Seven HAL members enjoyed a crisp, clear evening of observing and imaging at Alpha Ridge Park last night.  It was chilly and a little breezy at times, but the transparency was better than average (SQM-L reading 19.18 mpas) and seeing also seemed  to be pretty good.

James was working through some issues with his recently-acquired 12″ Newtonian reflector.  He was having some issues with guiding.  He was simultaneously imaging the Orion Nebula with a 120mm refractor.

Jeff was making visual observations with an 8″ Celestron SCT.  He visited Rigel, Betelgeuse, open cluster M67 in Cancer and the Double Cluster in Perseus.

Mike intended to image the Flame Nebula in Orion with an 80mm Orion refractor, but he experienced issues with his control software demanding a firmware update for the mount before it would consent to moving the telescope in small increments for guiding.  He was forced to pack up early, but plans to resolve that issue ASAP.

Mike & Dan were imaging with a pair of Svbony refractors of 122mm and 80mm, respectively.  Mike was imaging M51 in blue, green and luminance, adding to red exposures that he obtained on a prior night.  Dan imaged the Sliced Onion Galaxy in Leo Minor and the Beehive Cluster (M44) in Cancer.

Wayne was imaging spiral galaxy M81 (the Discord group’s object of the month) in Ursa Major with his 8″ RC reflector.

I spent a lot of time setting up for an attempt to sketch the double star eta Persei with my Celestron 8″ Starsense Explorer Dob, followed by about 15 minutes on the actual sketch.  I used a new Orion illuminated reticle eyepiece and an angular measurement card that I made to fit around the focuser barrel to help with estimating the angle of west in the eyepiece and the double’s position angle.  The sketch was a decent effort, but I’m still learning.  I also used the new eyepiece for alignment of the Starsense Explorer app and briefly observed open clusters M35, M37 and M67.  I continued imaging NGC 2264 (Christmas Tree Cluster and Cone Nebula) with my Vespera II EAA scope.

I locked the gate and left around 12:15 while Wayne stayed to continue his imaging.  He finished up at 3:30, locked up HALO and the park gates and departed at 4:40 AM.

Ernie