On Mon, 10 Dec 2018 13:19:53 -0000 (UTC), Mike Collins
wrote:

Chris L Peterson wrote:
On Sun, 9 Dec 2018 23:15:38 -0000 (UTC), Mike Collins
wrote:

I just found it again from my back yard. Not perfect seeing. I can just
make out the Milky Way but only one star in the bowl of USA minor is
visible. I make it out to about 8 seconds of arc.

8 _minutes_ of arc?
Yes

I find it hard to format my brain in minutes and seconds of arc. I think of
degrees and decimal degrees.
When I wrote planetarium software in the 80s I used decimals and only
converted to minutes and seconds for the final display.

Likewise. I always use degrees and decimals for my work (and that
includes right ascension). And I don't normally bother with the
conversion to sexagesimal at all, even in the final output. There's
seldom a need.

Happily, I see professional astronomy abandoning that system, as well.
It is common now to see coordinates given in decimal degrees on both
axes of the sky.