Observing report

Lake Sonoma 4/21

by David Staples

I was able to arrive sooner than expected, before sunset even! A few people were already there, Dick Flasck with his (beautiful) home built 17.5" dob, Eric LaFranchie with his ETX125, Colin Collins with his C11/G11 setup, Sandy Chang visiting from Boston with his brand new AP Traveller (second light), and Dwayne and Brian (I didn't get last names and I apologize if I spelled anything wrong) with a C5 and a pair of 11 x 70 binoc's.

It was pretty warm when the wind wasn't gusting, which it did at about 10-15 mph. Seeing was pretty soft after sunset with what seemed to be a lot of moisture (no clouds though)increasing the light domes.

I spent the early part of the evening cruising around talking and mooching views through everybody else's equipment. That was fun, as I had not yet met any of the people that showed up.

I started of with Jupiter and Saturn before they set. Not very exciting, as they were doing a pretty good dance. I then had to stop off at M42 (of course) before moving off to other objects higher in the sky.

While it was dark, some of the other regulars to LS said it is usually darker at New Moon. The Beehive stood out brightly with direct vision and M35 was also visible with averted vision. Since M35 was visible I took a look, very nice with it's little companion NGC 2158 very obvious.

It seemed like everybody was a bit telepathic, or maybe the power of suggestion was strong tonight. I next jumped over to M65/66 and so did everybody else. I was able to make out some spiral structure in 66 with averted vision. I wandered from scope to scope to compare views, from the wonderfully sharp views of Sandy's AP Traveller to the amazingly bright views with the Dick's 17.5.

Dick then lined up on M51.....(pardon me while I wipe away the drool and try to cool the fever that is building)....OH WOW...probably the most spectacular thing I have seen through a scope yet...at least until later the same evening. The spiral structure was clear and beautiful and the arc connecting to the little companion visible. I lined my scope up on M51 and was happy to be able to make out spiral structure as well. It was dark enough to see structure in Eric's ETX with averted vision also.

After that I skipped around in Cassiopeia looking at a bunch of open clusters...to many to name, before trying for NGC 2903 in Leo. After a little hunting (and using borrowed charts) I found it. Kind of cool little galaxy with a bright core and lumpy appearance.

About this time M13 popped up over the trees and led to another mass viewing. By now the sky had steadied quite a bit and we all spent quite a while ogling this mass of gems. I was able to hold about 200x with no problem and it absolutely (spilled out even) filled the eyepiece. Again Dick proved that aperture is king, now this is certainly the most spectacular thing I have seen yet. Dick was able to hold M13 at 331x (guesstimate based on a 11mm/2x barlow combination and f4.1 focal length)...stars uncountable...magnificent. (fever building again...anybody have some ice water).

Just an aside, about this time, myself, Colin and Sandy were able see M13 naked eye with averted vision, so I guess the limiting magnitude naked eye was about 5.9.

Everyone started to pack up about midnight as the wind came up and it got colder. I stayed a bit longer (probably because I have the shortest drive) and picked off a few more Messier's M57, M4 (by myself this time) and M80. I also split the double double, that was pretty cool.

After that I packed up and sat around to enjoy the Lyrid shower. While it wasn't extremely active it was impressive with 3 or 4 really bright meteors between 1am and 2 am.

Is there such thing as a bad night observing? I don't think so, if the seeing isn't good, the company always is.

Sorry for being so wordy....can't help it...to enthusiastic,

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