March 17, 2010: Dinosaur Point

Albert Highe

I had a wonderful, productive session at Dino last night with my 13" f/4.5 grab-and-go scope. The high clouds that persisted all day magically disappeared by 8PM, leaving clear skies all the way to the horizon. Seeing was very good. Six stars in the Trapezium were sharp and steady at 165X. Mars showed nice detail at 210X. At 300X, detail was still visible, but seeing blurred the image making it less pleasing. The northern polar cap was bright and distinct. Below it as a large triangular dark patch. In a southern hemisphere there was a long dark streak.

Transparency seemed better than predicted by the CSC. Even though the Sky Quality Meter only registered 21.1, it was one of those "shooting galaxies in a barrel" night. I logged over 50 new objects, mostly NGC galaxies in Lynx and Ursa Major. However, it was relatively "easy" to spot several galaxies with IC, UGC, and MCG designations along the way.

When I reluctantly packed up at 12:30 AM, the temperature was still 56F with a relative humidity of 70%. Wind was dead calm.

Albert