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Saturday Night Viewing at Area 51 in Big Cypress National Preserve
July 10, 2004
Jeffery Kramer
I was at Area 51 with my Televue NP101 and Celestron CG-5 goto mount. I
observed for about 2½ hours (from 9:00PM to 11:30PM). The night looked
promising at first, but due to some brush fires south of the area, smoke
moved in at the upper levels and covered about 50% of the sky. The area to
the North was the best with the east and west clear at times. The south was
clear for about 30-minutes but that was about it. At 11:30PM, some clouds
joined the haze caused by the smoke and everyone decided to call it a
night. Attendees included Fred with his 14” LX200GPS, Mike with his
Nexstar 11, Jay with his Nexstar 11, Paul with his 4” Stellarvue
refractor, Nancy with her Orion 80ED on a Meade LXD55 mount, and another
Jeff with his 8” Dobsonian. There was a good turnout tonight.
I started off with Jupiter and it looked very sharp. Detail in the bands was
easy to see. Several other observers took a peek at Jupiter and commented
on how sharp it looked. After Jupiter, I split the Double-Double and moved
to M57. The Ring Nebula looked good and it was easy to see the ring shape
with my 4” scope. I also took a long look at M13 which looked very
impressive. It was mostly resolved and looked very sharp. M92 also looked
nice but not as nice as M13. It started to clear a little to the south so
I took a peek at C80 (Omega Centauri). Even through a hazy smoke, it
looked decent. Turning to the north, I viewed M40, M51, M64, M81, and
M82. Finally, it started to clear to the south and I viewed the following
Messier objects in Sagittarius: M8 (Lagoon), M17 (Eagle Nebula), M18, M20,
M21, M22, M23, M25, M28, M54, M55, M69, M70, and M75. Lastly, I took a look
at C76 - a nice open cluster in Scorpius and called it a night.
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