Location: Anza desert site,
Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
Wanted to start my 4th of July break with observing. However, high clouds were rolling through most of the weekend. At least I managed to squeeze a session at the holiday end. In summer you have to watch for thunderstorms. They are hard to forecast and each year I have at least one trip where I pack and drive to the desert just to turn around and go back because of unexpected clouds and rain. Another hazard is wildfires. Every time I plan a trip I always check before leaving to make sure that none are burning in the vicinity of the route or location. The smoke is harder to avoid. This time I smelled it in the air, and despite clear and dry weather the sky at night had grayish undertone, with Milky Way less vivid than on the last trip. Still I proceeded to make as much of this session as possible.
Many galaxy-rich constellations are clustered around spring, which is storm season here at California. Often the only chance to log a few targets from them is the early summer. But there are so many of them, and they moving fast towards western, the most light polluted portion of the Anza sky. Well, what can you do but try?
I have started at 21:40 with arrival of astronomical darkness.
Virgo galaxies (all observed with 9.25” Edge HD
Booties galaxies (all observed with 9.25” Edge HD
GK Boo (ALI 367) – double star in the same
Hunting faint fuzzies at the detection limit is a good challenge but very taxing. By midnight I have run out of juice. Jupiter was beckoning in the east, but it was still too low for a good view and I was too exhausted to wait. Next time!