Coe for Sat 1/20 ... good company ... bit windy with not-so-hot seeing

by Mark Johnston

4 guys total made it up there including Chris, Shawn, and Dan and myself (sorry no last names) so we did share the experience with company. Was nice view Chris offered of NGC891 (candy) in 14" SCT on the most rock-solid mount I have seen to date (it was windy but that mount did not care). Shawn also enjoyed stability in his Dob and had some good views. Eye-candy looked nice last night, the dim fuzzies were a bit more challenging.

No cloud cover with temperatures of about 4 deg C when I did check. Wind was typically 4mph in low points but more typically 5-9mph with periodic gusts to 20+ MPH (measured with my nifty new handheld gizmo). No obvious cloud cover but the thin layers were there judged from transparency which was not so hot.

Was able to track down 15 H400 objects, 9 in Cetus, 3 Eri, 1 leftover in Ori and 2 in Mon before we all called it quits.

I submit a question to all: 'If you find something manually (required) and can absolutely see that something is 'fuzzy' but detect no detail and identify it relative to local stars on your chart can you log it as an observed object?' Because at mag 12.5 with that seeing that was all that was possible in a few cases.

... ok, I justified the things I 'observed' as 'observed' ... nuff said.

Highlights follow if curious:

Cetus:
Always racing in the direction of + RA on the fringe of SJ light but pleased to get this many. Ngc1055: With 2 closeby near equal mag stars this looks like the mouth with 2 star eyes. Dust lane I was not able to make out, perhaps better transparency would help.

Ngc779: This may be more interresting in better conditions but was clearly an elongated edge.

Ngc1052, Ngc1022, Ngc1084 (Eri) 3 Fairly close to easy to do together. Would have liked better transparency to view 1022 which is face-on and may have been interresting.

Eridanus:
2 galaxies and a planitary. This place I will revisit with clearer skies for these reasons: ngc1407: There is a little cluster of tightly packed galaxies here and was even able to see Ngc1400 in same FOV (not H400). Some of these are at mag 14 but I bet with a good night that may be a treet.

ngc1535: This seems like an 'interresting' planitary but there was no real definition to get from last nights seeing. Would really like to see this on a good night with some large Dob somtime.

Monoceros:
Only got 2 as wind was picking up so the last folks there decided it was time to call it a wrap.

Ngc2254: A cluster but was interresting in that you can sort of see a 'tadpole' in this shape if you are sleep deprived or perhaps inebriated (think it was sleep for me).

Clear Skies,

Mark