Cayucos, CA 9/13 & 9/15

by Shneor Sherman

On the 13th, I set up in the back yard. The Milky Way glowed pale in the sky above, despite local ambient light reflected off buildings in the back yard. The early night was clear, with a limiting magnitude of between 5 and 5.5. I immediately discovered that the battery in the red dot finder was out of juice, but using a 24mm Panoptic made the whole telescope into a finder. I had a nice view of M57, especially with the 13mm Nagler, which showed it as a tiny circle. M31 looked good with the Panoptic, and M32 and M110 were visible, and also looked better with the 13mm, with M31 filling the width of the field in the Panoptic. I viewed M22, but could see nothing more than a fuzzy glow, even with a 4.8mm Nagler. The Veil was barely visible with the Panoptic and filter, but it was there. So, a short observing session, but satistying the need for some old photons...

On the 15th, I set up in a dark spot in front. The air seemed more transparent than my first session, and again, the Milky Way was visible overhear, and in a long arc from Casseopeia to Sagittareus. I had replaced the finder battery earlier in the day, and so with the 13mm and filter, I had an excellent view of the Eagle, M16, then M17 - which showed a great extent of nebulosity - and M8, where the filter was helpful but not spectacular in showing the nebulosity (which almost filled the field). I also re-viewed M22, then turned to view M15, then the M31 complex. I looked for NGC7331, but I guess it's just too faint - at least it was in that sky. I had a view of a very faint M101 (I think I glimpsed it, anyway). I also looked a Jupiter, and discerned a band and the 4 satellites, but that's all. I also viewed M27, which looked pretty small in the Panoptic, but better in the 13mm with filter as the classic hourglass shape showed up.

So that's it - a suprisingly satisfying short night right on the coast. We lucked out for four or five days, as a high moved in and kept the marine layer out. The other nights, clouds rolled in by 9 and did not burn off till eleven in the morning. Seeing was good up to the 13mm, but fell apart with the 4.8 Nagler. Horizons were good to the south, and reasonable elsewhere, except that electric and phone lines messed the view up a bit here and there - same for a pine tree to the southwest.

Shneor Sherman