Barry Hervieux's 16" dob proved to be the gathering point for those of us that took advantage of some great skies to do an "AHDays Makeup" observing this past Saturday. With the dew point in the 30's, transparency was super and the Milky Way was vivid from horizon to horizon. Barry hit all of the Summer Milky way showpieces and then some, with a variety of eyepieces, and popping the O3 filter in for dazzling views of some of the emission nebula.
One of my all-time favorites is M-17, the Sway Nebula... that the O3 showed off pieces of it I'd never seen before. It nearly filled the field of a 24mm eyepiece! With the great transparency, dark nebula abounded in the Sagittarius Star Cloud, and dark lanes (somehow corrupted to "Ducklings") popped out of the Andromeda Galaxy.
Jay, Katrina, John Davis and I pretty much monopolized Barry's scope for a couple of hours(sorry about that Barry, hope you weren't planning on hunting down some faint fuzzies on you own), even taking our shot at Stephan's Quintet. I know I clearly saw 3 in averted vision, and maybe caught the elusive final 2 though I didn't have a photo to confirm my sighting.
Mike and Cher gave there new telescope a good workout, viewing along the Milky Way and studying Jupiter and its moons.
The was also a "mystery truck" parked on the hill that left about 10 PM without a word... hum...
I also enjoy binocular and "naked eye" observing. I think I caught M-33 naked eye because when I turned the binocs to the suspected spot, sure enough, the galaxy was right were I was looking. I thought I saw a bit of faint aurora in the north just above treetops, but alas, it never turned in to anything.
Heading toward midnight, with frost threatening, we all gradually gave in and packed up, but what a great night of observing from Arunah Hill!
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