And suddenly the sky cleared....

[Pete]

Observing log of Friday, 23 Mar 07

Although its been cloudy all day, and tonight’s Skyscrapers school viewing was canceled due to cloud, a high pressure area has unexpectedly pushed the clouds to the south, leaving us with clear skies and temperatures in the relatively warm 40s. The cloud broke just at sunset, so I sat down with Guide 8 and found 4 asteroids to hunt. Once I’ve got my printed sky charts it’s only a matter of about 3 minutes before I’m viewing.

The quarter moon is high in the W, so my targets are all well toward the E.

23 Mar 07; 21:07 hrs. 784 Pickeringia is a 56-mile sized asteroid that should be easy at 13.0 mag. Its presently only a few arc-seconds N of a 13.1 mag star, but I don’t see either the asteroid or the star thru the 14â€

[Dan Chieppa]

Hi Pete,
Same here on Friday. I set up around 8PM and let the scope cool down until the sky cleared. I observed with the ETX125 from 10PM until 11:15PM. As you said, the sky was difficult at times. While observing the Moon I was disappointed with the view. It had been fairly sharp and now seemed soft. I have to remember to look up more often, some thin clouds had rolled in.
Anyway, glad you got in some EP time as well.
Clear skies,
Dan

[NGC7000]

Hi Pete,

Nice report! I did look up Friday night and thought about getting the scope out, but passed on the opportunity. Intimidated by the moon. However, did get down to DestructionBrook in Dartmouth this week for a last chance at observing/imaging M42 before it gets too low in the sky after this lunar cycle. I don't know if we can post images here. Anyway, thanks for the report. You inspire me to get out and discover the whereabouts of those asteroids.
Tom

[ASSNE Prime]

Good report Pete. You may have thought the sky conditions were difficult but spotting an 18 mile wide rock at a distance of 93,000,000 miles sounds very impressive to me