MB 12/2 Staying Warm with Aperture Fever

by George Feliz

Pulling into the MB parking lot on a chilly night a bit before 7pm, I expected the usual assortment of scopes. Imagine my surprise at seeing an 18" (Marek and his "new" Obsession), 16" (Brian with an equatorial mount no less) and 15" (Peter) already set up. I was nearly embarassed to pull out my tiny 10", f/5. A bit later David K. arrived with his classic 7" Starmaster , and Joe Bob brought his fine 10" CPT, so there was some easing of my being "aperture challenged".

The weather was brisk, and there was a breeze, but we were well dressed except for Brian who seemed immune from the cold. The seeing and transparency were highly variable, and though it was not one of the best nights for viewing, the company was excellent.

To give an example of the variability of the sky, around 10pm before moonrise, I was checking the seeing with Peter. The Trapezium showed 5 stars solidly with "F" wandering in and out. Rigel was a clean split, but not Zeta Ori. Castor, however, and Saturn below were swimming away. Eta Cas higher up was quite steady and colorful. It was a clear night, so we were afflicted with the usual light domes to the north and east. The south and west, which are normally the best part of the sky at MB suffered from poor transparency. There was a nice swath of Milky Way overhead, however, and we ended up looking at quite a bit of eye candy.

Actually, poor Marek, ended up on the receiving end of the "hey look at XXX, I wonder what it looks like in the Big Scope" game. He was a great sport, however, and let us all indulge. This particular scope has a long history in TAC, although it appears to be owned only by folks whose name starts with the letter "M".

Examples of the treats throught the 18" included M38 and companion NGC1907, M35 and companion 2158, M33, M31/32/110. What is always impressive is how the dim companions take on a new life, and if seen through a smaller scope, would be showcase objects themselves. Perhaps that is the beginning of the slippery slope down the path of Aperture Fever...

As for myself, I was content with a handful of objects on the DeepMap600 list which were new to me, the usual eye candy, and my first glimpse of Comet Macholz (thanks to Joe Bob for having me "check it out").

The moon cut short the session, and everyone packed up by about 11pm. On the way down the hill, I was figuring out how to explain that skies weren't so good, it was cold, the session was only 3 hours, but that I had a Great Time. I guess the answer is that sharing the skies with friends makes it All Worth While.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 03, 2004 10:28:22 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 22, 2005 11:22:53 PT