Willow Springs

by Jamie Dillon

The drive from Salinas took about an hour and 20 minutes, piece of cake, plus real pretty. J1 heading east of Paicines, going south and east of Hollister, follows Tres Piños Creek, first thru vineyards, then ranches. By the time you get to the Willow Springs turnoff, it's mostly open wild hills with a few scattered cattle ranches. Lovely river gorge.

As Mark mentioned, the sunset from the hills on Bob's property, looking down onto the creek, was gorgeous. Company was great as well. Ayers, Hawley, Rocketman, Joe Bob, Coyote Lou, Lumps, the Beastmaster, Koop, Cooper, David Allport the genial Brit, Steve Winston the Irishman, plus some 8 other people whose names I learned at the time.

Jupiter had moments of stunning views, with a big long oval in the NEB, and the EB itself looking unusually wide and clear. Plenty of festoons off the N side of the NEB. Also visited Saturn and Mars.

Did catch NGC 3842, brightest galaxy in Abell 1367, the Leo Cluster, at about 270 million ly away. Wide, long diffuse oval with a regular shape. Close by was 3837, 2nd brightest of the cluster, a dim irregular oval. These were in Felix, my Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with optics made by Discovery Telescopes. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians.

Most of the night I stood and sat and watched the stars wheel by. Was fun seeing stars well below the tail of Scorpius, and plenty of stars just to the West of there in Lupus. The False Comet (set of gorgeous OC's around zeta Sco) was lovely. By bedtime at 4 am, Pegasus had risen, and there was M31 all high up. There were tons of stars in Cassiopeia, and a highly respectable Milky Way.

Mooched plenty of views. Steve Winston showed off Omega Centauri in his lightbucket. Later, Ayers had M17, the Swan, and M16, the Eagle, in a single field in his refractor, with the Sag Starcloud just below. Cooper at the same time was showing off the Swan in his refractor in widefield with a UHC, with all kinds of long extensions. Then a closer unfiltered view. Very beautiful. Wagner was showing something real pretty, ask me what, in his fancy binocs. By 4, Joe Bob and I were doing an admiring comparison of M5 and M15 in his Portaball.

Real fun night, excellent spot. Lots of conversation and banter. Thanks for Bob Ayers for his mondacious hospitality.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Jun 02, 2006 11:29:48 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Jul 19, 2006 11:55:13 PT