It turned out to be a pretty good night.
There were 7 (give or take) of us, a blend of experienced and new, lots of
fun.
The overcast skies we'd endured all of Saturday broke up fortuitously as I
arrived around 6pm, just at sunset. Bryan had already set up his C11. By
the time Saturn appeared in the west, I had my 8" dob set up and dialed in.
My targets for the night were
1. Outer planets Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune (I've never independently
located Uranus or Neptune)
2. Comet C/2017 O1
3. 4 Herschels listed in O'Meara's October list
The early evening was beautiful, the sky turning a deep blue before fading
to dark as most of the remaining cloud cover receded. The stars popped out
slowly at first, then rapidly. Saturn came first, and I had the honor of
providing someone with their first view of the 6th planet - this never gets
old. Titan and Rhea were both visible in my scope at about 86x. Bryan's
C11 provided more magnification, but the seeing (or my uncorrected vision)
did not allow me to pick out the Cassini gap.
Next up was a tour of the summer and fall showpieces: M13, the Double
Cluster, M31, The Owl Cluster, M51, and a few others.
Comet C/2017 O1 was a total bust (like pretty much all comets this year).
I'd read an apparently optimistic article in October's Sky and Telescope
that predicted the comet may reach 7th magnitude. Nope. Later I found that
it has barely reached 11th. I *may* have glimpsed it with averted
imagination but...no.
Uranus and Neptune were not difficult to find - I made good use of Sky
Safari on my iPad to track them down. Both were in the south, Uranus in
Pisces and Neptune a bit further west in Aquarius. Both were quite close
to naked-eye stars which helps a lot in aiming the finder scope. Uranus a
very small greenish disk at 86x. Neptune didn't look like a disk at all
but was definitely non-stellar - probably because of the color and lack of
shimmer.
Late season observing is pretty great provided you can stay warm. We'd had
two hours of solid observing in before 9pm! Bryan and his crew left
shortly after 9 leaving only me and Terry, a recent transplant from
California. While Terry busied himself with astro photos, I set to work on
my Herschels:
*NGC 253 *- The Silver Coin Galaxy. This was an unexpected surprise - very
bright, very big, but also very low in Sculptor. I though I saw some
mottling and / or dust lanes, definitely want to revisit this one when it's
a bit higher in November (if I can haul myself out into the cold...). NGC
253 was discovered by Caroline Herschel, Sir William's often
unacknowledged sister/assistant/housekeeper/etc.
*NGC 7209*
*NGC 7243*
*NGC 7296*
These are all open clusters in Lacerta - O'Meara obviously did not write
his book from Washington state (turns out he wrote it from his home in
Hawaii, the jerk), as Lacerta is very near the zenith (e.g. straight up) on
October evenings - not much fun with a manual dob. It *was* fun to see
them all though - 7209 and 7243 are wonderful big clusters while 7296 is
tiny - but each is worthwhile.
Around 9:30, Terry and I had retreated from the cold to our respective
vehicles for a few minutes to warm our feet. I relaxed into my current
audiobook (Ernest Cline's excellent *Ready Player One*). Something in the
north caught my eye - a towering, brilliant aurora shot up out of nowhere!
I quickly rapped on Terry's window and we scrambled for our photography
gear. Sadly he had a camera but no tripod and I had forgotten my memory
cards. He managed a few good shots from the roof of his car - maybe he'll
post them here.
I wrapped it up around 10:15 and was home by 11 - not bad for a full
night's observing :). Four more Herschels down - only about 370 to go!
Nick
On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 9:55 PM, Michael Finch <michael.finch96@xxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
The forecast I heard tonight is not too promising.
_____
Message from:
Michael L. Finch
Spokane, WA 99208
E-mail: michael.finch96@xxxxxxxxx
On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 9:04 PM, Bryan Dooley <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
wrote:
I plan on going out
Bryan
-----Original Message-----
From: Nick Monkman <nmonkman@xxxxxxxxx>
To: SAS <sas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Thu, Oct 12, 2017 2:46 pm
Subject: [SAS] Re: Fishtrap Saturday
We try to be there about 30 min before sunset which would put me there
about 5:30.
I'll decide sometime on Saturday morning if I'm going to make a go of it
for sure, right now I'd say it's a 75% chance. I'll post here what I
decide to do. I'm not sure yet who else is planning to go...
Nick
On Thu, Oct 12, 2017 at 1:34 PM, Erika Steinhardt <erikas711@xxxxxxxxxxx>
wrote:
What time are folks gathering Saturday night?
Thx
Erika
------------------------------
*From:* sas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx <sas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> on behalf of
Nick Monkman <nmonkman@xxxxxxxxx>
*Sent:* Thursday, October 12, 2017 1:02:36 PM
*To:* SAS
*Subject:* [SAS] Fishtrap Saturday
Looking like Fishtrap is a 'go' for Saturday - The weather is looking
pretty good so far, as far as cloud-cover is concerned.
It will not be warm, lows just above freezing. Bring layers and a hot
drink.
Clear skies, (preferably on Saturday)
Nick
