Tuesday the 27th is a big day for me. I’m headed once again to observe from the pristine skies of Rancho Hidalgo in Animas, New Mexico. During the three nights I’m there, I’ll be using developer Gene Turner’s magnificent 30-inch Starmaster reflector (pictured at right with Astronomy Editor David J. Eicher). I have compiled an observing list of challenging winter deep-sky objects that would make most observers’ mouths water.
I also created lists of galaxies to target in Cancer, Leo, and Ursa Major. I can’t wait to see the galaxy group Copeland’s Septet through the 30-inch. The brightest member glows weakly at just above 14th magnitude, but I expect to see details in most of the seven through that large an aperture. And I wonder how many galaxies I’ll be able to count in the galaxy cluster Abell 1367.
In the daytime on Wednesday, January 28, I’ll attend a dedication ceremony for the reflecting telescope Clyde Tombaugh used after he retired from New Mexico State University (NMSU) in Las Cruces. He set this telescope up in his backyard and made numerous observations with it.
Turner acquired the scope and has erected it in a community area of Rancho Hidalgo he calls “Pluto Park.” Also attending the ceremony will be Tombaugh’s wife of 62 years, Patsy, Walter Haas, founder of the Association of Lunar and Planetary Observers (ALPO), author (and Astronomy columnist) David Levy, representatives from NMSU, and others.
Stay tuned to Astronomy.com because I’ll be blogging about all my activities.
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