Jamie Dillon
Real close to a month ago now, it's time on a rainy night to describe a really fun dark night at Dino. There were over 20 telescopes in the lot along the lake that night. I was in the end ghetto by the hill with Albert Highe, Joe Bob Jardine, George Feliz and Rob Enns. Mike Delaney, Matthew Marcus, Rob Hawley, Peter Natscher, Kevin Schuermann, Rogelio Bernal and Julien Lecomte were there as well, along with others. Conditions were just fine, with a limiting magnitude of 5.9 and seeing good 4/5.Saturn was still amazing and all wrong, with the rings edge-on and moons in a straight line, like it was Jupiter. Saw stripes on the south and north temperate zones as well. Uranus was about 5 degrees from Venus in Aquarius, so it was fun to see them in the same binocular field. Starhopping in the whole eastern part of the sky was hampered by the raging light glow from Venus. Joe Bob made the perceptive comment, "Strange, that little rocky planet being so much brighter than the big one."
Honestly, I spent most of the night contentedly watching the stars in Gemini, Cancer and Leo wheel along, meanwhile enjoying the industry of my neighbors. Did mooch plenty of looks. Rob Enns showed off the Pup, first time I've seen it live in an eyepiece, 10-20% of the time visible to averted vision after some time getting settled in the field.
Most interesting observation of the night was the Trapezium in George's scope. All 6 stars were very sharp pinpoints. Stunning. I've looked at the Trap thru a lot of scopes in a lot of eyepieces and never seen it like that in any conditions. In Felix at the same time the 6th star was clear in averted vision, and they all were just a little fuzzy. And yes my collimation was on. George and I talked about this at the time and later on the phone, so of course I have no record nor memory of what eyepiece he was using. I suspect the design of his scope, an open truss Albert Highe style 13". Memorable view.
George and Albert had one good time, swapping views and passing dares. The dares actually went in one direction. Feliz is a game fella.
Had one negative and one positive observation. NGC 2485 was my first deepsky object in Canis Minor. Hey, it's a big sky. 2485 showed a small disk, fairly dim with a stellar core. PK 217 +14.1 is just south of there, also in CMi. It's also Abell 24. Demonstrably not there in Felix. Joe Bob had Alvin Huey's book with a very clear finderchart and the POSS print. No hint of the PN.
The night couldn't have been better, great company and a decent sky in one of our prettiest local spots.
DDK
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