Dino 12/7/09

George Feliz

Compared to last weekend, the seeing was worse - the E star in the trapezium was not steady and F was not there (around 11pm). As Joe-Bob mentioned, the skies were about mag 6 from a star count which is a bit less than the 6.2 a week ago. Mars was mushy after 11, but it can easily be revisited this month from a less dark site.

The skies were good enough, however, to bag over two dozen galaxies (mostly mag 11-12) with my 10", f/5 homebrew dob.

More than a dozen hearty souls showed up and were rewarded for taking a chance on the break in the weather. I did not do an accurate count of observers, but I did chat with several folks including Joe Bob, Greg LaF, Kevin R, Mark J, Bo, Pete S.

Some highlights:

The Fornax Cluster with 6 galaxies in the same 47' field of view (1380, 1374, 1375, 1379, 1381, 1387). This group is fairly low at -35degrees declination, but Dino has a southern "notch" in the hills, so you just have to be patient. Considering the whims of the weather gods, it was a nice treat.

Sharing the 1042/1052/1035 galaxy triplet with three varied shapes: an edge-on, a diffuse face-on, and a one with a very bright core almost like an active nucleus (a mini - M77). I looked at this grouping last weekend also and was drawn back to it.

I spent the last 20 minutes of my observing sweeping up Eye Candy including M42/43, sigma Ori, M35/2158, M37, 7789 and M81/82.

Thanks again to the Gatekeepers who have made it easier for more folks to observe at Dino.

George