The Beast Unleashed - Observing Report

by Richard Navarrete

The Beast (16" Meade Dob) and I managed to find our way to Dinosaur Point on February 9th for an evening of observing. The main focus was continuing work on observing the objects on the Herschel 400 list. I've been working on this list quite steadily since June 2001, when I acquired The Beast. I had been working it leisurely with my previous scope, a 12.5" dob. I hoped to finish all the remaining objects left for me on the list other than the three spring constellations of Ursa Major, Virgo, Coma Berenices and Canis Venatici. I had lots of open clusters in Puppis to find and observe, and a handful of others in various constellations. I managed to log the target objects, and still had time to observe all the H400 galaxies in Canis Venatici to boot! My final tally for the evening was 42 new objects.

Given the number of objects, I didn't spend a lot of time observing each and everyone. I did observe most objects with at least two eyepieces and spent some time sharing views of the more interesting objects. Working a list like this is a good exercise for me. It forces me to observe objects that I most likely wouldn't seek out independently (like the open clusters,) improves my star hopping skills, and gives me a way to chart my observing progress. As I wrote to a friend recently, sometimes the journey is more important than the destination.

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