Re: Observing tonight?

[bernie engels]

I met Jeff N. out at Keller WMA about 9p.m. (he was already asleep in his lounger).  Beautiful evening with clear skies and light winds.  The evening began with an impressive iridium flare which was -4 mag, but sure seemed brighter than that.  It lasted a good 5 or 10 seconds.
As darkness fell, we proceeded to train our scopes on the planets.  I was impressed with how good the "seeing" of Saturn was at 9:30, given its low angle on the horizon.   The other planets were also quite nice to view.
Next, we checked out the Leo triplets(sounds like someone Fonzie  dated from Happy Days  :D) , M81,82, the Sombrero galaxy, and a few others that I can't remember off the top of my head…
We took little breaks here and there to discuss the local fauna that were quite vocal(barred owls, whippoorwills, coyote, and possibly Elvis), and also pondered the reason why the DNR had cut down most of the trees along the road, which now let in the passing headlights and the farmer's yard light from across the road. 
Next we checked out of few globs, including M13, M92, and a 3rd that I can't recall.  Finally, we turned our attention to the SE horizon, as the moon was due to arrive.  It was quite striking as it rose behind a stand of large trees, which were just beginning to bud.  We did notice, however, that the quality of the atmosphere had deteriorated, restricting the best viewing to binoculars or naked eye viewing.
It was a fairly brief but very enjoyable evening, and I hope for good weather next weekend to do it again 🙂