by Carl Larson
It was a very enjoyable second night at Coyote. I was observing with my 9.25" homemade newt. I didn't have any particular observing goals for the night so I did some searching on my own intermixed with longer periods of chasing down objects in concert with James and Marek. They each were pushing their XT10's around the sky snagging objects like men possesed. I could barely keep up. Albert was on my other side keeping us all honest, always ready to help us confirm or get a brighter views with his 17.5.
It seems the area south of Mirach and NGC404 is a popular neighborhood. Turns out Albert and I were both on NGC410 at the exact same time. With my smaller scope I could hold 410 but I only could imagine NGC407 after having looked through Albert's scope. I never could see NGC414 at all.
Described by Jeff G.'s report, I did try for NGC383. It was very frustrating and I tried for quite some time to pull it in to no avail. Jeff you should know your own observation is getting cut/pasted into my log for future reference. I'll need darker skies for the 9.25 or more likely, I'll just swat 'em with the 18 at CalStar :)
Only logged 15 new objects but speed wasn't the goal. As Albert mentioned the skies were pretty decent. Only slightly better than the previous evening early on but it improved as the night progressed. The lights from aircraft were projecting quite a ways out indicating a fair level of gunk above us. We began to tear down after saturn rose and the moon began to make itself known. Amazingly, as Earth-1 (as James called it) crested the ridgeline the transparancy remarkably improved. It was quite dramatic and we all noticed it. Only a tease for nights to come.
It was still a very comfortable 63F at 3am when we pulled out of the lot.