[AZ-Observing] Cherry road

As AJ said we finally got a great night out after the moiston Gods were 
unkind to us. AJ, Thad Robosson, Steve Perry and I Convoyed up arriving about 
1815. Good thing we got there early as the site eventually filled up. 

As twilight faded the observing began. Like AJ. I gave the night an 8 for 
seeing and a 9 for transparency. I also calculated a limiting magnitude of 
6.0 at the Zenith. 

Over the course of the night I finished three constellations in the SAC 110 
list: Cygnus, Draco and Lacerta. My new OIII filter paid for itself worth the 
views of the Veil Nebula, Filamentary structure was visible in my 8" at 71x 
throughout the entire length of both halves. This is truly an object that you 
need to revisit again and again to truly see all that is there. The filter 
also helped greatly on some of the planetaries I observed. The Cats Eye in 
Draco showed a marked difference with and without the filter. With the filter 
I noted it as very green in color, Without the filter it had more of a bluish 
tint. The Blinking Planetary in Cygnus showed as a very sharp green point of 
light. The color was equal to if not brighter green than Uranus (insert bad 
pun here). The nebulosity extended well beyond the Green point to about 5" 
diameter.

I also found Comet C/1999 T1 McNaught-Hartley which is now in Ursa Minor, 
having passed though Draco. My Planetarium software (Skymap Pro v.7) listed 
it as mag 11.9. Not so. I found it as a barley visible point of light using 
averted vision. My estimate is that it was definitely dimmer than mag 14. I 
also shot a few pictures. The first being Sagittarius & Milky way rising 
through the trees and also Cygnus & the summer milky way. 

Between my observations I enjoyed peeks through AJ's new scope as he went on 
a messier binge. I also played compare the Galaxies with Tom Polakis as we 
compared views of NGC 5907 & NGC 6503 in Draco. Both are very nice edge on 
spirals elongated 10-1 and 8-1 respectively. Oddly NGC 6503 showed no real 
difference in detail in the 20' compared to the 8," it was considerably 
brighter though (DUH). Between all this telescoping I took the time to enjoy 
the view using natures optics, my eyes. I can remember seeing the milky way 
look this good only once before. The central bulge of our home galaxy was 
readily apparent as was the dust lane we know as the great rift. To me a 
required part of any good observing session is admiring the view with the 
naked eye. I find it helps put the universe in perspective.     
Overall I logged 12 new objects and revisited several other favorites. I had 
planned on leaving around 0100, but the sky was just too good to let go, so I 
stuck around till moonrise. 

Now here's hoping next week is a s good

Clear Skies
Rick Tejera
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