by Stacy Jo McDermott
First off, a big thank you to Mark and the SJAA for organizing another wonderful event. The 3rd Annual CalStar was quite a lovely way to end the "summer" observing season. It was great to see familiar faces and meet new ones.
Upon arriving at CalStar Friday mid-day,(after, I will admit, taking two wrong turns and having been there twice before in past years), I was pleasantly surprised to find a number of telescopes on the field, but more than ample room to find a great spot for my set up. It was warm but not unbearable so...a nice breeze was waffing through.
Friday night I found my 70th Messier item, M73. The night was cool but comfortable. The seeing and transparency were good. Around midnight, Saturn started peeking up above the horizon. While it was swimming a little, it was still a wonderful sight. Most of the night, I visited departing summer objects (M22, M13, M8, M22, & M71).
Saturday night I found more M objects as well as doing some solar observations and drawings. It was a more productive night all around. I managed to bag M52 (A Caroline Herschel), M55, M30 and M74. M30 was a toughie for me...took me 2 hours to located even though per the SkyAtlas I was within 10 degrees of it from the starting point asterism. Well, basically, I was skipping right over it for most of those two hours...by the virtue of the fact that Jim Bartolini came over and looked through my scope was I able to locate it - Thank you Jim! Soon after, Saturn re-appeared and it looked steadier coming up. When it reached about 45 degrees up, the view was solid. Later on, might Orion made its entrance. Of course, my favorite object, M42 was a delight to see again. I noticed that the nebulosity looked more contrasty but that could have been due to the excellent observing site.
For all night observing, I used my 120mm Orion refractor and for solar observing, I used my ST80mm refractor. Both using 25mm eyepieces.
All in all, it was a fabulous time and a good end to summer.