by Bob Czerwinski
Peter Natscher wrote:
Fremont Peak last night offered Jamie Dillon, Bob Czerwinski, and I and excellent 3-4 hours of week night observing. [snip...]
I have to echo Peter's comments. The sky conditions at the Peak last night were very good, both in terms of seeing and transparency. A combined 8 out of 10, maybe even slightly better. We were definitely above the gunk; altitude won last night. The sight of epsilon Lyra through Peter's 10" AP Mak-Cass at 550x was the best view I'd ever had of the Double-Double. Yep, you could drive a truck through the gaps, all right, with diffraction rings picture-perfect around pinpoint stars. Combining individual star-spots with area star-counts, the limiting magnitude was ~6.7-6.8 at the zenith. Well, for my eyes anyway. Wagner et al. probably would have been lowered this somewhat more. I spent the majority of the evening chasing faint-fuzzies in Delphinus, with my last hour or so in Pegasus, using my 12.5" f/5 Newt/Dob. Although I had brought along the coordinates for Comet Hoenig (C/2002 O4), I completely forgot about the comet until all three of us had packed up our 'scopes. Oh, well. Guess I'll just have to wait for another night or two to track it down.
All in all, a very fun night.