by Rob Mackie
Robert Leyland and I were the only ones in attendance at the Lone Rock staging area Friday night. As the Clear Sky clock predicted, sky was partially opaque until 10 or thereabouts. It mostly cleared thereafter, but transparency according to Robert was at best a 5 or 6 on a scale of 10. He was using a 17" dob and I had an AP Traveler (4" apo) and Canon 15x50 IS binocs. It was not the night for faint fuzzies, though Robert found some very interesting planetaries in Aquila especially a bluish green little doughnut whose NGC number escapes me. But it was very attractive and I added it to my list of targets next time I take my dob to Lake Sonoma.
The sunset was a glorious red affair, and maybe this was due to smoke. The Clear Sky Clock predicted excellent transparency but this was not the case until about 1:30 AM, when conditions improved noticeably. Bincular views were spectacular. As transparency increased, M31 showed progressively more extension in my binocular FOV. Fainter M objects like M33, M110 et al were easy and obvious visual treats with the Canon 15x50's. The double cluster at 3AM was spectacular. No question transparency was excellent after 2AM, but prior to that it was not great.
Using the traveler I sought out and found NGC 6946/NGC 6939 in Cepheus. Interesting juxtaposition of a Galaxy and nice cluster. 6946 was very dim in the Traveler. NGC 404 and NGC 891 also fell to the traveler. NGC404 is adjacent to the 2 mag star Mirach. To see it, I had to move Mirach until it was just out of the FOV, otherwise it's brightness obsured 404. NGC 891, a mag 9.9 elongated galaxy in Andromeda was a nice find. I couldn't make out much beyond its elongation, so I'll need more aperture to see its dust lane.. yet another object for future study with more aperture. NGC 6814 (mag 10..6 galaxy in Pegasus) was very dim but averted vision revealed its presence. Had I searched for some of these faint (for a 4" APO) fuzzies after 2AM, they no doubt would have been easier to find. No amount of effort could smoke out NGC 6207 near M13. Averted vision, higher mags to blacken backround etc...none of it worked. Jay Friedman says its fairly bright, fat and elongated in his 70mm! refractor, but it eluded me. I am humbled.
It was a worthwhile evening, but the skies didn't really open up until late. Weather and companionship were both fine, with an ever so slight breeze and comforting howling of coyotes. Tthe occasional specatuclar perseid livened things up.