[AZ-Observing] Good Sentinel this weekend

Well, folks;

I found some old notes that gave a 1983 date for a trip that A.J. Crayon, David 
Fredericksen and I made to find the spot at Sentinel which we have been using 
for 20 years.  Honest, it doesn't seem that long ago.

We had a good star party at the Sentinel-Schwaar Star Gaze this weekend.  Joe 
Goss and Glen Nishimoto counted 29 vehicles at sunset on Friday evening and the 
view of Saturn and Jupiter in twilight was excellent.  Mercury was a pretty 
thin crescent at 120X in the Nexstar 11.  Lots of detail on the face of 
Jupiter, white spots in both Equatorial bands and a large festoon near the 
equator.

Matt Luttinen and I spent the night comparing views in our two new telescopes, 
my Celestron Nexstar 11 and his beautiful 14 1/4 inch f/7 Newtonian.  
Obviously, the Nexstar won out, but I am prejudiced ; ).

Lots of great detail to be seen in Virgo galaxies and I did some observing in 
Pyxis, I always set up a deep southern constellation for Sentinel, it is great 
for that.  As the night moved along we spent two great hours looking at famous 
stuff in the Summer Milky Way.  Lagoon, Trifid, Swan and Eagle nebulas.  M11 is 
a beautiful cluster of stars at 200X in the 11 inch, lots of gorgeous star 
chains and small groupings of stars.   I also took some photos with the 
barndoor tracking mount, I will show those at the June SAC members meeting, if 
they turn out.  You can't tell if you had fun until the slides are developed.  
Before climbing into my tent for a rest, I took a look at Mars and it had some 
nice detail for so tiny a disk, I hope that the close passage this Summer will 
be a good one.

After a long, hot Saturday trying to stay out of the SUN at Sentinel, a 
difficult task.  There were 40 vehicles on the observing field for Saturday 
evening.  Again, the views of Jupiter were excellent, GRS transit along with an 
Io shadow on the disk with lots of detail in the clouds.  I spent some time at 
320X and it was a terrific view.  Once it got good and dark I finished off 
Pyxis and did some objects in Corvus.  The Ringtail galaxy pair was excellent 
at 200X, lots of mottling across that bizarre shape.  Someone asked about "V" 
Hydra, sorry I don't remember who, and I put the NS 11 on it.  What a terrific 
view!  I have always loved to look at red stars, there are lots of fields that 
include stars with a "warm" color.  Well, V Hydra is the reddest star known and 
it proved it on Saturday night.  It was a very dark orange.  A really beautiful 
view of a favorite object.

But, by 11:30 or so, we were getting some clouds rolling in and so we gathered 
the chairs around and chatted about lots of fun stuff:  computers and astronomy 
software, eyepieces, telescopes, science fiction movies and future observing 
sessions.  I became convinced about 12:30 that the clouds were not going to go 
away soon and so I got some sleep for the trip back. 

For the future, I will try and set up the Sentinel-Schwaar Star Gaze before the 
Messier Marathon.  I realize that this will back it up into late February and 
early March, but the temperatures at Sentinel are very nice during the day, and 
chilly, but livable, in the evening.  That's my plan.  I hope to see you there 
in the future.  If you have any feedback about my future plans, please let me 
know.  

Clear Skies to us all;
Steve Coe

Author "Deep Sky Observing--The Astronomical Tourist"
Saguaro Astronomy Club website
www.saguaroastro.org

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