[Chaos-l] Observing report: 2/4/2005

[Stewart-Taylor, Jon]

Hi all.  Robert and i did manage to make it up to the Oxford site last night.  The sky-clock proved to be correct again: it was a very good night, although not the extraordinary night we got a month ago.  The fall constellations were where I started, especially with Comet Machholz high in Cassiopeia.  The comet is still bright, a pale blue-green, and somewhat asymmetrical: perhaps a bit bullet-shaped.  No tail visible in either my 10" dob or Robert's 'scope.  M31 and companions were fine sights,  as were h/chi in Perseus (the double cluster), and lots of little open clusters in Cassiopeia.

The winter highlights were very nice, and M42 was well above average due to the good conditions.  Robert was taking pictures with his CCD setup.  I'll let him speak for himself, but it sounded like he got some good images.  About half-way through the session the owners arrived, and we gave them a quick trip through the "tourist traps".  They were very impressed, especially with M42, which i don't believe  they'd had a chance to see before.

As the night passes, the spring constellations are rising into position, and i had a good time chasing the Ursa Major galaxies and the Owl Nebula, as well as M44 (the Beehive) and other clusters in Hydra and Cancer. Towards 11:00ish Leo was rising nicely, and although it was mostly behind a tree from where i was set up (see below), i managed to find several of the Leo galaxies.

The only negative aspect of the evening was the condition of the driveway and observing field.  Apparently after the freeze, snow, and thaw, the whole field was pretty well saturated.  When we called for permission, the owners warned us repeatedly of the soggy conditions, and when we got there it was clear they were correct.  The main observing field wasn't too bad, and that's where Robert set up, but we didn't feel it was safe to drive there.  It's probably a good thing we only took one car, because i'm not sure where we'd have parked the second one.  As it was, we managed to tuck Robert's van on the side of the approach to the garage out of the owners way.  I set up on a patch of gravel which is part of the drive to the main field.

For the foreseeable future, this site is probably going to be unusable during the winter and early spring for a couple of days after any significant precipitation.  If the owners say it's soggy, believe them!  Even so, it was an above-average observing session due to the good sky conditions.

Hopefully it will have dried out by next weekend, which is the officially scheduled club observing session there.  If the sky conditions are anything like what we had last night, you're certain of good observing.

J.

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