(no subject)

[arkuat]

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.

Comments

[jiawen]

Yes, those were M2 and M15. M15 is the one that has a planetary nebula embedded within it. We also looked at M56, NGC 6934 and M92 -- don't remember if you saw all those or not.

And that meteor was amazing.

[arkuat]

And M2 and M15 are both right next door to the tiny constellation Equuleus, as I thought when you showed me where they were in the sky with your laser pointer. Even though they are within the boundaries of two different much larger constellations, they're both practically in Equuleus by flexy old-time boundaries. And yes, Equuleus is another one of those constellations like Lacerta that I've never actually been able to pick out with the naked eye (or just my eyeglasses).