It was a fantastic weekend! Due to a prior commitment at the Arizona Snow Bowl, I was unable to attend the gathering at 5 Mile Meadow. However, the Lowell Star Party observing site is the lower parking lot at Snow Bowl. So shortly after midnight, I packed my gear and took a walk down the hill to walk the telescope field. As I've mentioned to some on this list, I've shopping a big dob since late last year. I've decided to go with Obsession--a good Wisconsin company--and had thought I'd selected the model; the 18-inch. This morning, I was excited to find three Obsessions at the Lowell event: two 20's and one 18. In fact, 18- and 20-inch scopes were setup practically side-by-side. And the owners were only more than happy to share views. Both scopes were producing excellent views under the dark, transparent skies at 9300-feet. But the 20-inch really blew me away. The Swan, Veil and Dumbbell were simply stunning. When I read reports describing objects as looking like CCD images, I'll admit to smiling and thinking, "Yeah, right." Not any more. Pull down the color and invert the image to get an idea how M17 looked: http://www.noao.edu/image_gallery/images/d6/m17a.jpg I've chosen this image of M27 because the outer tendrils were visible in the 20: http://www.williams.edu/Astronomy/kkwitter/img/dumbbell.gif This image (http://www.umich.edu/~lowbrows/guide/cygnus7.jpg ) captures the depth of contrast we saw in the Veil. But it doesn't capture the almost chiseled quality of the image. It looked like an ice sculpture capturing and playing with light...really amazing stuff. Anyway, I left the star party thinking, "Maybe the 20..." We'll see what happens. Should have the funds saved by August and that will be final decision time. Regards, Bill in Flagstaff -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.
