[AZ-Observing] Saturday night observing at Cherry Road

Howdy all;
A quick report before I make myself a sandwich and then trundle off to bed.  We 
had a even dozen vehicles at Cherry Road tonight and the clouds stayed away 
enough to do some observing.  They rolled in about 11:30 and stopped what we 
were doing, but most folks got something done before the clouds lowered the 
boom.

I set up the little 4 inch RFT refractor and enjoyed some views up and down the 
Milky Way....Lagoon and Trifid, North America Nebula, M 11 and some other 
sightseeing.  Al Steiwig joined me for a while and we had fun trying out 
different eyepieces and filters on a the brighter objects.  I also chased some 
dark nebulae.  The transparency was mediocre, I rated it a 5/10, so the dark 
clouds were not easy to see.

AJ and Dave Fredericksen tried out some planetaries in Ophiuchus.  One or two 
were quite difficult, both small and faint, after several of those they moved 
on to brighter objects and enjoyed viewing them.

Dwight Bogan set up a beautiful new pier for his Astrophysics mount.  Rich 
Walker observed galaxies in Virgo before they set.  Andrew Goodwin was trying 
out his new electronic setting circles.  

The "star" of the night was Alpha Herculis....a fun double star that was 
observed by lots of people just as the twilight was passing into darkness.  
Most saw some form of yellow or orange in combination with light blue.  I 
called the companion light purple and that color was most prominent in Lynn 
Blackburn's 5 inch refractor.  It was fun to go from scope to scope and see 
this fascinating double star at a variety of apertures and magnifications.

So, we had a fun night and made plans to do it again next weekend if the clouds 
will allow.

We shall see;
Steve Coe

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