Willow Springs 3/17 (Sat)

by Bob Jardine

It was a good night, not a great one. Dark, transparent, and pretty good seeing. What's not to like? Well, it was a little breezy most of the night. Not breezy enough to make us hit the sack before 4AM, but periodically annoying.

I had my 17.5" Albert-o-scope, Bill had his similar Plettstone, Steve had his Starmaster, and Darren was imaging with a refractor of some description.

Four highlights:

1. Mira. Animal had mentioned this in a post a few weeks ago. This was my first opportunity to observe it this go-round, having been sick last weekend. Yep, it was bright. Looked about the same as Beta Arietis, which is listed at mag 2.6, but Beta was up at higher altitude.

2. Gegenschein. One of Ayers' neighbors (Richard?) mentioned this just before dark, and then Steve remembered to look for it around 1AM. Sure enough, we all saw the subtle glow, just south of Denebola. It was broader than any of us expected.

3. Sh 2-308. Steve was showing us this object in his scope. I'm sure he'll chime in about it.

4. Herschel-2 conclusion. I wrapped up my 2-year-long Herschel-2 project with the following galaxies, all in UMa:

NGCs 3073, 3652, 3669, 3683, 3756. None of these was much to write home about. 3756 is probably the best of this set.

Bob J.