-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [TAC] OR: Sat May 3, 2008. A Fremont Peak night to remember.
Date: Mon, 05 May 2008 10:30:16 -0700
From: Mark Johnston <mark@...>
Reply-To: The Astronomy Connection <sf-bay-tac@...>
To: Tac Mailing List <sf-bay-tac@...>



OR: Fremont Peak Saturday May 3, 2008
Observations using Jamies 11" (felix) and mostly I used my 18" dob and
17mm,9mm Naglers.

Drawn by a change in plans combined with the Sat images showing cloud
cover combined with the elevation of the clouds clearly below the peak
on the KSBW webcam http://www.ksbw.com/wxcam/811980/detail.html .
I'll try to present another view than Jamies already posted great OR.

Present as stated by Jamie were 5 scopes total with Jamie, Rich
Neuschafer, Denis Lefebvre, Rod Norden and myself with still new big-dob.

I had spent the entire day doing a nasty under-the-house plumbing job
from hell (Where was GregLF when I needed him? LOL) combined with a
very busy work week before so the Peak was the Medicine I badly needed
and it delivered. Haze was extending fairly high as the Astro-Van
climbed the Peak and even near the SW lot some haze was clearly at that
level but the muck was clearly very low and below the peak from San Juan
Bautista view. Normally I look for the Peak from 101 south near Coe but
haze was covering that view.

The night was from a Bootes star counts 6.0 or perhaps better later on.
And although some people think SQM is garbage, I like it as 'one more
indicator' so will state that the peak pulled out at best around 2am a
21.5 mag/ArcSec darkness reading which was best I have measured there.

Logged 23 objects and re-visited tons more mostly mentioned in
highlights below.

Highlights:

Milky way was absolutely amazing at 3am and naked eye gazing was
perfectly acceptable. Jamie, Rich, and I stood there gazing at the
bands with clear seperation. By 3am it was high and darkness on both
sides ... stunning. Did some random wide-field gazing near gamma CYG
as well.

Earlier in the night several of my objects were from the TAC Eye Candy
list which I had converted to MegaStar and had went through in detail
last week to come up with a list of the 8 or so I had not yet observed
from earlier sessions. Also browsed a few goodies while at it.
Notable eye candy that stood out were the stacked galaxies of 5985 (at
the base) then eliptical 5982 and edge on 5981 on top. Now I see above
that is a 4th little guy 'on top' 5976 so I'll revisit next time.

Another fantastic area wad on and by M106 which was absolutely stunning
and loaded with detail.
I logged a large number of galaxies there and loved it. I am sure I had
seen several before but just was having so much fun ... kept going.

Jamie has mentioned the area he called me over to see which was 3 and
soon to be found 4 galaxies forming the tips of a cross and 2 more we
discovered in the general areas just outside FOV. Cross was (in sign of
cross form) a fairly diffuse 3:1 elongated E-W 4424 on top, the largest
on bottom elongated in same direction was 4442 and to the left (in dob
eyepiece) was edge-on 3:1 elongated at 45deg slant 4417 and finally off
to the right (east) was the very dim (mag 13.7) elongated E-W 4445. The
last two off to the S-E were 4451 and 4483 which were smaller. What was
missed was 4380 but then again there are so many all about because 4442
is truely dead center in 'Downtown Virgo' you could go on forever ...

After 3AM, had a great time in Sag Star cloud, thanks Jamie for view
through Felix-the-wonder-scope). I gotta say Felix has one heck of a
fine mirror with excellent contrast. After seeing CAS rising over the
trees pulled in 7789 with my new toy and even though low, it was great
to see this favorite once again and with much detail. Also visited down
south the Lagoon, Trifed, Eagle, and Swan all with 17mm nag and O-III
filter and all stunning. Very near the Lagoon was a discovery of a huge
blinking Red-giant ... oh wait, that was the radio tower's light ...

Lastly we saw our old buddy Jupiter up high enough to catch a nice
pre-season view.

All in all the night was amazing

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