Pictures! And a brief OR GSSP 07

by Sarah Jones

Well, I finally got all the pictures up! http://www.adisturbedcircle.com/science/lassen07 Help me label some, if there are people you know. Most of the pictures are from the beautiful scenery, but there is a page of pictures from Bumpass Hell observing. I brought my friend Shannon with me to GSSP, some of you may have met her. She came on two nights, and helped to keep me busy. She'd find a constellation and something in it that seemed interesting from her book, and I'd be her go-to, so she could see what it looked like. We played around with planetary nebulae, blinking, Saturn, and a few with ngc numbers I've forgotten. The view of Jupiter through that awesome AP mount was absolutely spectacular! (Someone please help with whose it was!) Even if there hadn't been a shadow transit going on at the time, it would still have been mesmerizing. It was positively the most detail I have ever seen. The comet was a pretty impressive fuzzball, I didn't notice any asymmetry but I wasn't spending a lot of time looking for it, either. Is it going to come close enough to see naked eye from a not-so-dark sky? We've been spoiled lately with comets (oh, Swan!), but it would be nice to have another. I did a lot (A LOT) of eye candy, with no notes. Pretty much everything that I looked at was much brighter and more clearly defined than any other time I'd looked at it, even though I've been to SSP and Calstar! Of course, my favorite M51 was spectacular. I was finally able to show Shannon why I like it so much, always before I've gotten the "Oh, that's nice..." when I've shown people the larger fuzzie next to the smaller fuzzie. But this time I was able to show the bright spiral arms! *sigh* Most of the time I just sat back in my chair and looked up. So many times we just stick our eyes to the eyepiece and hide away in zoomed-in views of the universe, looking for faint galaxies, when all we have to do is look up at the majestic Milky Way - naked eye is still the best! Plus, y'all keep missing the streaks and trails of spaced-dust-bunnies being seared by our atmosphere. Quite a flamer, I think, the first night at Bumpass, am I right? It could have been the second night. It was to the South, and boy did it last! All in all, it was a most excellent observing trip. While not observing, I was chattin’ it up with the Bumpass crew – great having faces to go with names. I even learned a few this time around. So many people who I’ve met multiple times who I just don’t have names for. On the other hand, so many names I’ve gotten to know on list that I just didn’t have faces for. Some, even, were both! Great to see you all, and I’m sure I’ll promptly forget all of the names I learned. Unfortunately, this may have been the last party I’ll be able to go to for a long time. My fiancé and I (and Shannon as well) have all been accepted into UC Santa Barbara and are moving there now. Hopefully I’ll get away from my studies for Calstar, but it’s not looking likely. I’ll miss my TAC buddies – There’s no way I’ll find a better bunch of loonies to hang out with under the stars. Oh… Wait... I did mention this would be a brief OR… I’ll wrap it up now!

Sarah E.

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