Two observations at Geigersau in April 2010

Observing with Barny, Tuesday / Wednesday, April 6/7, 2010

The excellent weather forecast for the night led us - Barny with his 18" and me with my 120 mm - undertake an observing trip to Geigersau: A hill with a pretty free
horizon view in all directions. The night was quite good and really dry. We went into our sleeping bags around 2:30 CEST due to the need to return to work today.
Barny showed various spring galaxies in his 18", including the Double Quasar near NGC 3079 - which I only saw single, I remember seeing it easily double with 20"
in a good Alpine night. I observed some objects of O'Meara's "Herschel-400 Observing Handbook": Comparing some of his 4" Hawaiian observations with the
impressions in my 120mm from a Near-Alps site. In most cases we saw rather similar details, especially if the objects were high up, such as the region around
Coma and Leo Minor (e.g. NGC 3395/96 and surroundings). But I did not see NGC 6118: I recognized the faint star directly to the SE, but not the galaxy itself. It was
still low at 1:30 CEST, maybe the chances would have improved a bit later. Btw I clearly recognized the galaxy with the same instrument (with averted vision) when
observing a few months later at the Glockner High Alpine road in alt. 2400 m.

Ben and Barny at their telescopes

Waiting for the night

Sunset colors

Still superb weather in the morning

Observing Saturday / Sunday, April 17/18, 2010

With six people from our club, at times joined by a local visitor.

Unusual sunset impressions due to the dust of the Eyjafjallajoekull volcano. But that did not hinder us to go observing at Geigersau.
The horizon conditions were generally poor, and the lights from the more than 3 day old moon and local villages were scattered more
than usual. But nevertheless the conditions high up in the sky were quite acceptable (limiting mag close to V=6.5), with a decidedly good
seeing. Barny showed spiral arms (e.g. in M51, M81, M106, M61), dust lanes (e.g. M104, NGC 4565, NGC 5746), bright knots (like in
NGC 4631) and of course bright globulars (M3, M5, M13, M92) in his 18". The good seeing allowed for a sharply defined "chaotic-dust-lanes"
spectacle in M82 with 350x (6mm Ethos). All that was fortunate for novice observer Derya from our club's youth group - it's somewhat of a
difference if you have so far looked only through our club's telescopes in a big-city sky.

f.l. Barny, a local visitor, Manfred, Christian, Ralph a. Derya

Christian and his old 6-inch, to the right Derya

Sunset blurred by volcanic dust

Barny with his 18-inch

Ralph

Morning after - from left Derya, Ralph and Christian


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