Quick MB OR

by Marek Cichanski

Those of use who weren't going to Calstar on Thursday (or at all) had a reasonably nice consolation prize at MB. Although there was a fair amount of cirrus hanging around at sunset, it went away by about 10 or 11. We had some nice folks from the docent group, and I had fun showing them stuff in the binoviewer (M11, M13, M17, M15, IIRC), and I showed some stellar spectra. Nice bunch.

I always enjoy talking to Leonard, he taught me much about stellar evolution, redshifts, and what happens if you explode an A-bomb in space. I wish I had the time and money to get a degree in astrophysics, and to hire Leonard as my tutor.

I had my usual Fortress of Solitude session after everyone else had left, and I was pleasantly surprised at the stuff I managed to see. Here's what I can remember: (18" Obsession)

First, I worked on M31 objects, since it was transiting the zenith, and I wanted to see if I could see any of these objects from MB. NGC 206 was quite tricky due to the bright sky background, but globulars were surprisingly doable. I think I saw G76, G78, G213, and G233. I also saw C410, and it was the most distinctly non-stellar-looking of the M31 DSOs.

Couldn't see much of M33 due to the sky background, but the HII region looked very nice. There was some quite nice seeing after about midnight or 1 am. Even at 470x, the stars were very small, steady points. There was some distinct, knotty detail in the HII region.

The Blue Snowball also showed some very nice detail at high power. Concentric ring structure.

Saw various Messiers and NGCs. I was pleased to see 891 and its dust lane, 253, 7331 and a few companions, and three members of Stefan's Quintet. I also managed to see the emission lines in the spectrum of the Wolf-Rayet star in NGC 6888. I'd seen those from Lick earlier in the summer, and it was nice to see them from MB.

Finished up with a few winter objects - Auriga Messiers, M35, and M42. Six stars in the Trapezium even though it was near the horizon.

So, a good night at MB. Would have been nice to have been at Calstar, but this was good too. Looking forward to LSA on Friday and Saturday nights!

Marek