Equipment: 16” Dobsonian, 55mm, 12mm TeleVue eypieces, Paracorr.
New objects observed: NGC 3607, NGC 3608
Previously viewed objects: None.
Not that great of a night. I did see two new Herschel 400 objects, NGC 3607 and 3608, but even getting those took a while. This night was, sadly, murkier than the Clear Sky Chart indicated it might be (the smog’s still hanging around, and while it wasn’t as bad as it was for the previous few days it was still pretty bad), and that’s all I ended up being able to see. I think I may have a couple of eyepieces that need cleaning too.
To top it off, while I was setting the telescope I dropped one of the nuts that hold the wheelbarrow handles to the side of the telescope for moving it. I never did find the nut, but was at least able to get it back inside with just the eye bolt in place. The wheel on that side was leaning, though, and clearly before the next time I move the telescope around I need to get another nut.
Alas, but so it goes sometimes. I’m learning better now, at least, to tell how clear the sky actually is from how the mountains and whatnot look. Mt. Rainier was looking better yesterday, but still not great, and the other mountains were barely visible. I can’t be too surprised, though, since I’m also looking for pretty tough objects now, particularly in a city. If these conditions keep up I may have to put off looking for Herschel 400 stuff from home for a while. It doesn’t look like I’ll have any observing time for a little while though, according to the weather report.
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