by Shneor Sherman
I arrived at HGO at about 4:40 p.m. to find the road past the gate to the tarmac had been cleared, though there was still snow on the sides. A small portion of the tarmac had been cleared, and the snow had melted some more clear, but the observtory and outbuildings were unapproachable without appropriate gear. Part of the runway had been dleared, and there were three items of heavy machinery parked on the runway. Many trees between the restrooms and the house have been cut down, including at least one that had a trunk over 3 feet in diameter. I have a feeling that HGO will be unusable for at least some months after the snow melts due to work at the site.
I parked at the edge of the apron and set up. I then collimated my 18" using the Cheshire lent me by Jane, following the guide she included. Of course, after sunset, I checked the collimation using my laser collimator, and found that I was off, so re-collimated.
Most of the ground was still ocvered in snow, which reduced contrast a bit in the telescope. Conditions were not bad - I'd say the seeing varied between 6-7/10, while transparency seemed to depend on the area of the sky -8/10 to the west, 5-6/10 to the south and east. Transparency improved a bit after 9:30 p.m.
I began observing Jupiter at twilight, about 7:20. I had an excellent view at 80x, with my 30mm WidescanII/Paracorr, colors were very clear and bands were clearly visible, as were 3 moons. At 260x (Speers-Waler zoom at 7.9mm) there were occasional moments of good seeing with much better detail on the bands, but otherwise the view mas a bit muddy. I then took out a pair of 7x50 binoculars and searched for Ikeya-Zhahg for awhile, and fruitlessly. My fault for not checking a chart earlier. I then turned to M42, with the Widescan, which again had good blue-green and pink clearly visible, and then inserted a UHC and found NGC2359, Thor's Helmet. While the upper part was clear, the lower streamer was hardly visible. I swapped in an OIII, only to find that the UHC had given a better image, as some of the opper portion, especially one of the "horns" was much less distinct. My curiousity aroused, I replaced the Widescan with a 13mm Nagler, with an Ultrablock. The results were intermediate...interesting! I replaced the Widescan sans filter and moved to NGC3242 (Ghost of Jupiter). At low power, this is a featureless disk. At 260x the central star was quite visible, and a halo was visible around the disk (or an extended, dimmer shell, if that's a better description). There appeared to be some mottling in the halo with averted vision.
I then moved to Leo, where I observed in the neighborhood of Algeiba, NGC3226/3227, which appear to be very close physically, and maybe interacting. A bit to the west, I observed yet another trio in Leo, NGC3193/3190/3195. I moved to Coma and observed NGC4314, 4274, 4283, 4285, then NGC4565 and 4494. The needlelike 4565 looked pretty good...
I moved on to Corvus, observing M104 on the way, the dust lane quite prominent at 260x, M68 which was mostly resolved with a 13mm Nagler, a planetary, NCG4361, interacting galaxies looking like galactic jaws, NGC4038/4039. Moved back to Hydra brieflt for another interacting couple, NGC4105/4106.
Caught up on some old favorites, in Ursa Major, M81/82 (M82 stood up well to 260x, quite a bit of detail visitle), NGC3990/3998 in the bowl of the dipper, M109 which showed but a trace of structure tonight, and about
As the moon's influence began to be apparent, I checked Jupiter out once more. But the breeze which had started up a little earlier did not have a positive effect on the seeing.
I packed in the moonlight, after three very worthwhile hours.