30 November '08 Bonny Doon

Jamie Dillon

I spent the chunk of the night finding more galaxies in Eridanus. They're pretty much endless in that stretch of the winter sky. Did meanwhile find my first PN that's not on the ngc/ic lists, PK 215-30.1. Not counting Jones 1 which I finally saw in Felix at this last CalStar. This planetary is in Lepus, very bright, just showed a disk, and popped thru the OIII. Gottlieb's NGC+ gives dimensions of 871"X670", so I was clearly looking only at the bright core.

Did try for a trio of galaxies that Carter Scholtz had been looking at earlier in his 12.5, 6928-30 in Delphinus. Didn't show up in my 11, though they were there all right in Hurtado's 18. Did, however, "discover" a tight trio of galaxies in Eridanus, 1721-5-8, just to the south of 1723 which I was looking for in the first place. 4 galaxies for the price of one, nice. Those three are a Miles Paul trio, s'there.

Joe Bob at one point astutely pointed out that Mira was at its maximum and very bright overhead. I swear the night before at the Peak I was looking at the head of Cetus and idly thinking there was an extra bright star there and very vaguely remembering Mira. Thanks to Jardine, we could all admire it being all orangey.

Oh yeah and the view of M42 in Tony Hurtado's 18 got into my notes. Just stunning, texture for days, and a bluer color than I've ever seen live in the Orion Nebula.

I really appreciate being able to observe at Bonny Doon. People as noted are great, the place is beautiful, and it's a cake drive from Salinas. There, now we're proceeding into 2009 for more of this!

DDK