Coe, May 11, 2002
by Stacy Jo McDermott
As Mark mentioned, there was an incredible turn-out at Coe last night. It's been quite a while since I've seen that many scopes and it was good to re-connect with all the TAC folks after a few months of not getting down the south end of town.
Twilight was quite beautiful with all the planets hanging on a velvet background of varying hues of blue and purple. Jupiter looked superb and my friend, Karl, was loving looking at it through the 120mm refractor and comparing that view to the one through the 80mm short-tube. Saturn, Venus and Mars were also fun to look at while waiting for dark.
My observing adgenda for the evening was to knock off some more Messiers, which I did. All totaled, 6 more were crossed off my list though had the allergies not been in full swing, I would have gotten some more.
In Leo, M65, M66, M95, M96 and M105 were found and looked at for a bit while I tried my hand at some drawings in my log. I was expecting 9th mag galaxies to look at least a little bit brighter than they did however. A 15mm eyepiece was used and in the case of M65 and M66, coupled with a 2x barlow. So I'm thinking that the condition of the sky at Coe (no fog covering the lights and what appeared to be a little bit of water vapor in the atmosphere) may have had something to do with my perception of the dimness to these objects. Am I off-base here or did anyone else notice a haze? (It may very well be me as the eyes were itchy and runny - probably not the best condition to be in for observing).
The coup of the night for me was M104, the Sombrero Galaxy. I was quite taken aback at how pretty this object (albeit fuzzy) looked. I had stumbled across it earlier in the evening and had to back-track my way to make sure I knew what I was looking at. I thought M104 looked a tad brighter than the Leo galaxies - again, could be my perception with the allergy thang going on. So for right now, M104 is my favorite galaxy besides the Andromeda Galaxy.
My only disappointment was not finding M64, The Blackeye Galaxy. I've been wanting to check this out since I read the fun article that Sue French wrote a couple months ago highlighting M64. Since we have about a month more of Virgo et al, I have one more chance to find and check out this M object.
About midnight I packed it up, mainly to sneeze within my own tent and cuddle up to the kleenex box. And again, for those who made it this far in my report, I am the culprut whose car lights provided a "nuclear blast"-like flash...my apologies - please see previous post.
A happy mother's day to all! Best, Stacy