Given the weekend forecast, I decided to get work and sleep done on
Saturday, and head out Sunday night instead. I'm glad I waited the
extra day.
Last night at the Peak, I found very clear skies, temps in low 40s,
and humidity about 50-60%. There was a persistent low level breeze
but no strong gusts. The wind was enough to cause the view to
quiver at times, but I did not find it bothersome enough to inhibit
observing. There was absolutely no problem with dew anywhere
(even on my telrad). I was set up on one of the new observing pads
in front of the observatory. My 14.5 inch Starmaster Dob is about
as large a scope as the pads could accommodate comfortably. But for
that size scope (no ladder), the pad worked well, and provided a
nice, level, non-dusty surface for observing. The seeing started
out fair, and improved to excellent during the course of the night.
I hunted up a mix of shallow and deep sky objects, including: a
mutual moon eclipse on Jupiter, the beautiful pinkish planetary
nebula in Lepus (IC 418), several new extragalactic globular
clusters (three in the Fornax dwarf galaxy, a handful of new ones
more from my large observing list in M31), the integral sign galaxy
(highly extended U03697, plus a bonus of two other nearby UGC
companions), and a bunch of other targets and old favorites.
I set up around 6:30 pm, and was originally planning to leave around
midnight. However, every time I would get ready to go, I would point
at an object and such a great view at the eyepiece, that I would
soon go off to "just one more." Before I knew it, another hour
would slip by, and then another. When I pointed the scope at Jupiter
a little before 2am, I let out an audible whistle at one of the
best views I had ever had of the gas giant. The GRS was near the
central meridian of the planet. There was an amazing amount of
detail in the equatorial band surrounding the GRS, including a dark
edge in the hollow preceding the spot, a long train of white ovals
trailing the spot, color in the spot and cloud bands. Just
awesome. The outstanding and very steady view set me off on a whole
additional round of picking up "last targets". Finally, I forced
myself to reach up and cap off the eyepiece around 2:40 am or so,
in order to keep myself from staying all night.
The night reminded me a lot of another excellent observing session at
the Peak on January 6th. That night also took place after skipping
an iffy Saturday observing session, and planning a trip around the
weather rather than the day of the week on which the weather came.
The night in early January also came with a great small group of
other observers, all sharing eyepiece views, observing projects, and
quiet comradery. I was set up alone by the observatory last night,
with John Gleason down the hill doing astrophotography. Although I
missed the quiet comradery of the January 6th group, I still had a
wonderful night, and one that left me tired but full of photons
today.
David Kingsley