Fiddletown 3/5 - Hard-core Report

by Shneor Sherman


A number of less-than-intrepid observers left by 11 or 11:30 due to the damp conditions, but those of us who persevered found improved ocnditions after 12:30 - secondaries ceased to dew up, although eyepieces still occasionally collected a bit of moisture. Some more folks left around 1:30-2 and at the end, Dennis, Darryl and I were left; Dennis and Darryl went to sleep while I had begun to pack. I left around 4.

I spent quite a bit of time in Virgo and did have a decent view of Markarian's Chain when it was culminating, as well as a number of other galaxies, inlcuding a very nice view of the Siamese Twins at 250x. I moved to Corvus for a quick comparative view of the Antennae, another set of interacting galaxies; I prefer the Siamese Twins. I also spent time in the bowl of the Big Dipper, but was disappointed at the paucity of galaxies visible. I did have a good view of M51 as it was nearly at the zenith, and finished with an excellent view of the Ring Nebula.

Dennis Beckley found Omega Cantauri in my 10x50s, and it, as well as the Hamburger Galaxy were visible close to the horizon. Unfortunately, trees blocked the view from where my telescope was set up.

Speaking of my telescope, it has something of an otherwordly view now, as the secondary, at night, appears to be suspended in midair, thanks to Bruce Sayre's latest innovation, using stainless steel wire to maintain the secondary in place. Surprisingly - to me at least - the secondary is more stable than it was with vanes. And the diffraction pattern is unique.

It was certainy a lot of fun seeing folks again after a long hiatus. I'm planning to be out again next Saturday night, but will probably miss the next new moon as I'm hoping to join Keith Mullen in the southeastern corner of Arizona for a couple of nights at that time. He claims to have mag 7.2 skies. That's an easy test - we'll just see if M81 is visible naked-eye. I've seen that twice before. I just hope the weather cooperates, because it rained there April 1 last year.


Posted on tac-sac Mar 06, 2005 18:40:51 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 12, 2005 10:00:25 PT