by Peter Santangeli
Yesterday evening was quite a joy up at Montebello. Though it threatened to fog in, the fog stayed at bay, but did some nice dimming of the bay area. We had some of the darker skies I can remember up there.
We had about 10 cars or so. A good crowd. The weather was a bit chilly, but the skies were nice.
I did manage to get a couple of nice shots (posted here by request). First, I managed to take what for me is my nicest shot of Omega Centauri. Particularly surprising since I was shooting across the parking lot (I did not originally intend to shoot this object), and at least 10 people walked in front of the scope during the exposures:
http://www.santangeli.net/omegacen.jpg
(30 minutes total, Orion ST120)
The second is of NGC4216, a target Mark pointed out. A nice little collection of galaxies:
http://www.santangeli.net/ngc4216.jpg
(70 minutes total, Orion ST120)
It's a bit noisier than I'd normally leave an image, but I wanted to bring out the faint galaxies around the main three. If you look in the lower right, you can see at least 3 more.
Enjoy!
