[AZ-Observing] Saturday night at Cherry Rd.

Although most folks went out Friday, for Thad and Me it wasn't =
logistically
possible, so we decided to brave the moon till 2330 on Saturday. We =
expected
to be the only one's out there (Cherry Rd), but were joined by Joe =
Macke &
his daughter Shannon and Tom Polakis, who stopped by on his way home =
from
Flagstaff for some naked-eye observing.

I spent the early part of the evening with my bino's and Gert working =
on the
lunar list. Naked eye it was easy to id the major maria; Crisium,
Serenitatis, Tranquillitatis, And Frigoris. Bino's brought Mare =
Vaporum,
Sinus Medii. Moving on to craters, Eudoxus, Cassini Aristillus and =
Autolycus
were fairly easy id's being right near or on the terminator. Using =
Gert,
Plinius, Mitchell and Manilius were found. I also confirmed the bino =
objects
and enjoyed the finer detail through the scope.

About 2230 I took an hours nap to ready myself for the main attraction. =
I
gave the night a 7 for seing and an 8 for transparancy, Thad had it as =
7's
all around. Over the course of the night I'd get 14 DSO's in Sac 110,
including NGC 253 in Sculptor, which was the showpiece of the night. At =
71x
it was seen as very bright and very elongated about 3-1 along a NE-SW =
line.
The center was very bright and it seemed to fade more rapidly to the NE =
than
to the SW. There were 2 10th mag stars involved, one of which was just
inside the edge of the galaxy. There was a hint of the dust lane. At =
120x
the dust lane was more defined and the fading to NE was more gradual. =
To
quote Ken Reeves "some Mottling noted" :) .=20

NGC 7293, the Helix nebula was also one of the highlights. At 71x, with =
the
O-III filter it was seen as very large and bright. Both lobes were =
easily
discerned, with the center of the nebula noticeable darker. I noted a =
very
faint bluish tint to it. Averted vision brought hints of the two ring =
like
structures that define this object. At 120x, with the O-III the center =
was
noted as much darker than at lower power and the ring structures were =
more
defined.=20

NGC 7009 the Saturn Nebula was seen as a very large, very round, bright =
blue
object with the O-III. Not much else to see in this but the size and =
color
make this a worthwhile object.=20

Those were the highlight of the night. The enigma of the night was NGC =
7129,
an open cluster in Cepheus. The Dreyer description says this is a =
remarkable
object, Considerably faint, pretty large, gradually brighter toward the
middle. It ain't so. Both Thad and spent at least =BD hour on this =
trying to
identify it. We noted that OC NGC 7142 should be in the same field. =
There is
an "L" shaped asterism, which according to the Millennium Sky Atlas =
should
point right to it. Nothing was noted where the cluster should've been. =
Tom
Polakis checked also and confirmed for us that we did have the correct
field. He did notice a very faint reflection nebula nearby. He said =
he'd
check his notes on this and let us know what he found out. Later, we =
found
out, according to the NGC project, that this object is not an open =
cluster
but rather a refection nebula, so the nebulosity we saw was NGC 7129. =
Given
the faintness and lack of any kind of detail, I'm wondering how this =
made
the SAC-110. Steve?

Anyway for night with a first quarter moon, I considered it a success,
especially when I take into account my last night out before this was =
Back
in June. I won't be afraid of the first quarter moon anymore, =
especially
when one considers it opens up one more weekend each month.
=20
Rick Tejera
Editor SACnews
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona

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