Saturn occultation of M1 OBSERVATION

by Bob Czerwinski

I tried observing the pair from my San Jose residence on Saturday night, but there was no sign of M1 in my 12.5" Starmaster, regardless of eyepiece employed. Yes, there was a definite glow around Saturn, but it was too regular to be the Crab; no irregular nebula extension whatsoever. A fair amount of light pollution in my area, and the humidity was up pretty high, too, registering 88-91%. The seeing, however, was excellent. Tried the usual array of filters, and reduced the amount of glass by observing without a Paracorr, but only averted imagination would make the Crab appear ... along with Mark's melted butter. ;^) Attempted observations of Saturn/M1 about 7:00pm, 9:30pm and 11:45pm. Ended up ignoring DSO's for the night, chasing down a few asteroids instead. The sky looked *wonderful* at midnight, completely clear here in South San Jose, so you can imagine my surprise when I woke at 6:45am to find the area completely socked in; it was the thickest fog I'd seen in months. (Thought I'd slept in 'til summer!)