IHOP2 on 8/26-8/27

by Matt Tarlach

This morning I eagerly opened my sketchbook to see exactly what I had recorded - they always look different in bright white light than in the field. Comparing to photos in the NSOG I found the dark lane in M12 that I'd sketched NE of the cluster's core was no illusion. And my sketch of the field of NGC7331 revealed 3 of the small companion galaxies to this giant spiral...if I'd been more careful plotting field stars I'd have probably caught a fourth, which is of similar brightness but quite small in the photo. I also devoted about an hour to a rendering of the inner parts of M8 at 160x - which in white light looks pretty psychadelic.

A fine evening overall. Better transparency by a couple of tenths than last Saturday, and better seeing for the first half of the evening. CSC had predicted seeing would improve around midnight, but in fact it worsened when a little breeze picked up - though it remained better than I usually get from home and I think the people who were calling it "awful" and "hideous" may be just a little spoiled. :) Even after seeing went south I enjoyed some very nice views of larger targets like M31 and the Helix, at 80x.

I packed up around 1:30 and was home a bit before 3:30. That was a long ride home.... by the time I hit Sac I was pretty much feeling my way home, with a lot of help from Botts' Dots. In the future I think I'll either stay onsite or have to leave a little earlier.

Matt T