JHJ said this morning...
>While observing the Messiers on Friday night I also observed many "side
>dish" objects nearby. Mark Wagner has been writing a monthly "Deep Sky"
>column for the SJAA Ephemeris...
Thanks for the nice words, Jane. I have to say though, as in most of my
reading material, I tend to look at the pictures. Peter Natscher and
Andreas Domenico's drawings, which I inlcude in the articles, are first
rate. Thanks for the regular contributions Peter. I have also had the
pleasure of seeing William Schultz's drawings - mostly Herchell 400-II
stuff... another excellent local astro-artist (really.... ask to see his
drawings!)... but the H400-II is a bit dim for the difficulty level I
include.... I tend to go for high surface brightness stuff, so people
observing at places like Montebello, Halls Valley or Coyote (or even some
backyards) can have some successes.
I've been trying to include as many descriptions in my articles as I can
from other local observers, typically culled from TAC's observing reports
archives. My intent has been to give credit to and highlight just how many
excellent deep sky observers we have locally, as a resource to other less
experienced observers. Such a wealth of reports makes it easy to put
together fairly detailed articles.
Mark