Montebello 22 Jan 2004

by Bob Jardine

Back-to-back nights at MB is unusual for me, especially with work the next day. However, the weather was looking bleak for the coming weekend, the car was still packed from Wednesday, and it was a 1-day moon, so I went for it. The evening was predicted to be mostly clear, but it turned out to be mostly sucker holes and thin clouds with poor transparency. Still, the seeing was pretty good, and there were some large holes.

I observed with TOBY, 10" f/5 CPT.

While I was setting up, James pointed out the 1-day-old moon very low on the horizon. I took a quick peek at it, and also at Venus.

NGCs 1052 and 1084a couple of galaxies in Eri, easy to locate. 1052 was small and dim, with a slightly brighter center. 1084 was larger and brighter and somewhat elongated, but with no brighter center.

While I was looking for these two galaxies, James wondered if anyone had the coordinates of comet C2002/T7. I offered him a finder chart for it instead, and gently needled him for his fall from grace - he used to be a Dob guy.

Delta Cepheisupposedly at maximum tonight; checked both nekked eye and with 10X50 binocs; it looked to me to be about the same magnitude as Zeta and brighter than both Epsilon and Lambda; that puts it somewhere around mag 3.5.
Struve 737a double supposedly at the center of M36. But which one is it? There are several doubles in the cluster, and the center is not marked in the sky! I picked one that looked like about the right separation (10 arcsec); looked like exactly equal magnitudes (about mag 9).
NGC 925tried and failed to find this galaxy in Tri; I was in the right spot, for sure; I blame it on poor transparency - there were some high clouds.

Around 9:00 PM, I switched to my H400 targets, which were now well up.

NGC 2304OC in Gem; pretty difficult; small and dim; just a hint of it in the 17mm; in the 9mm it is only grainy, with hints of resolution; no brighter stars; I must come back to this one with a larger 'scope or on a darker night.
NGC 2335OC in Gem; this one is easy; right next to a finder-scope star; small, like 2304, but brighter and better resolved; a few much brighter stars (9mm).
NGC 2311OC in Mon; another easy one; right next to a distinctive tight 3-star asterism that shows in finder; small, loose, well resolved, triangular (9mm).
Asteroid 6 HebeYep. It has moved since last night. (binocs)
NGC 2354OC in CMa; this object is on multiple lists, and it is ultra-easy to find; large, pretty bright, very sparse, roundish, stars of various magnitudes, relatively empty interior.

I packed up around 11:00. The sky had been getting a little better during the evening, but not great. Only a few objects, but I was satisfied for a work night.

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Tue Jan 27 20:40:19 2004 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.0 Thu Jan 29 20:53:41 2004 PT