Lake Sonoma Sat 17 June 2006

by Matthew Marcus

As Steve said, it was a nice, short evening starting out with four planets to look at. The weather was warm, though it cooled off considerably by moonrise. Seeing was OK to start with, then went to pot, as documented by audible complaints from all over the area :-) Thanks to Kent for collimating my scope and Linda & Norm for lending me a red flashlight to fill in for the one I'd managed to leave home.

I did mostly eye candy, only logging 3 objects. Part of the reason for the low "productivity" was that I hadn't printed up new logsheets in way too long, so I ran out of paper. The objects were 4312, a galaxy near M100 in Coma, 4394, which is next to M85, and 4377, another galaxy in Coma. 4312 is a smallish edge-on with a star near its tip. It's on the opposite side of a bright star from M100, and about the same distance away, making a nice composition. M100 showed distinct swirliness kind of like M51 on a so-so night. 4377 is a small, round galaxy with a bright core. 4394 is an edge-on, with a distinct core.

Steve G. showed me views of a bunch of galaxies, including the trio in Draco (5981, etc? I don't recall the numbers). Thanks!

Aside from that, I pulled out the Ranger for views of big fuzzies like the North America and Veil nebulae. The dark nebulae in and around M24 showed up very nicely, illustrating the good transparency.

Nature Note: Some critter stole a banana and some crackers from Steve's car while he was observing. Nobody heard a thing. Stealth raccoons are suspected culprits. _Over the Hedge_ isn't entirely fiction.

I decamped at about 2:00, not quite last out, but second-to-last.

mam