Brent I, too, like the variety in different scopes, but I have to say that M13 was truly stunning in Jay's telescope out at Five Mile Pass. It may not be that interesting in some scopes, but seriously I have never seen the detail and sparkle and layering like I did Friday night. It gave me a new appreciation for the GREAT Globular Cluster. I'm all for the idea of a larger observing plan at star parties, though. As a new-ish scope operator it helps to have a few things to go after. Also, I'm glad you mentioned the star gate. I didn't know what that was so I googled it just now and recognize it from Friday night. I was lost trying to find M104 and I kept saying to Jay, "I see something that looks like the flux capacitor, but no galaxy." Now I know the flux capacitor is also called the Star Gate! Dion ________________________________ From: Brent Watson <brentjwatson@yahoo.com> To: Utah Astronomy <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Sent: Sunday, June 2, 2013 10:02 AM Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Friday night SLAS star party At long last there was a star party on Friday night at SPOC. I am unable to go to the Saturday night features, so I was happy to see the Friday night party. I went out and had a great time. I saw many old friends that I haven't seen in a long time, both celestial and terrestrial. It was really good to remake those acquaintances. The night seemed to go as most star parties go with just about everyone pointed at the same object - Saturn. Siegfried's refractor had the most memorable view, and even before astronomical twilight was over I was able to see Titan and three other moons. I thought I could maybe glimpse a fifth moon also, but it was in and out - mostly out. It was a nice, crisp image at just over 220X. I wandered around and even after it got dark, 90% of the scopes were still pointed at Saturn, but I did get a look at M3 fairly early. It was resolved to the core. What a great cluster. Gradually the targets began to diverge. Dave Bernson pointed the 32 inch at M51. The image was large and, of course, the spiral structure was blatantly obvious. The sky was not as dark as many I have seen, and so I was not able to see the bridge between the the 2 galaxies, but it was still great to see the Whirlpool again. Nate had the 16 inch pointed at the Star Gate. It is an interesting asterism, but pretty sparse population wise. Tom Watson started early to look at some deep space objects. He had a good view of M104, but again the sky brightbness interfered with the view. Still, the dust lane was very obvious. Later in the evening I convinced him to take some requests. We had a good (but not great because of sky brightness) view of some of my favorites including M64, M81, M82, NGC4656, NGC4631, and NGC4565. I was able to detect some spiral structure in M81, something I am not always able to see. Thanks to Tom for allowing me to essentially commandeer his scope for a while, and my apologies for insulting his aperture. It really is a very nice 18 inch Obsession. It actually made me think about purchasing one. I would love to see what it does under a truly dark sky. If I could make a suggestion, it would be that SLAS assigns some people to target more than just the regular objects. Everyone doesn't need to be assigned, just a few people. That way there will be more variety for people to see. I must mention, however, that I did not see anyone pointed at M13. Congratulations! I was going to bring my 12-1/2 inch scope out to the party, but other things got in the way and I didn't have time to load it up. Perhaps next time. Still, I had a really good time just wandering around and looking through the various scopes. Thanks to all. Brent _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Send messages to the list to Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com The Utah-Astronomy mailing list is not affiliated with any astronomy club. To unsubscribe go to: http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Then enter your email address in the space provided and click on "Unsubscribe or edit options".