Lake Sonoma 06/08/02
by David Staples
| Observer | Dave Staples |
|---|---|
| Date | 08 June 2002 |
| Time | 2115-0030 PDT |
| Location | Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~1500 (Lone Rock Flat) |
| Weather | Low 50's, gusting wind, seemed colder though |
| Seeing | 4/10 |
| Trans | 8/10 |
| Equipment | C8, 15x70 Binocs, 32mm plossl, 12mm Intes WA |
What a blustery night. The wind never really settled down much and the stars early on were big bloated fuzz balls. Later in the evening settle some what allowing me to bag (with a reasonable amount of confidence) Pluto, which was well placed Saturday night.
The seeing being what it was, I actually spent a lot of time with the binocs hunting down Messier objects. In that respect it was a very pleasing night as I bagged a boat load of the old M's. Not hard to do, and very fun when Sagittarius is up.
M10 and M12 in the same field and M14 near by, M19 and 62 nearly in the same field. Pluto was really the only target in the C8 with seeing as bad as it was it was more fun the pan around with the binocs.
We were also able to compare Omega Centauri in four different instruments. A Tak Sky 90, a TV 85, Canon 7x35 IS binocs, and my Oberwerk 15x70's. The Tak Sky 90 seemed to give the best view (12x 40mm Pentax XL) with the best contrast of all instruments. A fun comparison while it was still visible.
I packed up around 1am and on the way out I stopped at the Grey Pine lot where Robert L, his friend Mike and George G. had set up. They had a little better time with the wind with some trees providing a little protection. Hopefully next new moon will see better conditions.
Pluto - With Pluto just north of Eta Oph. in the same field with a Mag 6.9 star it seemed like a good time to take a shot at observing the diminutive snowball. It formed a lopsided kite shaped asterism (laying on it's side) with three Mag 14/15. I tried to repeat the observation at home on Sunday with no luck...to much light pollution.
All in all, not the most pleasant night weather wise, but still worth the trip.