Telescope Reviews: Tuesday Night at Cherry Springs State Park

Last night was the poorest of the three but we did get a couple of hours of observing time in after the sun set. The highlight was watching Io occult Europa for 10 minutes, starting at 8:41 p.m. EDT (0:41 UT). Unfortunately, clouds intruded during this mutual Galilean satellite event, as they did when Io eclipsed Europa one hour and 31 minutes later. However, we were able to see most of both events, despite the clouds, variable seeing, and wind gusts. We watched the occultation through Tony's 20" Starmaster using a 9mm Nagler T6, a 6mm Ethos, and a 14mm Pentax XW, and my 101mm Tele Vue refractor, using a 3-6mm Nagler zoom eyepiece. The eclipse was viewed through Tony's scope.

Tony located an obscure and very dim planetary nebula in Serpens as the clouds began to arrive. Unfortunately, I don't have the designation with me at the moment.

While the skies were still clear, I viewed a number of DSOs with my refractor and 15x70 binocular, including IC 4565, IC 4765, M3, M8, M22, M31, M33, M34, M51, M81, M82, M101, NGC 752, NGC 869, NGC 884, NGC 6633, and Stock 2. I also took a look at a few binary stars such as Iota and Eta Cassiopeiae, Alpha Herculis, Polaris, and Cor Caroli.

Dave Mitsky

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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.