The Evening of Saturday, September 7, 2002

It's a beautifully clear, moonless night. It's also unseasonably warm
(19C). Limiting magnitude must be the high 5's... near or at 6.0. I
didn't really attempt to measure or estimate it. However, the Milky Way
was rich and clear with significant amounts of structure visible.

I went out around 10:00pm and discovered an auroral display in progress.
At first I thought there must be some haze to the north that the lights
of Barre were illuminating. However, it quickly became clear that it was
not Barre, but rather an aurora that was causing the extra light. I
walked down the road a bit to get a better view.

The display was quite good, although not the best I've seen. It was
about 20 degrees high and spread out over about 60 degrees of horizon,
centered on the north. Most of the time the display consisted of
undefined blobs of light, but at times it organized itself nicely and I
was able to see sheets of light extending upwards. The sheets had the
classic curved bottoms and I was even able, at times, to see them
flicker. The display wasn't bright enough for color (I had to use
averted vision to really see a lot of it) but I did get a hint of green
now and then.

I set up the 'scope in my front yard and continued my observations there
as described below. By the time I went in (just past 11:00pm) the aurora
seemed to be dying down.

Starting with this observing session I'm going to being using
observation codes that Joe Roberts and I created many years ago. I used
to use these codes all the time to classify deep sky objects and it
proved very helpful when later review observations. I would like to get
back into using them. See

       http://www.ecet.vtc.edu/~pchapin/astronomy/ds-codes.htm

for an explaination.

NGC-7789, Cas: As always this is an excellent object. It is readily
visible in the binoculars as a fuzzy ball and in the scope it is large
and partially resolved. It clearly stands out from the rich Milky Way
background. Tonight I noticed that the cluster seems to have two parts.
The "main" part is mostly circular and is separated from a smaller,
oblong section by a "dark lane". The small section is south of the main
section. I would be curious to explore this more with a larger
instrument. ds-code: C(25mm)b2f4c2s2,class=2

NGC-7296, Lac: Fairly easy to find from Cep. It was readily visible
although fairly small. There was a relatively bright star located near
the center of the object (foreground star?). The cluster members were
resolving using the 25mm but there was also a considerably amount of
unresolved haze as well. Looks triangular. I tried three eyepieces,
25mm, 18mm, and 12.5mm but I liked the view with the 25mm the best. The
Milky Way field around the cluster is very rich but the cluster still
stands out okay, particularly with averted vision, in part due to its
small size and high apparent degree of compaction. ds-code:
C(25mm)b3f4c1s4,class=3.

NGC-7086, Cyg: Pretty much out in the middle of nowhere so it's a bit of
a challenge to locate. This cluster is quite nice, however, and well
worth locating. It looks like a round dusky ball covered with sparkles.
It's not especially small or especially large and it stands out
surprisingly well from the sky background (the Milky Way field here is a
bit less rich than one might expect). Nice object. ds-code:
C(25mm)b3f3d3s3,class=4 (due to difficulties locating).

NGC-7510, Cep: Near the border with Cas. Not too hard to find starting
from Delta Cep. This cluster appears as a small, oblong, partially
resolved collection of stars. It looks like a fuzzy collection of a few
stars. In my instrument this cluster does not appear all that
spectacular. ds-code: C(25mm)b3f4c2s4,class=3.

NGC-185, Cas: One of the more obscure companion galaxies of M31. It
appears as a pretty faint fuzzy patch between two somewhat bright and
obvious stars. The galaxy is clearly visible with averted vision but not
at all with direct vision. Moving the field also helps. The object is
relatively large and diffuse compared to many (more distant) galaxies.
ds-code: C(25mm)b5f3d4s3,class=4.

NGC-147, Cas: Another obscure companion galaxy of M31. I know I have
seen this object in my 75mm Unitron before but I also remember it being
very difficult. I spent about 10 minutes studying the area where it
should have been but I was not able to definitely see it. I did have a
couple of possible sightings, but there were too elusive and uncertain
for me to feel confident that I was really looking at it. I may want to
try this again after a more suitable period of dark adaptation (I'm
using a white light flashlight tonight to consult my atlas) and with the
object a bit higher in the sky.

NGC-205 (M-110), And: This is the farther of M31's main companion
galaxies. It's a wonderful object and if it wasn't for the proximity of
M31 I'm sure it would be much better known than it is. With my 25mm
eyepiece I can see NGC-205 and part of M31 in the same field, giving a
very interesting look. ds-code: C(25mm)b2f3d3s3,class=3.

I gave M31 itself a quick look but I didn't study it at all. At some
point I should make an attempt to locate some of the outer arm features.
I wonder what the Astronomy Club's 8" could see.