With Joni Mitchell's Court and Spark playing I arrived at Kelly and Zach's place, Casita del Llano, about 9:50 PM.  Even though later than I'd liked, it was just getting dark by that time, and had a bit of sky glow from the setting sun most of my drive there.  Gary, Scott and Lesley were setup on the east side of the field, but being unaware of anyone's location, I drove toward the west and parked behind Zach's camper.  Kenny pulled up moments later and parked just to my left.  I would be using the GSO 150mm F/6 dobsonian this evening, a scope I got setup in the summer of 2022.  Not sure when Kenny picked up his GSO 12" dob, probably around the same time, but his was the largest aperture on the field this evening and the scope that would deliver the best view of the night's telescopic seasonal highlight.

So Kenny was there with his 12", but Michael had his Celestron 10" Starsense dob just east of the westernmost positions Kenny and I occupied, and just to Michael's east was Mark (Tim) Monk and his 7.3" tracking refractor.  Without a doubt, Mark's refractor would split tight double stars better than anybody's scope on the field that night, just incredible.  On the eastern edge were Gary, Scott and Lesley. I didn't make it down there to observe, but Scott had his 8" GSO dob.  Not sure if Gary bought a scope, but they were down on that end.  Lesley did walk up to see what was happening on our side and I got to say "hello" to her, but Gary joked "Nice not seeing you" as we shook hands and left at the evening's end.  Barb and Zach were social butterflies, walking the field and making everyone feel comfortable and welcome under the heavenly heavens.

We observed many of the spring hallmarks, the Leo Triplet (M65, M66, and NGC 3628), various galaxies just below Leo's belly (M96, M105, M95 and NGC 3384, amongst others), several of the guys perused the Markarian Chain, M51 with NGC 5195 the Whirlpool galaxy, Michael's M64, the Blackeye Galaxy, stands out, M81 and M82.  Kenny tried for M101, the elusive Pinwheel galaxy, but even in the 12" it was just a smudge.  The Pinwheel requires very, very dark skies to stand out, and although Kelly and Zach's place beats the pants off any site in Lubbock, it is south of the City, and M101's northerly location above the handle of the Big Dipper makes it in one of the light bedeviled portions of the sky out there.  Just not dark enough, and I've seen it in all its amazing glory through a good 12" scope before at Caprock Canyons State Park, so the aperture was right, but the background skyglow unforgiving.  Oh, well.

Late May is also globular cluster season and we pursued these targets as well.  And the seasonal highlight object in the entire sky for a late May evening on the South Plains is Omega Centauri, the hands down biggest and best globular cluster in the sky.  Europeans and Yankees don't talk about it much.  At 33.5°N, we're at the very edge of being able to see this southern hemispheric celestial masterpiece worth a hoot.  But NGC 5139 (13h 26.8m, -47° 29') demands a look, so look we did.  And here Kenny's 12" dob delivered like no other.  There was a lot of experimenting with different scope and eyepiece combos to find the best one for the task, but eventually Kenny's 12.5mm Morpheus eyepiece found its way into the focuser, and, game over!  Not sure I've ever seen Omega Centauri better, ever!  It was that good.  Kenny's 12" dob with 12.5mm Morpheus delivered the money shot on the MUST SEE target in the southern portion de los Estados Unidos in late May.  This sketch from Nightowl99 on CloudyNights.com gives one an idea of its magnificence.

All this globular clustering near the southern horizon did migrate northward of course.  After the glory of Omega Centauri, folks seemed particularly interested in M13, the Great Hercules Cluster, and usually heralded as the best globular cluster in the northern skies.  Mark talked about the "propeller" configuration seen of the cluster at high power, and Mark's 7.3" refractor was awful good at finding stars and star patterns.  Michael seemed to find this same pattern in his 10" Celestron dob.  After M13, Mark, using the Celestron Starsense software he'd removed from an inexpensive Celestron scope and put onto his 7.3" refractor setup, quickly found M92 in the head of Hercules (or below his pants, depending on how one sees him in the sky).  Personally, I prefer what Sky and Telescope has moved to, the "Arabic" version, with the Keystone his pants, but I will probably always think of the Keystone as his chest visually when I first look in the sky, since that's how I learned it in the 1970's.  But there's no denying the logic of the Arabic version, and Ras Algethi (a rough translation of the Arabic "Head of the Kneeler") makes sense in name and location, and Hercules' other stars make sense, too.  The Keystone may look like his chest, but it can be his toga, as well, and it fits into the greater collection of stars in the constellation when viewed as such.  Enough of Hercules.

Toward the end of the evening, a front moved through.  On the ground, the cool wind that was getting a little uncomfrotable for us 95° hot-as-the-devil Sunday, May 26^th Lubbockites disappeared.  It got oddly warmer, even though it was later in the night.  But above us, the skies got less steady, less transparent, and high powered viewing became impossible.  Well, to everyone except Mark and his big refractor.  Even after the transparency got dicey for everyone else, Mark's refractor continued to split sub-arcsecond doubles at over 300 power with aplomb — an amazing feat.  Refractors, especially good ones with aperture, split doubles like nothing else.

It was late, and we were getting tired.  Besides, the light from the huge, waning gibbous moon began to flood the eastern skies with light, rising at 00:21 as she did.  But as often happens in the wonderous sky, the moon's rising wasn't typical, but an unfolding glory unto herself.  Luna came up gibbous on her side (or appeared to), but the effect, all distorted by the world's turbulent atmosphere, looked more like a radiant cream-colored Easter egg spooned directly from Mother Earth's horizon, as from a pool of water — a glorious naked-eye sight.

Perhaps Michael, Mark, Scott, Lesley, Gary, Kenny, Barb or Zach can chime in with more details, but for now, this'll have to do.  I can faintly hear Walter Cronkite "And that's the way it is, May 26^th, 2024."  God bless you, Walter Cronkite.