by Shneor Sherman
It was an easy drive to Monitor Pass, although I almost decided not to go. But as Gregg pointed out in so many words, nothing ventured, nothing gained. I was concerned at the forecast and the Oregon fire, seen in photos funneling smoke south along the Sierras. Still, it was an easy drive, about 2 hours and 40 minutes from Davis.
Greg, Bill, Rich and Jim arrived in due course - Jim totally wiped out after several nights observing at Lassen. He left at dusk.
The thin crescent moon looked good in my 26 x 70 Kronos binoculars. But asit grew dark, even with a very dark sky, the effect of smoke was apparent, robbing us of two magnitudes at the zenith, three near the horizon. This was a reasonable night for bright globulars, in particular, M5 which was spectacular, M22 which was dimmer than normal, and M15. Despite the smoke, we had a good view of the Helix, M57, and various Messiers in Sagittarius. M81 was quite dim in my 18", while you could almost mistake M82 for NGC7331 on a below-average night. The Veil still showed considerable detail, but it was definitely not a night for faint fuzzies. Still the seeing was quite good in the early part of the night - maybe 7/10. Around 1:30 for reasons which remain mysterious, the sky lightened considerably to the northwest. Rich, who lives nearby, could not account for it - neither could we. I packed it in at about 3 a.m.
Not the greatest, but better than nothing.