[sac-forum] Re: Antennas Saturday night

...and how could we forget Paul Lind - and the NGC2253 incident?

Paul was helpful and, as always, full of neat tidbits of club history
and astronomical whatnot.


-----Original Message-----
From: sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Spencer, Darrell
Sent: Monday, March 03, 2008 6:51 AM
To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [sac-forum] Antennas Saturday night

I'd just add that the crew at the Antennas also made the evening all the
more enjoyable.  As mentioned, we ended up with decent skies, a variety
of instrumentation with which to view it, and friendly (and
entertainingly funny folks) willing to share glass and wisdom whiling
away the time.  It was 3:00AM before I knew it!

I worked clusters (and Orion) early and galaxies later on.  I'm never so
lost in the sky as I am in the Virgo cluster.   And my 10" (acquired
last year) makes it worse.  I guess with 18+ I'd never find my way back
home.

Great evening.  Life is good.

Darrell Spencer

BTW Rick, there was also a fellow named Phil at the site. (I forgot his
last name).  He had a 12" dob on the tracking platform. 

-----Original Message-----
From: sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:sac-forum-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Rick Tejera
Sent: Sunday, March 02, 2008 12:40 PM
To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [sac-forum] Antennas last night,

Glad to see that those who went to Saddle Mountain had a good night.
Same at
the Antennas.

This was my first chance, believe it or not, to get out to the Antennas.
I
headed out early to arrive at noon so I could do some geocaching &
Benchmarking. Upon arrival I found Joe Goss & Lynn Blackburn there, They
were the only two to have ventured out on Friday. Although Joe mentioned
a
few folks happened by from Blythe. As the afternoon rolled along so did
the
clouds, which cast a pessimistic pall over those who had since arrived,
including Darrel Spencer & his son Noah, Chris Hanrahan, Fellow
Geocacher
Byron (AKA Raptar). 

Fortunately Meteora looked upon us favorably as the skies cleared nicely
after dark. The Zodiacal reached well above 45 deg., brightening the
western
sky, and as the night passed the winter Milky Way was as bright as I've
ever
remember seeing it.

My plan of attack was to knock off as many of the remaining 25 or so
Winter
H400 objects on my list, so I can concentrate the next few months on the
100
or so Spring galaxies in UMA, & Virgo that still haunt me. It was one of
those nights where things went as planned as I got through all of my
list
except for NGC 1961 in CAM. I also has plenty of time to take some
pictures
(On film, remember that?), got through about 12 frames, wide fields of
various constellations, hopefully it won't take forever to finish the
roll.


I finally called it a night around 0245. It was good fix of photons that
was
long overdue. Now we'll see how long it take to get them reduced and
into
the computer :).

Off to lie down and relax a bit.

BTW, Glad to see you were able to make it out AJ.  

Clear Skies 

Rick Tejera 
President 
Editor SACnews
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Phoenix, Arizona
saguaroastro@xxxxxxx
www.saguaroastro.org

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