-----Original Message-----
From: Collin Smith [mailto:CollinofAlabama@cox.net]
Sent: Friday, April 15, 2005 3:13 PM
To: Undisclosed-Recipient:@koch.math.ttu.edu;
Subject: Observing Report Saturday, April 9th, 2005

Observing gear in both arms, I walked to the telescope-dotted field about 22:10 Saturday night at Fort Griffin. Don Fritz was there with his new Stellarvue 102DN. I say "new" because he recently acquired it. Stellarvue doesn't sell this scope any more, but quick looks through it here at Emma of Saturn at 173x proved that the color correction in this achromat is phenomenal. There was plenty on Saturn that evening at Emma, but compared to what I would have expected from my series of Chinese achromats, wow! Surprisingly little.
Because I was taking three enormous boxes to Dallas for shipment off to Brazil for a friend, I had no car space for a big scope. So, I had to settle for the Mak 102. But it's a pretty quick setup, and I was observing alongside Don in no time. Don eagerly directed me M84 that Bill Earl of Fort Worth had taught him to find.
The sky wasn't very good, unfortunately, as there was a haze that made the Milky Way difficult to see. Worse than that, though, was the merciless wind that blew with evil vehemence. Not as bad as our Guadalupe Mountain viewing (where the wind just shut everything down), it had a chilling effect just the same (ha!)
From Corvus and M84 we moved up to the top of the sky with the galaxy triplet M65, M66 and NGC 3628 in Leo. Don sent me this excellent photo of the triplet...  http://www.astrosurf.com/ccdaltazao/leotriplet.html
Couldn't resist Ursa Major's M51, followed, of course, by M81/M82. Here's where the Maksutov made life a bit difficult. With Don there, I could look through his 102DN's wide field of view to enjoy satellite NGC 3077, but it was too far away and difficult to search for in the narrow Mak.
Bill encouraged us to pluck out the Sombrero, M104, so we cha-cha'ed back to Corvus. Around this time, Bill noticed it was late enough to search out the southern-horizon-hugging Omega Centauri, NGC 5139. Bill found it quickly in his 12" truss dob and gave Don and me some pointers. After some scouting around and figuring just which set of trees to move up from and which northern hallmarks to move down from (Corvus and Spica), we found it, glowing intensely the way it does.
Bill, Don and I sought out Jupiter and Saturn next. Nice pair for the Spring. I checked out M35 & NGC 2158 to the opposite Geminid foot of Saturn, presently.
Don & I headed east to the globulars M13 & M92 in Hercules. Lyra was coming up, so we nabbed the familiar Ring Nebula, M57. The wind was such, however, that Epsilon Lyrae could not be split. Not with my Mak, not with Don’s refractor, not even with Bill’s 12” dob.
Around this time Bill grabbed his guitar from Tim and sang “Got them windy Telescope blues” Lawd have mercy!
We turned back to Leo and located our own Jerry Hatfield's object of desire, NGC 2903 in Leo. A very nice galaxy to find! From Leo, it was to the southeast, as Scorpio began rising, so we got M80, M4 and in nearby Ophiuchus, M19. Couldn’t pull out M62 cause the sky had clouded up.
It was late, we were tired, and most had simply had too much wind. But the clouds that began to simply doom parts of the sky from observation began throwing lightening about. It was time to pack up everything and prepare for rain. Michael Jarzabski woke up his daughter, a real trooper who stayed out under the stars till the end, about 1:30-ish.
Fortunately, we escaped a downpour, but many slept in more cramped quarters than anticipated. Just the same, the next morning, we all met back in Albany at a simple hometown restaurant for breakfast, where we ate our fill of thick pancakes and other goodies. It was a very good evening, and one we’ll have to try again, hopefully with more luck and less wind!
Tim Black, Don Fritz, Michael and daughter Jordyn Jarzabski, Mike, Bill Earl and me. Survivors to observe another day!