I got out for a few hours tonight. The seeing and transparency were only average towards the horizon, but Saturn was tremendously beautiful tonight. Cassini's Division crisp, atmosphere bands plainly visible, Titan looking very orange and three other moons surrounded Saturn. The northern portion of the planet almost had a bluish tint to it. I hadn't seen that before.
I bagged NGC 2419, the "Intergalactic Wanderer" tonight. I had searched a few times for it before and never located it. Tonight I was patient and knew it was near one of two optical doubles near a bright field star. I got it on the second suspect.
I also got a planetary (NGC's 2371 & 2372) in Gemini. The Herschel 400 book describes this object as "bright". If that sucker's bright, then Obama's a Reagan Democrat. I had to crack it up to 200X to make sure it was a planetary and not just a faint double star.
I bet it looks great in the Hubble, though, or in Jeff's 48 inch scope that's getting made in Texas! (Somebody better let him know there might be portability issues with that thing….)
See you Friday night!