by Rich Neuschaefer
The smoke and haze was all the way up Mt. Hamilton and a little above. The skies were certainly better from the top of the mountain than in San Jose.
There were 4 of us with telescopes outside, behind the observatory to support the Summer Visitor's Program. Jay and I were two of the 4 volunteers with scopes.
The Moon was near 1st quarter. The seeing was very good. There was a pretty good breeze but the temps were very moderate. At least in the mid 70s F. There was a temp inversion. Some high clouds came overhead but after midnight they mostly cleared out.
Jay and I had out 6" APs. There was an 8" Celestron Ultima and a 10" Coulter. A fun night as always. The 36" was aimed at M92 and the 40" was looking at something to the south, maybe M17. I didn't look through either large scope.
The seeing was very good. The Moon was near first quarter. The terminator was positioned well to easily see Hadley's rill. Toward the southern part of the Moon, The Straight Wall was clear, along with crater Birt and Rimma Birt. It is so nice when the seeing lets you see sharp, crisp views of the lunar features.
After the Moon went behind the dome of the 36" refractor, I aimed my AP 155 EDFS at the bright, northern part of the Veil nebula. With an OIII filter it looked like a ghostly smile from one side of the field to the other in the 27mm Panoptic eyepiece.
I got a request to show M27. By this time we were getting high, thin clouds in most of the sky. M27 without a filter looked ok, but the background was a little bright with the clouds. As usual it looked like a big cotton ball. While the clouds were still hanging around, I move the scope to M31. You could the brighter central area. With all the clouds I switched views from M31 to M92 and then to M13.
Later, maybe around 12:30 am, the clouds were moving out. I looked at the Double Cluster, the part with the "smile" of little stars. I also looked at the Double Double.
It was a fun night. Interesting group of visitors.