by Darrell Lee
I readied myself for mosquitoes, poor transparency, a repeat of Friday night's equipment problems, and especially for wayward college co-eds such as the ones who pestered Renato Friday night for views through his scope. Alas, the co-eds never appeared, but the equipment problems did. The mosquitoes and fleeting transparency were low-level and never got too bad.
Imaging was so-so, since once again I never got round stars. They were close enough that I was able to image M33 and NGC 7023, the Iris Nebula. I also imaged M20, the Trifid Nebula again, hoping for better results than Friday night.
Light glow is similar to Blue Ridge, with obvious light glow to the south and east extending up 20 degrees or so. Some taller trees block viewing below 30 degrees in some directions, and a nearby lake looks like a great mosquito breeding area. Fortunately there was a slight breeze that kept them down. The Milky Way looks a magnitude better than from Blue Ridge, as generally the skies look a little darker. Angwin is only an hour from Benicia, about 15 minutes farther away than Blue Ridge (although it's an hour farther from Sacto). There's lots of set-up room in a dusty parking lot.
With my imaging problems, I didn't chase for many new objects. Ian is just getting back into the hobby, so the three of us pointed out some new-for-the weekend objects to each other. He found Iota Cassiopeiae after I mentioned this beautiful triple to him. It was low and I couldn't split the dim third member out. I showed him that beautiful Struve triplet of blue stars (2816) in IC 1396. Renato found Stephan's Quintet in his 12.5" scope. I showed them both the Iris Nebula (NGC 7023). All-in-all, a good night.
Posted on tac-sac Aug 07, 2005 11:01:01 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 07, 2006 17:41:22 PT