by Craig Scull
I was in my shorts, and at Elena's recommendation, we brought the little refractor (4" Genesis) to Coe, expecting good conversation and some possible glimpses through openings in the clouds. We left big brother (8" refractor) at home to rest for a better evening. Sure enough, the first few hours I was mainly preoccupied with eating donuts, talking, and observing the ferris wheel in San Jose. Little did I know that we would wind up observing until 6:00AM that morning.
I don't wear a watch, but a few hours later the cloud curtains began to part revealing a beautiful sky, and the fog took up its slow process of trying to cover up the city lights for us, and toward the wee hours it was almost entirely successful :)
| Andromeda, G76 | When Andromeda reached the zenith, I took up the search for G76, the 2nd brightest globular in Andromeda. With quite a bit of concentration 5% of the time I definitely spotted something at 200x where the globular should have appeared. It was probably the ~14 mag star that sits immediately next to it, just off the longest edge of the nearby triangle of stars. In Jamie's 11" the view was much more friendly, with the globular being held with direct vision and appearing distinctly non-stellar at all powers above 100x. |
|---|---|
| Pegasus, 7331 | 7331 halo was extending quite a bit as testament to the excellent skies we were experiencing. The brightest companion was also visible with some effort at 100x. |
| Monoceros, Rosette | Viewed at 16x using an OIII. The full circle was visible with the dark hole inside. Kinda reminded me of those donuts I'd been eating earlier. |
| Monoceros, Hubble's variable nebula | Quite an intriguing object, somewhat "funnel" shaped. Beautiful section of sky. |
| Canis Major, clusters | Stunning views of various clusters that Jamie and Elena swept up. |
Also viewed more galaxies than I can remember in Jamie's 11" which he was able to expertly hunt down. The views of Jupiter in the 11" were also really fantastic. Thanks for the munchies Jamie, I don't think Elena and I could have lasted all night without that refueling.
Still recovering from my astro-hangover.