Cronan Ranch

Marsha Robinson

Alvin and I set up at Cronan Ranch around 7:30 p.m. Somehow we missed Tony! We were delighted to be out under the stars again with telescopes. Cronan Ranch is not as dark as Fiddletown, but when every other place is snowed in, this is really a decent place to set up.

I looked at Hubble's Variable Galaxy in Mono. M42 was beautiful as ever and Alvin could detect all 6 stars! NGC 2225 open cluster was interesting when we compared views between 13mm and 9mm eyepieces. With the higher power you could see how this cluster appears elongated. I also looked at 8 faint galaxies (a couple not so faint) in Lynx.

It was 34 deg. and the humidity was quite high, but nothing made observing difficult or impossible. We were serenaded throughout the night with courtship songs of the bullfrog. It was good to be outdoors again. I hadn't observed in February since 2004 at least. If the weather holds, I'll be there tonight. 9:00-midnight the transparency goes south, but I'll be there ready to observe right at dusk.

mars