by Alan Zaza
Well, better late than never!
I arrived at the SW lot at about 6:30 pm to an empty lot, except for a ranger I met named Brett. He was very friendly and said he would dummy lock the gate after it got dark. I learned, for now, the park is not collecting any parking fees. Also to watch out for wild pigs, which are getting out of control!
I spent the next hour setting-up my C9.25 wondering if I would be alone all night. Then Bob Czerwinski showed up with his beautiful Starmaster 12.5". After a few curious visitors, we had the place to ourselvs all night. Conditions turned out to be excellent. A steady breeze calmed down after it got dark. And it got very dark indeed due to the cloud cover. It was as if a dark cloth had been draped over the city lights. The seeing was very steady too. The temp. 60-65 degrees throughout the night.
I spent most of my time observing galaxies. I logged NGC 5003, and 5033 near Cor Caroli as new objects. They are very nice elongated galaxies with bright cores. It was fun comparing views of these with Bob's Starmaster. Other new objects; NGC 4448 in Coma- a mag 11 SB spiral, M94 (The Croc's Eye) had a very bright starlike nucleus, M63 (Sunflower GAlaxy) an amorphous- fairly bright spiral. Also observed were M53, a GC with glittering outliers, M64 (Black Eye Gal) was very bright, and M13 and the galaxy near it. Also spent some time with my 10X70's crusing the stunning Milky Way which extended to both horizons.
No city lights, no car lights, great company. Who could ask for more.