by Stacy Jo McDermott
It took a bit of prodding, but Jane and Mojo Jones graciously invited me to their house in San Rafael, CA for a small astra-soiree. The highlight of the evening was watching NY40 in Mojo's Lightbox dobsonsian telescope...the asteroid was visiable and you could detect movement quite easily! This all happened at about 9.00 PM PDT if I recall correctly. I was blown right out of my socks. The asteroid was pretty small but with slightly adverted vision, you could see it very well and really see the motion...I think that's what got me the most - I had never seen such motion in a sky object before. Very groovy to track. Lots of "oohs and ahhs". So a very big THANK YOU to Jane and Mojo for the gracious hospitality.
Secondly, my "new" 10" dob had first light with me. Object: La Bella Luna...stunning. Aligning the mirrors was quite easy and quick. Even without a finder, I was able to find the heavenly headlight and was quite pleased with the quality of the view.
Soon after however, the atmosphere became liquid and viewing was as if you had opened your eyes under water...but that did not diminish the joy and excitment of viewing the asteroid for any of us and for me in particular, just getting to know my new telescope.
So, all in all, I actually got out and got out of my "moving funky blues" mode and had a wonderful time north of the fog deposit. I hope that everyone else had a good time where ever you ended up at. Looking forward to observing reports from different parts of the Bay Area, especially for asteroid NY 40.
Taa ta for now, sweet astro dreams, Stacy