by Jamie Dillon
Bob's-Your-Auntie
Life not only among the goyim but among the Yanks. Leyland, betcha except for Sterngold no one got this. I was partly raised by a Yorkshireman, so "Bob's your uncle and Fanny's your aunt" was a common refrain. Gender-fu with a Brit refrain!
Watch now how I segue right into an on-topic backyard report. Sunday night the rain let up, and around midnight I was sitting in the patio admiring the wet winter stars. They stayed out, if twinkling, for a while, so I ran and got the 10x50's (Orion Ultraviews). Had a stretch of great fun. Especially in Auriga, scanning across M36, M38 onto M37, over from that great star El Nath, then down to M35 all big. Over to Perseus, M34 was huge, resolving a bit. And one of my favorite sights in binocs is the arm of Cassiopeia from delta Cas (Ruchbah) to epsilon Cas. M103 and NGC 663 are grand in longshot along that deep sweep of Milky Way.
Also saw NGC 7789 for the first time in binocs, off alpha Cas (Shedir). Those 3 named stars in the flying W have cool names: Ruchbah the knee, Caph the henna'd hand, Shedir the breast.
And oh M42 and oh those Belt Stars all in one field. Massive giants 1600 ly out.
...and the next day I was looking over my oldest observing logs, with binocs, before I even wanted a telescope, just 3 years ago. By January '99, Liam and I had met Robert Hoyle, Mark Wagner and Marsha Robinson on a foggy night up at the Peak and the true slippery slope had been hit. But on 30 November, 1998, I wrote down what I'd seen in the sky: Jupiter with 3 moons, Saturn with ears, M31, Pleiades and Hyades, M42, the Double Cluster and the alpha Persei association. That's it, nothing that's not naked eye. Was intensively learning more constellations such as Bootes and Cepheus.
Shortly after that I found the 3 bright Messiers in Auriga, noted once again above. But it goes to show what can happen when you hang out with a rum crowd, Dogs and TACos of all stripes. 3 years from 'Jupiter with 3 moons' to the brighter Abell and Hickson clusters. Long strange trip.
Likely to go on for a good long while, Dogs.