CMAS event at DRA. Weather was good. Temperatures in the upper 20s. Slight breeze. Seeing was good, atmosphere pretty still. Transparency was poor at the horizon but very good at the zenith. I carpooled with my club’s president and we had about six other people, some club members, show up to the star party. There was no snow on the ground, which was welcomed to make setting up a telescope easy. I brought my 10″ dob, the club president brought his 60mm refractor on a German Equatorial mount, and another club member brought his 6″ f/11 refractor on an equatorial mount that he built himself. We viewed several objects:
- Andromeda Galaxy – Core was really sharp. Could see M32 and M110 dwarf galaxies in the same field of view with my 26mm eyepiece.
- Orion Nebula – trapezium in all of the scopes was spot on. Inky black detail in the absorption part of the nebula.
- Crab Nebula – I found this with my scope without my O-III filter installed. Once I installed the filter, I thought I could see some more detail with averted vision but it was tough.
- Eskimo Nebula – Saw it in 6″ refractor once, but I could not find it in my dob. I found the nearby open cluster but just couldn’t hunt down the nebula.
- Leo Triplet – A club member found this for me in my scope. Looked good, some detail was lost due to being somewhat low in the horizon, being obscured by moisture and occasional clouds.
- Bode’s Galaxy and Cigar Galaxy – Saw it in the 6″ refractor. Looked excellent, Cigar had a lot of detail even to the edge of the eyepiece.
We stayed for about three hours. Even saw a nearby fireworks show around 8:30 or 9pm. Really great time all around.
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