by Géza Kurczveil
good old friends: M31, M45, Comet Linear, saturn. Linear looked a lot brighter than it did on Sunday night. I know it is getting brighter, but tonight it looked really nice. I couldn't see any structure in M31. M45 looked very nice. I was not focused on planets tonight, so I just check if Saturn still had its rings - they are still there.
first timers: M1, M33, M35, M76, double cluster. I started with M33, which took me about 15 minutes to find it (huh - neck pain). I couldn't see any structure, but at 50x it looked big. M76 was easier to find than I thought. I couldn't make out its shape, but I was happy that I found it. M35 was a wonderfull sight. I had M37 on my list too, but I could find any way to starhop there, so I spent another 5 minutes staring at M35 knowing that the double cluster was supposed to look even more beautiful than M35. M1 was next and it was fairly easy to find too. After M35 it wasn't too spectacular, but it was nice to know that I could find new stuff. The double cluster: Oh my god, what a view. I thought that it would take me forever to find it but I found it right away. The double cluster was definitely tonight's highlight. Wow.
I was going to check out M78 and hubble's variable nebula too, but since I have school tomorrow I packed up my stuff at around 7:30pm(just in time for Seinfeld). Though Orion was up at that time, the neighbor's tree blocked the view.
Well, tonight was really nice. I definitely have to go to a dark site sometime soon, so I can see some structures and shapes in those fuzzy Ms. The light pollution here in Saratoga is not astronomer friendly.
Good night and clear skies.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Tue Jan 20 20:58:30 2004 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.0 Sun Jan 25 08:25:49 2004 PT