OR Peak for 5-day Moon

Yup, we went. Joe Bob, Bobby C, Alan Zaza and myself were at the SW
lot at sunset under pervasive high clouds. At 2200 the sky was clear,
and it lasted till midnight when another act came in, fog. We had two
hours of astro fun and heaps of talking trash and scratchin'. Serious
fun with great company.

Meanwhile, they came out of the woodwork on the other side of the
park. Amazing seeing the people trooping up to the Knoll for public
night at the Observatory. It was like Hallowe'en with all the red
lights.

For empirical science, Joe Bob studied NGC 6804, the interesting PN
in Aquila we'd been gawking at the last couple of weeks. Czerwinski
was showing off monster views of M31 and environs in his 18. Also
toured 7331 and its satellites. Plus Neptune and Uranus. Alan had a
superb view of M22 early on.

I sat and studied Sh2-147, the huge Wolf-Rayet shell in Cepheus just
over the Cassiopeia border, near M52. It's definitely subject to sky
conditions. First time I'd seen it, last November on a night with
darker skies, it had been obvious unfiltered. Last night it was
tenuous unfiltered, more obvious in an OIII, in between with the
Ultrablock. Really interesing object, goes on and on, just about a
degree long. 7510 is a bright, pretty little OC just to the West. And
in between is Markarian 50, a dim little fat oval of an open cluster
I finally found last night.

So that's the news. The boys of TAC had what Marek rightfully calls a
win. Not over the weather, Marek, but over our own inertia!

CalStar is getting closer and closer.

DDK

-- 
Jamie Dillon <mavericks@No-Spam> <*>
  http://www.winepress.com/jd1.htm   >TAC, http://observers.org
"Kepler broke the ancient spell of perfect circles and uniform motion
  that had mesmerized astronomers for centuries." Michael Zeilik, U of NM.