I took this week off to have some kickback time with family, do a few things around the house, and off cause, to do more observing! So, middle of the week found me driving back to my favorite desert site. Considering that our club has over 600 members I am surprised how underutilized our dark site is. On the new Moon, dry, clear, and warm night there were only three other members. The site has 20+ private observatories, only one was in use. Oh well, more for me.
Location: Anza desert site,
Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
All targets unless otherwise stated were observed with Celestron Edge 9.25”
20:12 Milky Way got well structured.
Hercules
The first target of the evening SN 2021wuf was suggested to me by our friend Alan.
SN 2021wuf – supernova – it was easier than expected at ~14 mag. Faint but sharp and steady star was in the middle and slightly offside between
Ophiuchus
6P/d’Arrest – comet – FAIL. I thought at predicted 12.4 mag and 2.8’ it might be doable with my scopes. However, brightness prediction for comets is tricky business and they move pretty fast. I scanned the area at different powers, might saw something extra faint but not confident enough to call it.
The next set of targets have not risen yet, so I went to sleep for a few hours and woke up ~02:00 ready for action.
Taurus
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko – comet. Predicted 12.1 mag and 1.2’ size. This one was quite obvious in Edge 9.25”/XW20 (118x). Round
4P/Faye – comet. Predicted 11.8 mag and 3.4’ size. - FAIL, likely due to low surface brightness similar to 6P/d’Arrest.
Lynx
C/2019 L3 (ATLAS) – comet. Predicted 9.8 mag and 2.2’ size. Was not as easy to detect as 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko, but I did manage to detect dim round
Two out of four comets – not bad at all, I would take it any night.
Eridanus galaxies
Orion
04:10 – Orion has risen high enough to try for some galaxies
04:20 - At this point I realized that I can’t take another faint fuzzy and dropped down to catch another couple of hours of sleep.