Saturday observing -- How was it?

Bill Porte

We had three TAC members--Marsha, Alvin, and myself--along with quite a few SVAS folks--one of whom (Stewart) was an observatory member who opened up the HGO building and made sure everyone had coffee through the night. The viewing conditions were never optimal, but for a couple of hours, they seemed better than the CSC predictions. Marsha had a productive session and observed several more of the Spring objects on her Herschel 2500 list. Alvin's faint fuzzies were especially challenging targets last night, but his 22" scope was a hit with the SVAS group, and he shared his experience and views through his scope with a number of people. At one point, the seeing was very steady, and the views of Saturn and her moons were exceptional--lot's of oohs and ahs coming especially from Alvin's visitors as they saw the ringed planet through his great scope. I viewed a number of interesting objects in Corvus, Ursa Major, Canes Venetici, and Coma Berenice from Vic Menard's "My Favorite Deep Sky Go-to Tour" with my 18" Plettstone. It was, overall, a most enjoyable night. Around midnight, some heavier moisture and cloud cover rolled in, and we decided to pack it in. Bill