by Bob Jardine
A fair number of us had a nice night at Fremont Peak. I won't try to list who all was there, as I didn't know everyone, and met only a couple of new (to me) folks.
It was pretty cold. What's with this weather anyway? Freezing last weekend, then 75 degrees at 1AM at MB mid-week, then back to cold again. At least the wind wasn't as bad as I expected...it was really blowing hard when I left Cupertino; there were a few breezy moments, but overall, the wind wasn't a factor at FP (SW lot). And there were no dew problems.
Peter McKone and I searched for Pluto. He probably saw it in his 15"; I'm pretty sure I didn't see it in my 10". AT first, I thought I had it, but I had left my S&T finder chart at home, so I just found the right area from memory (wasn't hard, as Pluto was very near a Mag 7 star whose location I had memorized), and then drew a sketch of everything I saw. Unfortunately, when I got home, I found that Pluto must have been just beyond my limiting mag last night...all of the stars on my sketch were on the S&T finder chart.
I made progress on three of my projects: Messiers with binocs (3 new ones), Astro-League double stars (3 new ones in Herc.), and RASC 110 + SAC 110 survey (a few new galaxies and the Box nebula). NGC 3003 (Leo Minor) continues to elude me.
Peter got a great view of the Veil with his 15" Discovery. And thanks to Steve for the nice views through his JMI.
I left at around 1:30, cold but happy. Two deer on the road down (no, I didn't hit them...just observed them). Got home just after 3:00.