Planets and galaxies from the Peak 30 Dec

Jamie Dillon

One of my colleagues from my new job turns out to be good for a dare. Erin H, a 3rd grade teacher, came up to the Peak for the first time on a winter night and brought her very cool 11-year old boy Robert. Enns and young Hewitt swore eternal Robertness to each other. They stuck around long enough to see all kinds of stuff thru the eyepiece, and get a look at M31 naked eye, which might have been their favorite part.

At sunset not only were the Moon and Venus stunning, but Mercury and Jupiter were together above the horizon. Saturn is plain stunning now. Anyone with a telescope has got to catch it next chance. The rings are at about an 8° angle, as close to edge-on as we're gonna get this time. When they're at 0° come September they and Saturn will be on the other side of the Sun.

Saturn looks like an artist's conception of a planet around another star. The rings bisecting the planet are surreal. The moons are in a straight line as well, which is very disconcerting. You TACos understand this like no one else. Go look if you haven't yet.

Also spent some quality time in the Fornax Cluster. The triangle of stars that form the hop jumpoff point for the Cluster was way up off the ridge, beckoning. Oh man, they're so thick in there. Centered on 1379 and 1387, both big and bright, moved the scope around and watched those galaxies crowd the eyepiece. Rob had fun gawking around in those woods.

Got two new galaxies in Lepus in order to a) meet my standing rule, and b) have an entry in the log for the end of the year. Spent most of the time watching the spring stars start to wheel up in the East. Virgo was all up by the time I was packing up, Spica all big and bright, and Corvus right over there. Berenice's Hair was way up, and the Beehive was being way too obvious. A real fun night. Glad the folks at Willow Springs and Coe had fun as well. We called it right getting our butts out that night.

Been so long since I'd written an OR I had developed performance anxiety. Still have to report on the Thanksgiving fun at Bonny Doon, and at Ranger Row with Johnston the night before that.

Happy New Year, gang,
Jamie