OR: LSA 01/20/07

by Géza Kurczveil

There was a lot of luck involved in this session. Just before I left for LSA, I saw a sketch in the cloudynights forum, which showed McNaught's tail extensions seen from Colorado. In that sketch, you could also see the zodiac light.

So while I was observing, I noticed this yellow-orange triangle where the sun had set a pretty long time ago (you guys probably already know where I am going with this). I was very depressed by this thing because I took it for clouds moving in from the west that were illuminated by the sun. Some time later, I checked the area again and that thing was still sitting there. Now the sun had set more than 2 hours ago, so I thought that this "cloud" most be illuminated by the moon. And then I remembered the sketch, and the clear sky clock saying that the zodiac light is visible from LSA. I thought: "Surely this cannot be the zodiac light, the clear sky clock doesn't know what it's talking about. Plus this thing is ridiculously bright, and HUGE." A few seconds later I reply to myself: "Stop calling me surely, and check if it is a cloud." After pointing my telescope towards the proposed cloud, and noticing that stars where sharp and steady pin points, I had a big smile on my face. "Hello Zodiac light, glad you could join the party."

Instead of listing every single object, I'll just summarize the highlights.

N2024: a very nice sight. A major dark lane was easily visible.

N1788: best seen unfiltered.

N1365: no structure seen.

N1360: very nice.

N1531: I saw two elliptical cores that were perpendicular to each other. One of them was large and obvious, the other one small and very very faint.

N2359: !!!

N2467: !!!

Jones Emberson 1 (w/ OIII): Wohoo! (Dance around scope) It did involve the most frustrating starhop I have had thus far - thanks Lynx.

Other highlights included M31's obvious dust lane, split of Castor, a lot of structure in M42 and the running man, an unresolved N2419, and an obvious spiral structure in M33.

I'll also list the no-shows:

N1499 (tried with 10x50 and H-beta), Barnard's loop, IC348, N2141 (I blame my poorly prepared chart), Sh2-269 & Sh2-261 (I can't resist putting Sh's on my observing lists), IC443, IC405 (I did see IC410), and N1931.

I packed up just after 10pm, and drove home. At that time, the zodiac light was still visible: the color had disappeared, it had become smaller and fainter, but it was still obvious. Overall, it was a very pleasant night with temperatures as low as 37F (3C).

Clear skies,

Géza.