MASP day 6

Six clear nights in a row. Wow! My girlfriend came down for the evening, so we toured a lot of the highlights from the week. After 5 nights of hunting down obscure and often faint objects, I was happy to take a mental break and go for the tourist traps. I did manage to get in a couple of weird objects though toward the end, as I took my first tour through Auriga with the Starmaster.

The public came out in large numbers. For a while, there was an out-right crowd waiting to see Jupiter and other things through our scopes. It died down quickly though, so we got to go after more interesting things. All told, I think we had 9 CHAOS members tonight, making 10 for the week (Mark having left on Thursday).

Today I purchased my own copy of the Pocket Sky Atlas and a red light to strap on my head. Both made the evening far more pleasant.

I met a member of RAC, Chris Waldrup, because I saw him driving a Honda Fit (I recently bought a 2009 Fit specifically to haul my Starmaster around). It turned out that we was a member of RAC, and was seriously considering buying a Starmaster 16 or 18, but wasn't sure if either would fit in the Fit. I described how I fit my stuff in my Fit, and later shared some views through my scope. By the time we were done, I think he was pretty sold on the 18.

Robert's scope has been attracting lots of attention all week. The steady parade of admirers continued this evening with all sorts of gawking and the usual questions, followed by high compliments on the views. It was actually quite nice for me, because I think a lot of the attention my scope might normally have gotten from passers-by was diverted to Robert's Tak, leaving me relatively undisturbed.

It was 2:30 or 3am when the last of us finally turned in. As with most nights, my secondary mirror eventually dewed over, which I took as the sign to hit the sack. I think we were the only group still doing serious observation past midnight.

My list:

M13
Ring Nebula
Dumbell
M71
Veil
Triangulum Galaxy
Andomeda Galaxy and friends
Crab Nebula (very tough to see any sort of crab shape, although an OIII filter brought out internal structure)
M36
M37
M38 (stunning open cluster, especially being right next to NGC 1907)
NGC 1907 (small but very nice open cluster)
NGC 1931 (very small planetary nebula with bright central star)
Barnard 26-28 (a fairly large dark region in an otherwise dense star field)
Pegasus I Galaxy Group (a dozen or more tiny and faint galaxies in one field of view, at 121X)
Orion Nebula
Flame Nebula