Six intrepid members traveled to Howell Woods for a night of viewing and imaging on Thursday, May 30. Favorite objects, and these are just a few, were Saturn, M16,M51,M81-82, M57, M65-66, and a number of globular clusters.

Mike Mantini captured some of the best images that he’s ever gotten of M51 on an 80mm f/6.0 refractor. Even though the humidity was relatively high( >70%), the sky was simply amazing and the Milky Way could easily be seen later in the evening as any residual sky glow diminished. As expected, dew was not a factor until after midnight, and it was easily managed, as it slowly evolved, with a scope dew heater or a fan.

Mike also brought and set up an SQM unit to track and log sky quality over the course of the evening. He will process the data and post it for club members to see. Someone also had the Iphone SQM app with them, and it indicated a reading of ~20.3 mg/arcsec^2 at around 12:30am. This number equates to ~6th magnitude skies.

Most folks stayed until 1:00-1:30am, with a couple hanging around until 3:30am, before heading back to Raleigh. For some reason the drive back home always seems to feel longer!