by Howard Suskind
Last night at MB was my best observing night yet. (ok I've only had the scope 8 weeks) In spite of a visit from a guy driving a tractor and dragging a roto-tiller that left a huge dust cloud, (he waited until everyone was set up before he drove by) the night proved to be excellent, and only got better. I had the chance to try out my new Orion 9x50 RA correct image finderscope, and it made quite a difference in my ability to star hop. During the course of the evening I visited M10 and M12, then switched to Virgo to observe M87, M86 and I believe M88. Dew became a minor problem around midnight, and somewhat limited sharpness on the galaxies. I took a look at the Ring Nebula, then to close the evening I moved on to Sagittarius and vicinity to observe M6, M7 and best of all M8. M8 was so spectacular that I must have looked at it for 45 minutes. The milky way was very clear and stretched all the way across the sky from horizon to horizon.
All in all, a great night at MB