suddenly clear (Mew Lake)

6:00 PM, 22 Sep 2011. The Mew Lake skies cleared up during dinner. Phil and I didn't notice it at first, at the picnic table, under the tarp. It was astro-spouse Fred who pointed it out. We started getting hopeful.

7:16 PM. The sun set.

naked eye;
Sky-Watcher 8" Dobsonian by star hopping;
custom 12½" Dobsonian by star hopping

8:30. I hung with Adam at the beginning of the evening. He had his little Tele Vue 85 refractor going. The apo doublet has a 600mm focal length making it f/7. He had it atop an old Vixen Great Polaris mount.

We viewed Albireo. Pretty. Tack sharp. He wanted to bump the power but I suggested lower power was better, for wide doubles, to draw them closer together. I couldn't remember the number, the "rule of thumb," I had seen in the Sky and Telescope double star lists...

[ed: "Doubles look their best at a magnification that is approximately 750 divided by the separation in arcseconds."]

Next, we went to the Tim Horton star! I suggested 100x for this one. It would nicely frame the wide pair but, for those with good eyes, and with some patience, offer a chance to split the two pairs. It proved a good. Adam liked it. We were able to just split the tight pairs.

I started wandered about the beach, chatting with members, asking what they were viewing.

I looked through Dave's big Dob. It was an Antares 12". He had a 13mm baader Hyperion eyepiece in while he was viewing M13. I enjoyed the view. There was good detail. I did find it a little dim though. I was a little surprised by that. Was it the sky? Or a dirty mirror? I didn't ask.

Walked about some more. Found Kiron. He had set up the Toronto Centre's loaner Dob 8". I asked if I could borrow it. I went to the Messier 101 (M101) galaxy, a supernova on my mind. I saw a very bright star within the galaxy. I wondered, out loud, if that was SN 2011 fe. No one had any finder charts. No computers were nearby.

I sauntered back to our camp site and fetched the netbook. I wanted to confirm the position of the exploding Sun.

9:45. I viewed the supernova in Bob's Dob 'scope. He created the 12.5", f/5 himself. A beautiful instrument. We used a 31mm Nagler along with a 13mm Nagler. He was particularly pleased with the nice focuser by Moon Lite and it's little filter switch.

After several cross-checks with SkyTools3, I confirmed that we were seeing the supernova, some 28 million light years away.

Bob was really happy!

10:05. Some clouds started rolling in. And that sent people packing. Members started to cover their 'scopes and it got quiet on the beach.

I headed back to camp site. Had a snack with Lora and Phil. Was getting a beverage when the Horvatins showed up. Yeah!

Tony wanted to see what was going on down at the beach, through the various sucker holes, so I walked him over. He wasn't dark adapted so had to step carefully and stay close to me. It had cleared a little! The transparency seemed fairly good.

I decided to try a naked eye mag limit test. I sketched the Ursa Minor stars from Kiron's lawn chair. Back and forth between direct and averted vision. I thought I was seeing more stars than I've seen at the CAO.

Sharmin called. She asked if I could help her out. I headed over in the darkness to her setup. She had her little Galileoscope with 20mm eyepiece on her camera tripod. She wanted me to confirm she was splitting Mizar A and B. I took a look and relayed the good news.

Sharmin was really happy.

I told her I'd look up the separation numbers for her... [ed: Mizar AB-Alcor: 711.4"; Mizar A-B: 14.4".]

Returned to Bob and crew. He's so passionate. He was very excited with the current view in his Dobsonian. He wanted to share it with. We viewed the East (NGC 6992, Caldwell 33) and West (NGC 6960, Caldwell 34) Veil nebulae fragments nearly overhead. He had the O-III filter in. Of course, the fibrous object popped. Initially he was on the east; let me fly to the west, with 52 Cygni glowing green. Lovely view.

Dave was still observing. All the hard core types were here. Hanging in, despite the clouds. I viewed comet Garradd with Dave's Dob, with the 30mm GSO Plössl. Nice view.

Katrina was still at it too. I helped her find the comet, using Altair, Tarazed, and 109 Hercules at waypoints. After borrowing a GLP from another member, I was able to more easily guide her. She quickly reached the target in her Orion 80mm ED refractor with 9mm Nagler.

After a moment she reported it very faint. I looked. It was rather dim. I asked, "How's your objective?" She moved around to the front of the small 'scope. "Ooh..." she replied. As I suspected. She had not been using a dew heater to that point; only a shield. Give us some heat, man.

I took a look through Rob and Monique's beast, the big white 16" Dobsonian. It is a Meade Lightbridge, f/4.5. They had a monster ocular in. It offered an incredible field. I could not see the field stops. They revealed it to be a 100° degree eyepiece, a 13mm Ethos. I helped the young couple find the comet. Their enthusiasm reminded me of Brenda and Eric.

Was the sky going off? It was a little tough reaching good focus. I found it harder to see the tail, compared to earlier in the evening, with Dave's Dob.

We agreed the sky was getting bad again. I left the beach.

12:37 AM, 23 Sep 2011. After the comfort station visit, Phil and I talked about the purported water shortage. It was unclear whether this was still a concern or not. As we walked back to camp, we agreed that not doing telescope-teardown was a real treat...

I had a fun tonight. I had no regrets.

In short order, I was in my tent, in my sleeping bag, and in my PJs. And found it warm! That was a change! I took off my heavy socks and threw off the covers. Tried to do a bit of reading but was surprisingly tired.