Nov 4th 9:30am (or so?) …Rise & shine, well, rise anyway! After waking up for an hour, homecooked omelet for 3 –great timing Scott! – with bacon, toast, fresh brewed coffee. J wanders around looking for kids & finds some, checks out the swap meet. I’m so tired I don’t remember much of what else I did besides pick up after breakfast and start planning for tonite. I did forget to put in the previous post that I finally found M81-82 just before we quit last night. We must remember that even though something looks like it’s right on TOP of a star on a chart, galactic scales are much different from our paper. We’ve (I’ve) decided that due to Ursa Major’s timing, we needed to quit tonite about 10 or 11pm, sleep and get up again about 3:00 so I can finish my last 4 Messiers 51, 101, 108, 109.
1:30pm. . . nap time with AC on, thank goodness……later I started reading Astronomy Hacks, the first chapter of which had me in hysterics and then got J laughing at me, so we were in a pretty good mood by the time we had dinner - homemade (are ya’ getting all this great food?) pea soup – and wandered over to the Twilight Talk , Tom Clark’s Star Parties I’ve Known and Loved (or close enough). It was so cool to see what some of the other famous (yes, CAV is famous) Star Parties – California, Oregon, Kansas, Texas and of course, The Keys – looked like. Tom did some braggin’ on CAV and rightly so, the facilities are much better and more human(e) than just about anywhere else, but they each had something special, too. The one in Kansas takes place near a very, very small town and one night the townies come out to feed the astronomers! You know that farm-cooking has to be great. The ones in CA and Oregon have beautiful mountain scenery – his pics were great and his stories of friends met and their equipment kept us all spellbound for a good hour.
6:30pm …time to play again. J notices and we agree how amazing it is that so many people walking by us stop to look at the ‘little’ StarBlast. Naturally, she’s happy to explain to everyone it’s features and how she came about getting it (stole it from her grand-daughter! Hee hee…..no really, she did have to know how to work it to explain it to little Katherine) and what Messiers she’s found already, old and young are all impressed. Tonight’s weather is a little weird, it starts off very pleasant then gets cold enough for the heavy jacket (on top of 2 long sleeved tees), then just as we’re ready to quit early, gets warm again-but also noticed it was getting a little foggy. Deep sky objects are just waiting to get bagged and J gets a few more (I lost track after last night), I think M2 was a challenge, but she found it. Other than the weather, ‘til 10:30 or so, it’s a repeat of last night, we had lots of fun, visited old and new sky friends, made ourselves learn another constellation or two, the fireballs continued etc.
3:30am…it’s a tad hazy, damp-cold and the handle stars of UM are not all up yet, so I try for the Owl Nebula (M97), which I already had but seems easier to find than M108, my real target. Got both finally, but it’s either too close to dawn or they’re still in the horizon muck because both are disappointing…both just very pale, grey ghosts. Oh, remember I’m looking north? Guess which way the great city of Chiefland is? Their light dome has gotten worse since WM moved in – they just have to light up the world, although it still isn't as bad as Tallahassee's is from the Woodville Metropolis. I’ve seen the eye holes for M97 in my ‘scope before and I suspect they’re just too low still. Not that things improved, as the handle comes up so does dawn and by 5:30 I still can’t ‘see’ 109 or 101. Frustration sets in, I’m irritated that I might not finish The List this trip and tired, especially since the folks behind us, who spent more time discussing which wines to open for the evening than anything else, ![Hmm [^o)]](/CS/emoticons/emotion-40.gif)
got louder as the evening progressed and it took us over an hour to get to sleep when we went in at 10:30 – even after I got up and asked them to quiet down a bit. Also, I’d forgotten that I told myself to change the height of the tripod so I wouldn’t give myself a hernia stretching and bending to where I wanted to look. J is doing her best to be consoling, but I just want to wallow in my misery ![Crying [:'(]](/CS/emoticons/emotion-9.gif)
……..NO I REALLY DON’T…. I just want the d**n sky to clear up! I go to bed forgetting to be glad that I did get another gx I didn’t have before. Spoiled by previous successes, I’m an ungrateful wretch. Oh alright, I’ll just try again tonight. ![Super Angry [8o|]](/CS/emoticons/emotion-39.gif)