On Friday, I met up with a fellow observer, who had his 18 inch obsession in tow. We were going to be hosting a public event at a moderately dark, but very beautiful location, Northwest River Park. The site is located in a clearing, after about a mile drive down a gravel road through the woods. It's located in an open field right on the Northwest River. I had observed here once before in August of 2008, on a new moon weekend. The only hindrances would be the bright Moon, rain forest dew, and aggravating bugs.
When the public arrived we mostly showed them Saturn, craters on the moon, and Venus. Once it got completely dark, I showed off various globular clusters, the Ring Nebula, and a few binary stars. Most of the people who attended the event were pleased with the views of the various objects.
Once they left, I moved my scope to the front of the pier, overlooking the water, with a perfect southern horizon. I was hoping to get a look at Omega Centauri and Centaurus A, but they were just too low, this time of year. Because of the moon, we mostly observed bright messier objects, though I managed to observe the fetus nebula, NGC 7008, for a little bit. We also got another look at Me 2-1, though this time in the 18 inch at 380x. The "blooming" inner region, and smooth outer region are clearly visible at these powers. I wanted to observe NGC 6905, the Blue Flash Nebula. When I went to log it in Sky Tools 3, I noticed I had already seen it in August of 2009. Before leaving we took a look at M19, its amazing how oblate this globular is compared to the others. We also had an amazing view of the Omega Nebula in the 18inch, the detail shown in an 18 inch compared to a 10 inch is amazing. Clouds started rolling in around 1am, so we shared some blackberries and then packed up and left shortly after.
NGC 6905, in Delphinus
