Peak for 5-day Moon

by Jamie Dillon

Yup, we went. Joe Bob, Bobby C, Alan Zaza and myself were at the SW lot at sunset under pervasive high clouds. At 2200 the sky was clear, and it lasted till midnight when another act came in, fog. We had two hours of astro fun and heaps of talking trash and scratchin'. Serious fun with great company.

Meanwhile, they came out of the woodwork on the other side of the park. Amazing seeing the people trooping up to the Knoll for public night at the Observatory. It was like Hallowe'en with all the red lights.

For empirical science, Joe Bob studied NGC 6804, the interesting PN in Aquila we'd been gawking at the last couple of weeks. Czerwinski was showing off monster views of M31 and environs in his 18. Also toured 7331 and its satellites. Plus Neptune and Uranus. Alan had a superb view of M22 early on.

I sat and studied Sh2-147, the huge Wolf-Rayet shell in Cepheus just over the Cassiopeia border, near M52. It's definitely subject to sky conditions. First time I'd seen it, last November on a night with darker skies, it had been obvious unfiltered. Last night it was tenuous unfiltered, more obvious in an OIII, in between with the Ultrablock. Really interesing object, goes on and on, just about a degree long. 7510 is a bright, pretty little OC just to the West. And in between is Markarian 50, a dim little fat oval of an open cluster I finally found last night.

So that's the news. The boys of TAC had what Marek rightfully calls a win. Not over the weather, Marek, but over our own inertia!

CalStar is getting closer and closer.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Sep 19, 2004 18:54:03 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 11, 2005 23:11:01 PT