Observing Notesfrom the Tuckahoe IrregularsThere were three of us at Tuckahoe Sat night. It was truely excellent after the moon dropped below the trees at about 9:30. Dew was terrible early but settled down around 10PM. Before the moon went down, I played around looking for Herschel open Clusters. early on, I was searching in a 35 PAN and not having much luck. A friend had told me that most Herschel Open Clusters required about 200X mag. Sounded like whining to me. Turns out, he was right. the clusters became easy with the 10.5 Pentax (About 175X mag). After the moon went down, the Herschel galaxies in Cetus were easy in the 16 DOB and 10.5 Pentax. We saw some other nice objects including the comet in triangulum. A 0.3 degree tail was visible. Jean found the intergalactic wanderer (NGC 2419) in his 18 DOB. At 300,000 light years away, it is farther out than the Magellanic Clouds. It has a velocity greater than the escape velocity at that position. It is a glob but looked more like a galaxy in the scope. Right before we left, we viewed the Orion Nebula through an H-beta. It was amazing how much contrast there was. It looks completely different. The last try was for the Horsehead. It was possible to see some nebular structure in the region, but no horses.... Overall it was a great night with good company and excellent observing. Randall Willis |