Sam, I had a gap in my work/school schedule, noticed the weather was clearing, and went east last night to the Echo Canyon parking area in Chiricahua Natl. Monument. Got in a quick hike before observing a few NGC galaxies through the C-8. In Canes Venatici, I saw NGC 4244 and 4111. Also saw NGC 3432 in Leo Minor. These all looked edge on, as indicated by my references. I had not seem any before. I suspect you've spotted these in your big scopes too. 4244 in particular seemed to beg for more aperture. Looked a little like 4565. Long and thin. 4111 had an intriguing bright, almost starlike core. I spent the rest of the night going after Messier stuff again. I had forgotten that M56 and M71 were such pretty globulars, sitting as they are in a rich Milky Way star field. I also went after M10, M12, M27, Harvard 20 (open cluster), Jupiter, and Mars. Seeing was in the 4-5 range, but transparency was nice . . . probably in the 8-9 range. There were just a few whispy clouds which didn't really seem to come in until I left at about 3. The wind was minimal, and diminished as the night went on. Other hi-lights (lowlights?): Found a fly in my salad in a Benson restaurant. :( And on the return, my car started sputtering and missing. Once or twice I thought I'd be calling the tow truck. I limped home, so I'll call it a very enjoyable evening under clear, starry skies. Sorry others' efforts didn't pan out. Better luck next time. Kevin ----- Original Message ----- From: balinka <pegsam@xxxxxxxxxxx> To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> Sent: Sunday, June 01, 2003 11:26 AM Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: The Up and Down of It > I got a late start out of Tucson on Friday and managed to get stuck on I-10 > for about 1 1/2 hours waiting for an accident to clear near Riggs Road. I > resigned myself to showing up late on Cherry Road and having to set up in > the dark. Skies were fairly clear up until Black Canyon City and then I > started to get a good idea of what may be in store at Cherry Road. By the > time I got to SR 169 it was raining pretty hard and there was no clear sky - > anywhere. There were about 10 people there when I arrived at NASP and we > spent most of the evening chatting. We all turned in around 11 PM and I set > the alarm for 1:30, convinced that this stuff was going to blow off. I got > up only to see some very small sucker holes and light sprinkles. Back to bed > for a good night's sleep. I woke up the next morning to sprinkles and > overcast skies. The sun didn't make its first appearance until about 1 PM > and then the exiting cloud layer dissipated and was being replaced by a huge > storm cell to the east. The rest of the skies looked promising so we > fastened everything down and waited for the cell to hit. Fortunately, > nothing but a bit of wind and then it basically traveled north - towards > MMSS I assumed. > > The skies cleared up by 7 PM for some substandard Az viewing, but given the > previous night's record nobody complained. Seeing was about 4 - 5 and > transparency was about the same, becoming a little worse past midnight. > Steve Coe showed up around 11 PM, verifying the accuracy of Clear Sky Clock, > at least with respect to the Flagstaff / Cherry Road forecasts. Not a great > night for viewing, but the company was good and I at least got to set up the > telescope and do some viewing. > > BTW, the ants were a little more numerous than some of you reported, but > they were very well behaved and did not bother anyone. > > Sam Rua > Tucson > > -- > See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please > send personal replies to the author, not the list. > -- See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please send personal replies to the author, not the list.