IHOP 4/18/09 - O.R.

Shneor Sherman

I set up and collimated my 22", ate dinner, and watched the sky slowly darken. There seemed to be a few high clouds here and there, but the sky looked good. I have to say that it has ben several months since I have been out under the stars. The last two times, last year at Blue Canyon, I had difficulty seeing the dimmer stars in Ursa Minor. Since then I have had cataract surgery on my left eye and was anxious to see the result. I found, during the night, that although (using one eye at a time) I could see the majority of stars visible with my right eye, with my left eye also, the images were blurred - so I will need a contact lens for my left eye. But I could now see - using both eyes - the stars I had missed in Ursa MInor, and they were quite sharp.

This is probably the viewing season I enjoy most - with galaxies galore, as well as some of my favorite nebulae, in winter and spring constellations.

Conditions - Limiting magnitude 6-6.5 (and maybe a little more near the zenith). Temperature was comfortable, mostly in the 40s and 50s. Humidity - a little early in the evening, then quite dry. An eyepiece fogged up once, early. Wind - none, then occasional mild gusts under 5 mph after midnight. Traffic - 5 or 6 vehicles on the road after dark. I observed alone.

Equipment:
22" f/4 Sayre Monocular on an Equatorial Platform
30mm Widescan II with zero-magnification coma corrector
13mm Ethos
9mm Nagler Type 6
2" Omega Optical NPB filter

I began observing around 9 p.m. with a quick view of M42. The trapezium stood out, although I could only see 4 stars, as it was rather low in the sky. I then put a filter in and had a spectacular view of Thor's Helmet, with the "beard" extending about 1.5 degrees. Noticing that Gemini was still relatively high, I took out the filter, and found another favorite nebula, the Peanut Nebula N2371/2. The Nagler showed the most detail, with one lobe brighter than the other and the dim central star between the two.

Leo was quite high in the East, and I turned to view several trios of galaxies, taking my time. (N3605/7/8, M65/6/N3708, N3817/18/19/20/22). I then moved to Abell 1367, and viewed three galaxies (can't tell which). I looked for Copeland's Septet, but could not find it. From there, Markarian's chain was a short hop, and I anjoyed the spectacular views. I turned southeast a few degrees, and had a superb view of the Siamese Twins, just amazing in both the Ethos and the Nagler. Of course, by this time, Coma was quite high, and so I checked out the Coma Cluster of galaxies, and managed to pick out four galaxies (again, don't ask me which they were). I looked for the Box (Hickson 61), but could not find it.

I decided to go North for a bit, had a great view of M51, again with outstanding results in the Ethos and the Nagler, with quite a bit of detail visible in the arms. I then found my favorite Hickson, Hickson 68, a lovely sight with the bright star in the field with four galaxies, in the Ethos. I then viewed M81 and M82, and I could swear I saw the faintest hint of arms near the core of M81 in the Widescan. M82 showed it's characteristic wrong-direction dust lanes clearly.

So now I turned south, to Corvus, and viewed the Sombrero, then the Antennae (another pair of galaxies), then N4361, a planetary nebula. Seeing that Hercules was reasonably high, I viewed M13 and incidentally N6196) and then three galaxies in Abell 2199. Then, seing that M57 was up, I very much enjoyed a prolonged view of the Ring. Scorpius was high enough for me to have a somewhat muddy view of M4. I saw that Cygnus was rising, and I would have loved to took at the Veil, but I must be out of practice - it was about 1:15 and my feet hurt, so I decided to pack up. As I left, at 2:15, the Milky Way was resplendent stretching across the eastern sky. I'm hoping to return Saturday night, and I hope the weather cooperates.

Shneor Sherman