Hello astronomy fans! I got out there for six glorious hours tonight. I started with a Venus observation, and then worked my way through five of the Herschel 400 objects, the toughest one being the diffuse nebula in Monoceros (NGC 2158?) I don't have my notes with me, the family is sleeping and I left my stuff locked in the van. At any rate, I spent an hour on that one.
The rest were pretty easy and really nice to look at, including the open clusters for the Christmas Tree cluster and the Rosette Nebula. Wow! The Rosette with an Ultrablock filter is really fun. 🙂
About 10:30 I had a skunk try come in on me, twice. I could smell the little Pepe LePue and whipped out my laser pointer twice to sweep the hayfield. Pepe didn't like that and cleared out of the area before he cleaned out my sinuses. 😛 Thank you for the laser pointer Duane! I nearly packed up at that point, but stuck it out to get my sixth Herschel object and then got awesome observations on Saturn and Comet Lulin.
I'm glad I did. Saturn is incredible! I haven't seen the rings that flat since I was a teenager. Titan to the west and two of the amateur moons close by to the east. Does anyone know if there were one or two smaller moons above the planet? Especially in the 1 o'clock position? Major atmosphere banding made tonight very special. I can't wait for a Titan shadow transit. 8)
Comet Lulin was the icing on the cake. When Spica got up about 5 to 7 degrees, I took a peek through my binoculars. Sure enough, it was there and plainly visible above and to the left of Spica, comfortably in the same FOV. I waited for it to rise to 15 degrees before I got my telescopic observation in. No distinct tail, but Scott Regener is right when he mentioned movement is visible within 20 minutes. Just think, this baby will travel from Spica to Saturn in just eight or nine days!
We've got to pray for clear skies and an awesome Eagle Bluff event for next weekend. There's a lot to see out there.
It was a glorious night for astronomy! ;D