Viewing report - 60 inch reflector on Mount Palomar

I was invited to join a small group for free use of the 60-inch reflector on
Mount Palomar for direct viewing on a moonless night (July 26). What an
opportunity! We were told that this is quite unusual as direct viewing is
usually limited to bright full moon nights. There were 12 of us including
the telescope operator (Karl) so there was no waiting. Here were a few
impressions:

M13 - The entire field was filled with the cluster. The stars were so well
separated that it one might have thought it to be a dense open cluster.

Ring Nebula - Big and bright. The central star was easily seen directly; no
averted vision required. I even glimsped the second internal star.

Albireo - Almost overkill. The stars were BLUE!!!!! and YELLOW!!!!!

Trifid Nebula : The red lobe filled the field of view. Looked as good as a
photo.

NGC 7331 - Beautiful spiral galaxy stretched across the field of view.
Several companion galaxies of the Deer-Lick Group also visible.

Neptune - Looked as good as Jupiter through a 60mm refractor. Large,
well-defined disk. Triton was easy.

Mars - Wow. Big, bright and detailed to the max. We didn't just see the
polar ice cap, we saw the detailed shape of the ice cap. As good as any
Earth-based photograph even though we were looking through 2.5 air masses.
A faint stellar object about six diameters away was probably one of the
moons.

Bottom line: it just doesn't get any better than this.

Del Johnson