by Lance Boehm
I was using Turley's ex Orion XT12 dob (which we discovered as the night went on appears the primary is pinched...have to take care of that).
The night started out damp with decent seeing. After about 90 min of darkness things started to dry out a bit, and it seemed the sky got brighter. Seeing diminished as well. The wind whipped up a bit making us all colder than it really was (37 deg F). The catalytic heater was a popular item tonight!
Around 9PM seeing really became excellent right up until the great obliterator came up about quarter after 10PM.
Targets:
M37 was first target of the night, beautiful as always. Definitely my fav winter open cluster.
Comet Machholz - still naked eye, very bright core with a bit of elongation. Greg took a very nice photo which revealed a long thin tail.
M81/M82 - both nicely framed at 55x using the 27mm Panoptic. They were still in the Eastern muck we all know too well at MB.
M42 - very nice with OIII filter and a 17mm Nagler. After examining the textures, removed the filter and added a 2X PowerMate to see if all 6 stars in the Trapezium were possible. Dennis had them first in his C11. I found them in the Dob soon thereafter.
Double cluster - a beautiful sight using the 35mm Panoptic (and Marek's Paracorr, thanks Marek!). Perfectly framed in that eyepiece.
M78 and NGC 2071 - they seemed a bit too dark with an OIII in the 31mm Nagler. A UHC filter seemed to bring them out better, without being too dark. Didn't spend much time looking at these...need to revisit them next time out.
M46 and NGC2438 - first time ever looking at these. Outstanding in the 17mm Nagler.
M47 - first time for this object as well. Very bright open cluster.
M35 - Marek and I traded views between my dob and his 80mm refractor. Brighter in the dob of course, but the wide field offered by the refractor seemed to add something to this object.
Last and certainly not least - Saturn. Absolutely rock steady at 352X (17mm Nagler and 4X PowerMate). Best view of Saturn I've ever had in my lifetime. A, B, and C rings were easily visible, as was the Cassini Division. This was the first time I plainly saw the Encke Minimum as well. Dark belts and bright zones were plentiful on the globe. Sorry if I'm rambling here, but I still can't believe how good Saturn looked tonight.
Thanks Marek for showing us the new objects I mention above!
The wife and I were last to leave around 10:45PM, locking the gate behind us. No deer were spotted on the way down (my wife always likes to them as we're descending towards the 280).
I'm going to sleep with a HUGE grin on my face. Sweet sweet photons!
Posted on tac-sfbayarea Jan 30, 2005 09:39:40 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 30, 2005 18:41:15 PT