Hi all, I didn't go Thursday because I was afraid of the humidity at Pit'N'Pole. But I did go to the Wedge Friday night and it was my best night of astronomy so far. When I got my gear in order, it worked beautifully. I think my pictures were better than ever because of my new marine deep-charge battery, which does not shake the ground like my generator did (to say nothing of the lack of noise and gas smell). I imaged M87, showing its giant jet, the Copeland Septet of galaxies and NGC4565, aka the Silver Needle Galaxy. The night started overcast, so badly that I could targets through the light clouds but not focus on them adequately, but suddenly that cleared up. The rest of the time it was clear, dry and still. I was still shooting when dawn began to break. Best wishes, Joe --- On Sat, 4/2/11, Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> wrote:

From: Craig Smith <cs2560@gmail.com> Subject: [Utah-astronomy] This past weekend To: "'Utah Astronomy'" <utah-astronomy@mailman.xmission.com> Date: Saturday, April 2, 2011, 9:51 PM So how was the observing Thursday and Friday?

Craig _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php

I had an unexpected opportunity to go to Moab on Friday to meet a new client, so my wife and I made a short weekend of it (had to get back yesterday). One forecast I saw for Moab area on Friday showed lots of clouds through the weekend, and indeed it was pretty cloudy late Friday afternoon. However, after a nice dinner at Eddie McStiff's the sky looked more promising so we drove to Panorama Point in Arches NP. There were indeed clouds all evening, but they were limited almost entirely to the east and south horizons. Except for an occasional stray cloud, the sky stayed very dark and clear elsewhere. Temps were no cooler than about 62 degrees F - very pleasant indeed. (How cold was Rush Valley?) I used my Celestron Ultima 2000 (souped-up C8). Seeing was only a bit better than average, but Saturn was still stunning. At 300x detail was easily discernible but one had to wait for moments of good seeing. Thought I could make out the Cassini Division at one point. I'm hoping that you imagers out there can get some good pics of Saturn at this opposition - and will share. We spent some time hunting favorite galaxies in the spring sky, including Leo's two trios (M65/M66/3628 and M105/3384/3389), M81/M82 (couldn't see any jets ;-), M51, M104, and just panning the Virgo area. Two treats were the colorful double star Iota Cancri ("Winter's Albireo") and the triple star Zeta Cancri (Tegmine). When the seeing had improved for a few minutes, Zeta Cancri A and B were easily resolved at 300x, with clear separation between them. My scope's internal database gave the separation as .7 arcsecond, but I'm certain that this information is pretty old and incorrect. The two are supposed to be opening up after being as close as .5 arcsecond (I think). Does anyone have current separation data for Zeta Cancri AB? My planetarium program doesn't give the separation for these two, only for A/C. We finished the night early with the field around M86. Centered at 64x, 1.1 degree field, M86 and M84 were so bright that they seemed to washout the entire view. 4387, 4388, 4402, 4413, 4425, 4435, and 4438 were all easy targets in the same field. Sorry y'all missed out. ;-) Kim -----Original Message----- From: utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Craig Smith Sent: Saturday, April 02, 2011 9:52 PM To: 'Utah Astronomy' Subject: [Utah-astronomy] This past weekend So how was the observing Thursday and Friday? Craig