by Jamie Dillon
We had a big ole time. Sky got as dark as 6.2 limiting magnitude (10 stars in the Pegasus triangle). Seeing good all night, 4/5, often excellent 5/5. Saw one moon transit Jupiter and another occult later. There were two big white ovals following the GRS, in line and touching each other. Interesting.
Joe Bob busied himself finding that impact comet again. We both studied the new supernova in M51, SN 2005cs. Easy and bright. Plus the Whirlpool was showing off all kinds of details, arm structure, bridge to 5195.
(This was with Felix, a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with optics made by Discovery Telescopes. Was using a 22 Panoptic, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians and an Orion Ultrablock.)
Other highlights -
5774 and 5775, close pair of galaxies in eastern Virgo, not far from M5. They looked like Cheshire Cat eyes when that's all that's left.
SW edge of Scutum Star Cloud. Was scanning down from the Wild Duck with a fairly wide field in the 22 Pan. Bright skeins of stars interwoven with strands of dark nebula material. Complex and beautiful.
Used the Ultrablock I got a year ago last Christmas systematically on the big emission nebulae in those parts, you know, the Eagle, Swan, Trifid and Lagoon. Was esp effective on the Lagoon, showing bright gouts of HII areas.
Dense Milky Way, sugary, curdly, you name it. Wild and breathtaking.
We had the SW lot to ourselves all night. There were several scopes up at Coulter. And Gator Chaser and several other folks were in front of the Observatory and on Ranger Row. Walking across the whole area was esp gratifying, with that monster Milky Way overhead, and watching summer stars showing down in Grus and Cetus and points south.
OI to follow.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Jul 04, 2005 20:02:02 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 28, 2005 20:03:14 PT