6 November 2004

Observing Location	TotL
Atmospheric Conditions	It was a pretty good night although it was windy so seeing wasn't very stable. The temperature dropped down to 48 before we left, but the wind almost always over 6 MPH and gusting to 10-12 MPH made it feel much cooler. The wind was out of the south so this is a night when we might have been better off being at TPO. We looked around for dim stars to determine a limiting magnitude. Around midnight I was able to see a Mag 4.8 star in the Hyades.
Instruments	Golden Gate 7x35 binoculars - Charlie 10" Teleport - Peter
Observing Party	Charlie Ridgway Peter Tagatac

After my first night with the 7x35 binoculars I am really missing the Canons. These binoculars don't have as much contrast as the 15x ones do. And at only half the magnification I am not seeing as much. But they have a good field of view for larger objects like the Hyades and the Perseus Association. Even the Pleiades looks good in them but not as good as in the Canons.

Target	Alpha Perseus Association, Collinder 39, Melotte 20
Time	6Nov04
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	I stumbled across this and knew that it must have a name but had no idea what it was. I have been in the neighborhood before but I guess it looks more like a cluster at 7x than it does at 15x. Or maybe my skies just haven't been clear enough before. It is big and mostly between α and δ Per but also some between α and γ Per. It is supposed to look like an S in binoculars More information on the Alpha Perseus Association.

Target	M42 & M43, The Great Orion Nebula
Time	6Nov04
Category	Deep Space Objects
Comments	It wasn't even worth looking at in my binoculars, a faint halo around two stars. It looked like looking at a tiny Moon through cirrus clouds. But it was a whole 'nother story in Peter's scope. It had lost the molar appearance of the other night when we viewed it through the Tac and was now more boxy. The triangle had filled out except for around the Trapezium which looked clear. There was a faint arc of nebulosity that curved around a star out to the right of the Trapezium. In the most solid portion of the nebula we could make out a dark stripe, a dust lane. More information on M42.

Target	Saturn
Time	6Nov04
Category	Planets
Comments	Saturn just looks like a fat star in my binoculars. In Peter's scope we can see the Cassini Division in the rings.

Target	Pegasus
Time	7Nov04; 0100
Category	Constellation
Comments	We spent considerable time trying to figure out Pegasus. It seems like the sky is changing much faster now than it had been in the past. I think it is because of the one hour time change last weekend. Everything jumped instead of moving slowly along so we get used to its new position. It wasn't until Peter found Triangulum that we agreed on what we were seeing. Then it took a while to figure out where all the bases were. The Great Square of Pegasus β Peg, Scheat 2nd Base α And, Alpheratz 3rd Base α Peg, Markab 1st Base γ Peg, Algenib Home Plate