[AZ-Observing] Sub-arcsec seeing on Anderson Mesa

     Len Bright has the image-motion monitor running again tonight:
 
http://www.lowell.edu/~lpb/NPOI/rt/seeingStats.html
 
...which is showing subarsecond seeing in the opening hour.  I have
my Pronto out doing some casual viewing, and can confirm it is
near perfect in the 70mm aperture. I managed to just glimpse the
binarity of ADS 6263, the 0".9 pair just east of Procyon.  Not resolved,
but I estiamted the position angle as 160, and now look up to see
that it is currently pa169.  I also tried for theta Ori E, the 'fifth'
start in the Orion trapezium.  At 150x I wouldn't give it any more
than a "definite maybe".
     Poking around elsewhere:  the group of clusters involving M46 and M47,
plus NGC 2423, Melotte 71, and Melotte 72, make a good series showing
the limits of a small telescope.  M47 is a scattered cluster but with
lots of bright stars; M46 is rich but the stars are much fainter;
NGC 2423 is a typical winter Milky Way cluster with a brighter central
star and perhaps 15-20 stars resolved; Melotte 71 is clearly a rich
cluster but another step fainter, though a nice triangle on one side
sets it off; finally Meltte 72 is just too faint for this aperture,
though a reasonably bright fuzz is readily detectable.

\Brian
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