by Glenn Hirsch
MB last night was incredibly warm and, according to Jay, as dark as it gets there.... but did the transparency degrade around 1130?
Albert pointed out Mercury at sunset - first time I've seen it (embarrassed to say). Kevin explained the ways the planet differs from the Moon including a strong magnetic field, polar cap (!!) and the fact that it doesn't present the same face to the sun although it's locked in orbit around it ...(huh?)
My first view of Mars for the season... By midnight high enough and so damn big but the seeing continued to be poor that low in the sky.
Found my way around M59/60, M87, M88, M61, M51. When tired of fairy smudges then went on to the objects which photos can never really capture ... M3 and ... M5!
Albert's beautiful handcrafted 15" gave me a stunning, unforgettable view of M5. (Also saw Omega Centauri for the first time.) Thanks Albert!
Returning to my 8" dob, I managed to finally memorize M5's position ('neck' of Serpens Caput down to the baseline created by the bottom of Ophiuchus). Heck, I guess now it's my favorite globular - beautiful in a 9mm Nagler which groups it with 5th magnitude 5 Serpentis in the same field of view.
Alan (the tube current expert) explained the optics of the airy disk so I could finally understand it. Divide 5.5 by my 8" aperture to give 2/3 of an arc second as the theoretical size of dots in my scope. But what's the 'actual' size of a star's disk when seen with the naked eye - is it really a "point?"
In mathematics, a "point" doesn't exist, right?