FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Re: observing last night?

["Steve Coe" <stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Tom, et al;

We had a fun time at Flatiron last night.  As your message said, it was wet.  
The rain-soaked ground started to dew things badly by 11 PM and we gave up and 
retired to the Denny's for some astro-chat and munchies.  

All in all, I had a fun time.  We had 6 scopes and 7 or 8 people using them.  
Tom Polakis and I observed some wide angle views with the 6 inch Mak-Newt and 
the 35 mm Panoptic.  The North Am. Neb., Double Cluster and IC 1396 in Cepheus 
were worth a peek.  I have always enjoyed the Pleiades in this little RFT and 
they certainly showed off nicely.  The entire cluster fits in the field with 
room to spare.  

We also had some fun with tinted stars:  Lynn Blackburn, Thad Robisson, Chuck 
Akers, Tom and I all discussed the colors of Mu Cephei and the orange star that 
is prominent in M 103.  Even though the transparency was mediocre at a 5, I 
would give the seeing a 6, because we pretty easily split Theta Aurigae, a 
fairly close and quite differing magnitude binary star.  Evidently Tom uses it 
as a test of the night and the 6 inch split it with a 4.7mm eyepiece.

So, I am looking forward to the SAC Holiday party for next weekend, then I plan 
to try for Sentinel during the days following Christmas and before New Year.  
That is the plan....we shall see what the weather allows.

Clear Skies to us all;
Steve

stevecoe@xxxxxxxxx
Author:  Deep Sky Observing--The Astronomical Tourist
Saguaro Astronomy Club web site:
www.saguaroastro.org

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