[Chaos-l] Chaos impromptu starparty

[Mark South]

Hi,
We ended up have an impromptu starparty at the CHAOS darksky site!   
The following is my report:

Arrived:  ~ 1900 and started observing around 2000
Observers:  Mark South, Michael Hrivnak, Steve Meister, Sims Roy, John  
Miller and Stephen (not sure last name).
Conditions:  Transp 4/5, Seeing (6/7), very little dew, cold ~ 32F,  
clear beautiful starry night!
Scope: Discovery f/5 15"

Observations:

2000-- Saturn in Michael's refractor.

20:40 -  M81 & M 82, 15", 63x & 211x on M82.  Plenty of mottling in  
the irregular galaxy M82.

21:27 - M46 & NGC 2438, OC with a PN, Puppis, 150x and 211x,
		This PN was fairly bright superimposed over the OC M46.  (The PN is  
3000 ly away and the OC is ~5000 ly).  The disk was round,  
transparent, and fairly small.  Averted vision brought out the  
brightness of this beautiful object.  There appeared to be a central  
star in the nebula.  The edges were diffuse and dark patches were  
clearly visible in the disk's center.

22:00 M51-- Gal, CV, 146x.  Hints of spiral structure visible.

22:25  NGC 4449 Caldwell 21, Gal, Irregular, CVn, 60x, 211x
		At low power 60x, this galaxy was shaped like a oblong trapezoid.   
211x revealed a "wisp" northward.

2300 NGC 4244, Caldwell 26, Gal, Edge-on spiral, CVn, 146x
		A thin, long spiral galaxy seen edge on.  I was not able to detect  
any mottling or even a darklane.

2330 Virgo Cluster, galaxies, Virgo, 60x
		Starting at epsilon-Vir, I was able to hop with my low-power  
eyepiece down the Markarian chain starting with M60, then M59.  Moving  
westward, I could see M58 and nudging northward, I could see the  
elliptical M89 and spiral M90.   At this point, I just moved westward  
into the area of M84 and M89 and I was simply overwhelmed by the # of  
galaxies visible in the eyepiece-- including NGC 4388,4425, 4438,  
4435, 4402, and 4387.    Looking at this cluster really reminds you  
how glorious, beautiful and large the cosmos is.

~2400  we observed M104 the Sombrero, and the beautiful GC M3.

We packed out around 0100.  We had a great time of socializing and  
observing!   The Currin's came out to observe with some friends.  I  
showed them the double cluster (60x) and Orion Nebula at 211x (in your  
face view).   This was a great night especially after being run out of  
Jordan Lake last month.

South



*********************
Mark South
md_south at mac.com
http://web.mac.com/md_south




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