MB 2/4/08: yes, another one

Elisabeth Oppenheimer

Montebello is getting thoroughly reviewed here! Just a few additions:

I never really understood all the fuss about seeing until I looked at Saturn in George's scope. Wow! If I hadn't been so cold and ready to go home, he wouldn't have gotten the scope back until Saturn set. As Marek noted, color on the planet, beautiful definition on the rings in front, and moons popping out all over the place.

An O-III filter and a nebula filter recently showed up in my mailbox, so I was eager to give them a try. The nebula filter gave slightly better views, but it was a very small difference. With both, the Orion nebula brightened significantly and grew defined wings—gorgeous. With the nebula filter, I found M1 right away (I hadn't been able to find it from MB before). Over in Monoceros, I think I made out the Rosette Nebula with the filter—or maybe I really, really wanted to believe I could see it. I think, subject to verification another night, that I got the whole thing in one FOV at very low power, and could vaguely make out its contours.

George noted the Nagler1 asterism. I was tickled by a few striking clusters: the "37" cluster, NGC 2169 (of course, we had to turn our heads upside down to see the 37); NGC NGC 2264, which really did look just like a Christmas tree; and heart-shaped M50.

Monoceros was a fun place to spend an evening, very rich and suitable for both star-hopping and idle binocular scanning. And the Big Dipper was standing upright high in the sky as I drove home…spring galaxies, mmm.