to see if the aurora would make a second appearance.

Sadly we were to be disappointed, with only the merest hint of reddish tinge in the northern sky, and maybe a little glow near the horizon where we don't usually see a light dome.

Michael set up an Orion (Vixen?) 120 on an equatorial mount for general viewing, and had a camera ready on a small tripod for the aurora.

Dave Staples arrived around 8:30, and setup his C8, so we had three Davids, and four non, so we couldn't be outvoted.

This was a great group of folks, we chatted a lot, and we each mooched views in the available telescopes. Mostly bright objects, given the moon light.

Early evening I decided that I would work on Leo, as it was far enough from the moon to reduce interference, and fairly high in the sky. Monoceros will have to wait a couple of weeks, even though I had bagged a few more clusters the weekend before at Dino, I am a long way from done.

M65/66 and their NGC buddy were a nice easy first sight. The M105 group looked good also, so the night held some promise.

At the tip of the Lion's nose lies a nice galaxy NGC 2903, the shape is oval and the core is bright, plus there seemed to be some mottling in the fuzziness. Nearby was a very faint fuzzy patch, pointed to by the pair of stars at one end of 2903. I only caught this as I was panning the telescope around the area, and could not really directly see it. Once it was still only averted vision would do. Checking in NSOG this must have been 2916, which was off my list as it is right at the limits.

Crossing over the "mane" of Leo to Algieba, one of my favourite double stars, easily split at 85x, into two brilliant yellow stars.

Next up was the NGC 3190 group, just above Algieba, which showed tonight as a set of small bright patches of fuzziness. 3185, 3187 and 3193 were all visible, and it's a very nice group. Clearly it will be better on a night with no moon, but it was well worth the visit tonight.

The nearby galaxy NGC 3177 was a no show, although I am confident my positioning was good, using NSOG to lead me there, it was just too dim for the conditions.

Panning back from Algieba, was a really nice little pair of galaxies, NGC 3226/3227. One is noticeably more elongated, and the halos seem to touch. It's not quite an exclamation point (!) but it is very close. I didn't see 3222, which is between the pair and Algieba.

There is quite a rash of galaxies in Leo, and I've got a little list , so I'm sure they'll not be missed.

Not tonight, however, as the incoming storm front was pushing some thin clouds across the sky. At this time, just after midnight, it had just covered Leo.

As we were packing up, Dave Staples was still crossing off Messiers from "Turn Left at Orion", and we got some good views of old favourites like M13 and M92.

Scorpio was just rising, and Antares had cleared the horizon muck, so we got our first view of M4 for the year. Meanwhile, there was this bright orange thing nearby, "Wow, that's Mars...". It's quite large, and although I'd packed most of my stuff away, at least I got to see it in binoculars.

A great way to cap off the night.

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