(no subject)

Really nice trip to Cherry Grove dark-sky site in southern Goodhue Co last night with jiawen and pameladean. The former showed us M13 in her telescope, and a couple of other really nice globular clusters, M2 and M15, I think, that showed up smaller but apparently brighter (less diffuse) than M13. There were other things going on, but I think I'm more of a binocular and naked-eye stargazer, because I like a wide field of view. Capricornus was near culmination when we started and was as bright and well defined as I've ever seen it. Spent a lot of time staring at Aquarius (usually a couple stars, barely visible) and Pisces (usually invisible) trying to get them to "pop out" as shapes, which neither of them has ever done for me in a real sky. Cetus was near culmination when we finished. I tend to pay attention to southern constellations when I can, because they are so seasonal; I can see the northern ones any season of the year.

Things never seen before: Psi Aqu is three stars and looks vaguely nebulous ("like the Pleiades on a really bad night" --pameladean); multiple stars in Camelopardalis (ordinarily an invisible constellation); jiawen outlined Lacerta for me with the laser pointer (but I still couldn't really distinguish it from the background); enough naked-eye stars inside the Great Square of Pegasus that I couldn't decide what number was the count for them; Mira (Omicron Ceti) through the telescope, well-distinguished from background stars and very red. And, I think we all agreed, the brightest meteor any of us have ever seen, among lots of fainter ones including one I saw with a nice satisfying smoketrail.