by Jamie Dillon
Sounds like it's a good thing we spread out. The SW lot at the Peak was plenty full, with Guillermo, Jim Bartolini, David and Nathaniel Cooper, Peter and Jim Everitt, as well as several other busy observers and some astronomy students. Tom and Mike, a couple of very cordial and funny guys from Sunnyvale, were set up across from me and were still working at 3 am when I pulled out. Hope to meet them again.
Various forces inspire me to write a concise report. I finished a long project, going back to April a year ago, learning the galaxies in the Bowl of the Dipper. Got all the ones charted in SkyAtlas, as well as several other littler members. After spending muchos hours in the West End, off Merak, finally got going off Phecda, starting with 3898 and 3888, a justifiable tourist stop, two bright galaxies in the same field, physically close. Lots of small actual groups in this corner: 3998, -82, -72; 3729 and 3718; and 3780 with 3804; as well as 3963 and 3958.
So Felix and I have explored this incredible welter of galaxies down to about 14th magnitude. Look at UM2000 though and the crowd is amazing. I'm actually daunted at the thought of how the field around 3613 would show in one of our big light dumpsters.
(Felix is a highly respectable Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians, with a Lumicon OIII for dessert on the Lagoon.)
Also finished my first thorough run at Leo, Leo Minor and Sextans, with 3521 in southern Leo which is a real knockout galaxy. Made Everitt sit down and compare impressions. With a bright core, it showed dark on its western side, looking like a wide fan facing East, with its flat western edge.
2 am crept up out of nowhere, with a gorgeous Milky Way moving up. Had M5 and the Lagoon for dessert, as well as the Wild Duck thru Everitt's 15. Packed up and ambled over to the Observatory, where Jane and Mojo had just finished their Messiers with M30, in Rod Norden's dynamite 7". They had just gotten Pluto, as well as Uranus and Neptune, in various optics. The sky had held at 6.2 or better, with different careful star counts, and the seeing stayed decent, 4/5. An extremely satisfying night. Thanks once again for the great company.
Fairly concise, right?