by Stacy Jo McDermott
What a beautiful night it was, even at the McDermott Observatory, smack dab in the middle of the Sunset District of SF. What started out as great intentions for showing at Dino for the very first time, got thrown to the wind as it were though not by events that I would have wished for. Anyway, regardless of the three major elements that caused me to end up in my backyard, I did manage to get some constructive observing in for the night.
At the moment, I am continuing my quest to get my Messier certificate and pin. For tonight I had planned on obvserving 12 Messiers but managed to get in only three.
M46 and M47 in Puppis - From looking at the star charts, these two should have been easier to find than they actually were - it was surely a labour of love with heavy emphasis on the "labour" part. Managed to find them both after an hour of looking, checking the star chart, finding M47 with binos, going back to the telescope, dealing with the neighbour's tree and yoga style contortions to find a comfortable position to look through the finder scope. My impression was "oh, there they are...well, that's it? What, no fireworks for all the hard work I put in finding them?" ;-). Actually, yes, these were almost dumped in the "find later file" when it occured to me to give it a rest for a few minutes. That did the trick. M47 looked nice. Not bad, just nice. M46 was seen with only averted vision - it's definately a dark sky item that I might, might revisit.
M67 in Cancer - This one was a little bit more fun, but not by much. Only took me 3/4 of the time it took to find the above two, so in that sense I felt like I was on a roll. Considering that this was coming up from the east, over light polluted skies, I was amazed that I actually found it at all. It will be one that I go back to at a darker sight to take it in - I can tell that it does hold some intrigue for me as I liked it tonight from SF, so it probably will be better at Coe, FP, Dino (if I ever get there!) or better yet, near Lassen.
Other items I attempted but am not sure that I bagged are M52 in Cassiopeia and M79 in Lepus. At nine, a very thin marine layer looked like it was coming in, as only things 45 degrees and above the horizon still looked sharp.
So, with a hike that lasted longer than it should have (took a wrong turn in the trail), front quads and hip flexors which are screaming as I type this and my chariot, Babe, deciding to do a funky kind of behavior while driving, the night was not all lost. I figured I'm three items closer to my Messier goal.
Hope all you doggies, weasels and tacos had a great evening and enjoyed the starry night time sights. I remain humbly yours,