CalStar Sept 25-27 2008 - A great time to be sure!

Mark Johnston

Calstar Sept 25-27, 2008 Observations and Comments

Absolutely clear and gorgous 3 nights of great observing. SQM readings in 21.45 to 21.55 range with Friday being my best night.

Camped near Albert Highe, Greg LaFlamme, Scott Baker, Jamie Dillon, David Kingsley, Joe-Bob, Greg Claytor, and a first time acquaintance of Ex Brigadeer General 'George' who handed out K-Rations (great guy).

Observed with the 18" f/3.7 StarMaster for most everything.

Thursday 26 new objects and tons of favorites to kick off the Party

Messier 101 'Fairwell Tour' to kick off CalStar right. Several knots were combined with lots of structure in M101 and the realization that one know was actually a galaxy, NGC5471. Lots of poking around as Sag will be gone soon enough now. Toured the south for several Barnards and a visual of 'The Dark Horse' (huge area) Tracked down the little IC4617 galaxy between M13 (also very nice) and NGC6207. Bunch of candy and of course M24 with B92,91 and a favorite open cluster, NGC6603 Galaxy clusters were my CalStar focus but only got to a couple this nite: AGC262 is a group around NGC708 which has a very kool 'Asterism of 4 Galaxies' (nice). Started to work AGC2197, a Hercules group including NGC6146 but too low so re-did Fri.

Friday 56 new objects and a slew of oldies but goodies beyond that. Day started out at Chez Dans with welcome food and friends as well as a few hundred un-invited guests we shall call 'The Ladies' (yellow jackets). And thanks Dan for letting me mess with the ukulele and guitar for a while.

Early candy was M24 with 6603, Barnard 92 and 91, shared views with folks. Lagoon view easily showed the nebulous region just towards SAG.

Working the following galaxy clusters or groups was the bulk of the fun. AGC 2197 in upper Hercules was the starter as it needed to be early on. Huge cluster in And around dual Gal NGC508/507 in PSC This is a GREAT area Group around Ngc80 and 83 as dominant members (Not an AGC) Several little groups very near NGC383 with plenty of 'bright' members.

Jones 1 around 1am was being talked about a lot so pulled it up and, yes, SWEET!

Barnards E was lookin fine in 35mm Panoptic Later on Flame Nebula, Horsehead where head shape was seen (roughly of course) Orion nebula in amazing glory with an easy 6-star Trapezium. Messier 35 and daughter cluster NGC2158

Finally sitting way back and looking at Cas, DblCluster, AndGalaxy, Auriga in binoculars and time to hit the sack just after 4.

Saturday Night Just over 40 new observations with a lot of objects to round out and wittle down DeepMap (above -50) to just 3 left. Also picked up a few straglers to finish TAC Eye Candy list. I have to say a few of the TAC Eye Candy list is really just 'hard stuff'.

Did a lot of requests and recommendations including Rashad's recommendation of NGC7332/7339 (great pick) and all sorts of objects Greg Laflamme kept calling out ...

Just 'had to' find NGC 1 and 2 which were no big deal but what made them good was they start out an whole little half-circle of galaxies.

Triangulum held a couple areas like the group around NGC740 and a surprise discovery of a very nice 'triangulum of galaxies' in the same orientation as Triangulum and within it as well. These start at NGC769 and then 3 more 'pairs' widen out North-East