Last night backyard

by Jamie Dillon

Hauled the scope into the backyard last night under a clear sky. Had to stay in town for good reasons, a fun dinner invite from friends, but really had to look thru the telescope. I just checked my logs for this; the last time I'd put an eyepiece in the focuser was 25 February at Dinosaur Point. Had that one night in March up on the Peak with naked eye and bino fu, fun but too wet to set up the scope. This has been some winter and spring.

The sky outside here in Salinas measured at 4.9 limiting magnitude, with seeing decent, 4/5. It gets better than that here, but not often. Best sights were M3 and M5. Those two big globulars will punch thru town lights. Had a pleasant surprise when I went after M104 on a whim. I'd never looked at the Sombrero from home. Fancy! The dark lane was clear all along the southern edge, and the arms flared out to both sides. Thought of Paul LeFevre, for whom this has long been a favorite. Also always think of Rashad when looking at M5, remembering his rhapsodic accounts of seeing M5 when it was strutting its stuff. Last night it was wild, complex and beautiful.

The hop star I was using for M104 turned out to be a pretty double, Struve 1669. Stopped and visited 24 Comae earlier, bright blue and goldish red, lovely. Also, Cor Caroli was stately as ever.

Saturn showed off dark bands in the disk, with a clear Cassini division. Titan was off to the East, with Rhea, Tethys and Dione in an arc just east of Saturn. And yes I waited up for Jupiter, first time in the scope this turn. What a planet. All 4 Galileans were there. There was a long dark strip in the SEB (this was at 0600 UT) and a big white oval in the NEB.

There have been nights when I could trace the brighter Virgo galaxies from the backyard. Last night wasn't one of them. Did have a good view of M65 and M66, but their third partner 3628 was tenuous. Ambled over to 6 Comae, and M99 showed up easily enough, though without details, but M98 was tough. This is the kind of thing that gets me to hilltops, knowing what these two knockouts look like in a good sky.

It was easy getting home after putting the scope away; just close the back door. And you can see I'm not complaining; that surprise view of M104, plus the planets and those Messier globulars, and the new double, were all fun. And it was fun putting eyepieces in and out of the focuser.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 20, 2006 23:18:43 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Apr 23, 2006 08:15:25 PT

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