[AZ-Observing] The Weather Gods Smiled...
- From: Andrew Cooper <acooper@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TAAA Forum <taaaforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, AZ-Observing <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, Chartmarker <chartmarker@xxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 08 May 2005 14:15:09 -0700
Our prayers have been heeded, our sacrifices noticed, the weather gods
smiled! The clouds at sunset disappeared completely and stayed away all
night. I setup Deep Violet at the last night of Desert Sunset Star
Party at Caballo Loco RV Ranch outside of Tucson. This makes two nights
in a row. Friday night I didn't take the 18" weather vane fearing the
forecast for 20mph winds, but opted for the Nexstar 11" instead. We had
a good half night before high thin haze moved in. Last night I took
Violet and was very glad I did.
There were observers from Texas, Minnesota and other points north down
to share our Arizonan skies. This made for an enjoyable night of
sharing and meeting.
I spent much of the night working the Herschel 400. I finished out
Virgo! A definite reason to celebrate. Worked straight from one side
to the other of Leo Minor. Now I just need to finish Canes, Coma and
Ursa Major. The best H400 for the night was the companion to M51,
allowing me a chance to draw the pair and enjoy anew the complexity of
this beautiful spiral.
Comet 9/Tempel Easily visible in the 18" with a good amount of coma.
No tail noted, but the coma appeared asymmetrical. George had no
trouble locating it in the 12" either so this should be nicely visible
on July 4th. Waiting for impact!
3 C 273 Star hopped from the NGC4536 and 4527 pair of galaxies over a
few eyepiece fields. Confirmed with the excellent finder chart in
Karkoschka. Small, stellar, no other notable details. 2.5 billion
light years away, just no comprehending that!
Jupiter Dominated the sky until the wee hours of dawn. Took advantage
of decent seeing to take a look. A good amount of detail visible, with
some great cloud detail particularly with a light blue filter stacked on
an ND to knock the brightness down.
After 0300 all the H400 objects I still need were getting low so I spent
a while visiting old favorites in the Milky Way, M8, M17, M16, M22, B86
and NGC6520, NGC 6522 as well as just panning through fields of stars to
thick to be believed in M24 and Baade's Window. I knocked down about a
half hour before dawn to make the drive back to Tucson very satisfied
with the night.
Andrew
Andrew Cooper
http://www.siowl.com
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