Short report from Los Gatos

I said short, and short it is...

Uncovered the 14.5" f/5.6 ... light bulb had kept the primary in great shape for over a month...

Pulled out my Night Sky Observers Guide and opened it to Bootes. First object I looked for was NGC 5248 - a 4 star object in NSOG. Man... was it dim! I determined it must be a bad night.

My sister-in-law came outside so I pointed the scope at M3. Dull.

Bad night.

Went in, had a Mexican Coffee.

Went back out, looked at M3 again. Bad.

Put away my eyepieces and pointed the scope west for the night.

Finished the coffee outside, and did a star count in the Bootes - Coma B and came up with, er, 21 stars. Scary. That's mag 6.1. I figure that even if I knock out the stars that were at the limit of my vision...down to about 15, that's still mag 5.8 or 5.9.

That from a Los Gatos backyard.

So... why did the objects I looked at respond so poorly?