Comet VZ13

by Renato del Rosario

I found the transparency to be mostly marginal on Thursday night, with the sky appearing hazy periodically. Darrell Lee referred to this condition as "teasing". I had the worst view of 101 on this night.

Fortunately, the sky transparency on Friday and Saturday nights at Shingletown improved significantly. I spent most of the early evening until midnight observing galaxies in Draco and Canes Venatici. Towards 1AM, the transparency became somewhat less optimal. I could only see 4627 (small companion to 4631) with averted vision and at higher power. (At Angwin, I had no difficulty picking this up under very good transparency.) After I finished packing at 3:30 on Friday night (Sat AM), the transparency turned very good (naturally, of course). I could tease out M33 with my naked eye. Indeed on this early morning, M101 appeared immensely better with my 10x50 binoculars vs. my view through the 12.5 the night before! I've never panned the Milky Way under a dark sky using binoculars. I didn't know what I was missing until that morning. With the same binoculars, M31 and its companion galaxies looked almost as good as my low power view using Bob (Drane's) Stellarvue 102 APO at the Devasted Area in the Summer of 2004.

I felt the Public Star Party was a huge success, in part due to the favorable weather. We had family visitors on Sat. and they were thrilled with the public event. Upon returning to the Brokeoff Cabins around 11pm, I set up my 12.5 and spent the next 1.5 hrs entertaining our guests and Arlene (owner) with the usual eye candies. When they retired to bed, I stayed up until close to 3am chasing planetaries and various nebulae in Cygnus and Cassiopeia using O'Meara's book "Hidden Treasures". I finally got my memorable hight power view of 7008 after futile attempts on Wed and Thursday.

I hope these notes complement Darrell's earlier post.

Clears,
Renato