by Bob Czerwinski
Well, Rashad, we missed you at the Peak. Did the thought of Chupacabra scare you off? ;^)
I believe there were nine of us at the SW Lot of Fremont Peak State Park last night, taking advantage of the warm night and clear skies. I had my 14.5" Starmaster with me. I spent most of my time hanging out with Jamie Dillon (with "Felix," his 11" Celestron [Discovery primary] Newt/Dob), Andy Pierce (with his new 14.5" Teleport) and Craig & Elena Scull (with their 8" D&G refractor and 4" TV-Genesis), all of whom were into observational programs of one sort or another. A few other folk were imaging the heavens; the seeing was excellent with pinpoint stars available to all.
The fog, which was visible on the ocean before sunset, never ventured in, so the light-domes from Salinas (SW) and the Greater Bay Area (NW) were certainly evident. The Moss Landing power plant over on the coast was lit up like a golden box, its twin 500-foot steam stacks visible all night. Limiting magnitude was probably about mag 6.0. We experienced a very light offshore breeze from time to time, coming from the SE, so the SW Lot remained relatively warm all evening. Fairly late in the evening, Andy remarked that it was still 80-degrees inside his car. <grin> Andy or someone else may have officially logged the actual outdoor temperature.
Although I only logged four new H-2500 items last night, it was still a fun night out for me. Began my evening with a view of Comet Hoenig (C/2002 O4) to the NW in UMa, and then proceeded with a search for three nearby galaxies, NGC 5205, 5216 and 5218, all of which were no more than a half-degree from the comet, which was probably about 40-degrees above the NW horizon at the time. If you haven't seen these items yourself, give 'em a whirl. 5216 & 5218 comprise Keenan's System, which I believe is an interacting pair. When first moving from Comet Hoenig to 5205, well, I completely missed the thing, ending up on small but moderately bright 5218 instead. When I went to check 5205's position/orientation via TheSky on my PC, my problem was obvious. Oops, wrong galaxy, Bob. Moving back over to 5205's true position, given the NW skyglow, this turned out to be a real observing challenge for me. Put a towel over my head to block out stray light, and eventually located 5205's faint roundish glow near a couple of mag 14th'ish stars. TheSky says 5205 is mag 13, so it's probably mag 12 or so visually, but with a surface brightness that must be around mag 14. I need to look this up. Moved back to 5218, with a visual magnitude of about mag 12 (my guess), and was able to locate 5216, about 4-arcmins away. Compared with 5218, 5216 is smaller and quite a bit fainter. TheSky says 5216 is mag 13.6, so it's probably more like mag 12.5 visually, but with a surface brightness considerably lower, probably about mag 13.5-14, much like 5205.
The evening was pretty laid-back, with views of various objects being shared all around. (Andy's new Teleport is *really* nice!) We had one of the Park's pigs really going to town on the wooden garbage bin at the north end of the lot, housing a couple of garbage cans. The pig had managed to get its teeth into one of the garbage can liners, and was making one helluva racket pulling and pulling on it, trying to extract it from the can/bin. Porky sure wasn't bothered by us two-legged folk, and eventually wandered off to another area.
All in all, a very nice night at Fremont Peak. Most of us were still around well after Moonrise, with one gent, Rob (last name escapes me right now), still planning to image with his Meade 8" LX200 until dawn. Wish more folk could have made it to the SW Lot last night.