by Matthew Marcus
Oh, well. I got some decently good views in at Lake Sonoma. Only two others joined me; both showed up late and left before midnight, the wusses.
There were two occasions when bands of clouds covered the sky, but in between it was OK. Mars showed a distinct phase, as noted below, and a reasonable amount of detail. Nothing to compare with the views in August and September, though. Although transparency didn't seem all that good, I did manage to spot part of Stephan's Quintet, as a very faint glow divided into lobes. The Perseus-I galaxy cluster showed me all the galaxies I had checked off in NSOG as having seen. I logged two small PNs, a galaxy, an RN and a cluster/RN combination. I don't have my notes with me at the moment, so I can't remember the numbers. However, the two PNs are in Perseus, a few degrees apart both small (the sort you blink to find), and both IC objects. Let's see if any of you obsessive types can ID them from that description. At about 12:30, the clouds closed in and I thought the moon was about to come up, so I closed up and left.
I did see moonrise through low clouds on the way home.