End of 2003 Observing at Coe

I didn't have much "get up" yesterday afternoon when Richard Navarette's e-mail arrived asking if I wanted to head to Coe for a short night of observing. I'd spent the day cleaning the pool, working on the computer, thinking about how cold it had been, and looking forward to watching the Sharks game on TV while staying warm at home. After a bit of back and forth by e-mail, we decided on meeting around 8 PM and observing until midnight. The clear sky clocks showed no cloud cover, excellent seeing and good transparency until 11 PM. The moon would be up until 10, but it was in the west, and how much light can a two day moon throw anyway (answer is - a lot).

So, with my 10" CPT, collapsed base, eyepiece case, big box of cold weather clothes and observing chair comfortably stowed in the back seat of my car, I headed out just after 7. I felt the car window driving down 85, it certainly was cold outside. I had already put on several layers - old skinny thermals, new REI expedition weight longies over them, jeans, heavy t-shirt, Polartec top and bottoms. At least I would not be cold stepping out of the car. The traffic was non-existent on this post-Christmas Saturday night. I did have trouble staying out of everyone's way on the drive - I think 85 mph must be the going speed and my old MBZ would need a stiff tailwind to do more than that.

Turned off on E. Dunne and headed up. Different drive in the dark - just the center line of the two lane road, moonlight reflecting off the lake, twists and turns, but before I knew it I was crossing the cattle guard before the overflow lot.

The gate was open and a red flashlight greeted me, guiding me in. Stepped out and said hi to Richard. He had his 10" Hardin Dob set up and had already logged an object or two. The sky looked great, the moon way too bright, and... it did not feel cold at all. It felt great to get out.

There were three other observers at Coe. One, who owns a C11, came over and said hello, just as I was hunting down my first object. The C11 was having a mechanical problem - the focuser was not working properly. His buddy came by too. I think they left early due to the scope problem. Another observer came over a bit later - my guess is it was Tony Hurtado - who posted an OI for Coe and hoped to have some company.

Soon Richard and I were going through his list of Herschel 400-II objects. We stuck mostly to the brighter stuff, some of which was a good challenge as conditions deteriorated around 10 PM limiting the transparency. This was an hour earlier than the clear sky clock predicted... that's not bad.

I was wearing a jacket, Soviet Ushanka hat, and a neck gator, but all night I was in my tennis shoes and cotton socks. Late at night my feet became cold - but that was when we were standing around talking. Part of the fun is getting together with friends and catching up on what's new in our lives. We were lucky too, that the sky cooperated as long as it did. By the time the moon set high thin clouds were well on their way in from the west. By midnight we were looking for clear patches overhead.

The drive home was easy, I was good and did not put my frozen feet on Pat when I got into bed. When I woke at 7 this morning and went outside to get the newspaper, everything was covered in a layer of frost and ice. I wonder how cold it was last night at Coe? Just shows that with proper preparation even cold temps are okay for observing. I've been out observing several times over the past month or so... many cold nights... but they have all been very satisfying. I could do with more like them.

There was essentially no dew at Coe. And no wind. Very, very nice night.

Here are my observations... notes (in quotes) are Richard's:

We began in Eridanus with NGC 1600, mag 10.9 with SB 12.4. "Small, fairly bright, diffuse. Wagner hallucinated 1601 and 1603." I found these just west of Rigel, hopping off Mu and Nu Eridani - both just about mag 4. Easy hop. Funny part of Richard's comments is, I did see the "hallucinated" galaxies (mags 13.8 and 13.8, SB 11.9 and 12.7), and I drew their positions and a few other galaxies I thought I saw at 74x (20 Nagler) and then 121x (12 Nagler). When I look on The Sky today, the other galaxies *are* there... NGC 1606 and NGC 1604 (mags 13.5 and 15.1, SB 13.2 and 13). :-)

We moved next to NGC 1637, a spiral galaxy at mag 10.8 with SB 13.5 - "Medium sized diffuse glow. Appeared a bit elongated." This face on spiral is even easier to locate then 1600, as it is just east of the midpoint between Mu and Nu Eridani.

NGC 1700 was next, an elongated galaxy at mag 11.2 with SB of 13.3. This one was a bit trickier to find. It was between Beta Eridani - the bright star northwest of Rigel - and mag 4.4 Omega Eridani. Richard helped me star hop to it. "Looked like a planetary. Very small stellar core. 1699 also showed in field, but was in and out." Indeed it did look like a planetary - as if it has a bright pinpoint central star and evenly diffuse disk.

Here is Richard's note on NGC 1699 "In the field with NGC 1700. This was at the ragged edge in a 10" scope and could not be held with averted vision." It took a little work, but I was able to detect is off center and slightly off line between two dim stars running NE/SW.

NGC 1779 is "very small and diffuse. Just off a chain of three stars." It shines at mag 12.1 with SB of 13.1. It is a straight-forward star hop of Rigel to mag 4.2 Lambda Eridani, the beginning of a chain of three stars that diminish in magnitude... to a few distinct asterisms, which take you to the little galaxy. It was quite dim, but there.

I think about this time the clouds began moving in from the west, and Richard was combing through his target list for things still in the dark and clear parts of the sky, mostly to the east from zenith.

NGC 2196 in Lepus was another object that tormented me. Richard has developed the ability to hop star to star across large areas with an constellation, whereas I more often point directly at where I think the object should be. Richard's method worked best on this one. He actually talked me through his hop, he at his 10" and me looking in my 10" Dob. It got me there. This galaxy is "Between two mag 10 stars. A round smudge" and is mag 11 but its SB is 12.8.

Sometime around this point in the evening I pointed my Dob at Saturn. The seeing was so good, there were numerous subtle bands on the planet along with its dark polar cap. The polar cap seemed to be incising the inner edge of the ring - a nice black razor thin line creating a demarcation line. The ring itself was gorgeous, Cassini was black and crisp, and the gray outer ring appeared to have a dim line dividing it into two rings. Moons? I think Richard said there were five or six. Guess I should have looked at the Trapezium then too. I ended up watching it at 413x (7 Nagler with 2x Big Barlow)... very steady and sharp view.

Richard tried next for Thor's Helmet (NGC 2359 - Canis Major). The sky was getting cruddy, and I cruised around the area running into a few nice open clusters. I shot up to M46, M47 and the various open clusters that inhabit that area, very pleasing views - the planetary in M46 was easy without a filter. Richard wrote about Thor's Helmet. "Large diffuse glow. Needed Ultrablock filter. Sky was a bit bright." I didn't think it was much of a view.

The open cluster NGC 2369 in Canis Major was one of those easy to overlook opens. But it still had some character. It was necessary to confirm its position with star patterns on Richard's computer. "Triangular shape. Perhaps a dozen stars in a dim haze of nebulosity." I'd call it more or less a knot of stars - we thought there were maybe six bright ones, another six dimmer ones, then the haze.

We were now getting on toward midnight, our planned departure time, but there were a few more objects in good position. We continued in Lepus...

NGC 1832 is a spiral galaxy mag 11.3 and SB 12.8. It is located conveniently just off mag 4.2 Mu Leporis - an easy naked eye star that forms the front top corner of the constellation. It was a fairly obvious galaxy just off one of the brighter stars in the field. Richard says "Just off a chain of three stars. Looks a bit like a comet!"

We continued in Lepus with NGC 2139 (mag 11.6, SB 13.3). Richard again was successful in locating it, and had to help me. Maybe I was getting tired, or just not concentrating on what I was doing. But with Richard's help I was looking at some obvious landmarks (a bright star leading to a parallelogram of stars, then a chain of five stars with a nice double in the center) which helped me see the galaxy. Richard wrote "Between a mag 11.7 and a mag 9.7 star. Dim and diffuse." On a better night it would have been easier to hop to, but the sky was really getting nasty. Richard used multiple bright stars to get to it, my method was not so successful.

The last object was in Lynx. NGC 2493 is a round galaxy at mag 12 and SB 13. This one was probably my favorite - I think it was the most difficult observation - very faint, really barely there. Averted vision and a bracketing by an arc of stars helped bring it out. In a good dark sky with more aperture there'd be three galaxies lined up here, but tonight was only the brightest of the trio. This one is located in a bright star poor area between the front upper leg of Ursa Major and Gemini. I used mag 4.25 31 Lynx and Castor to figure out where to point the scope. A couple notable pair of chains of bright stars running parallel mostly E/W, combined with a bright pair in the "arc" to their north... and the galaxy was there.

Packing up took under five minutes. It is one of the great things about a "small" scope.

Looking at the weather for the coming week, I'm glad Richard's good attitude about going out for a few hours got me to get out too. I had a great time. Got more observing done that I had on several other recent astro trips.

I also have to repeat what I've said for years.... especially in the winter and spring, when there's an opportunity to go, go. They can be few and far between. Based on the weather forecasts, this may have been the last of my observing sessions for 2003. Another year in the books... Here's hoping for a great 2004 for us all.

Jupiter shadow transit, meteors and more

We witnessed a mind-boggling shadow transit on Jupiter Saturday night. As the moon was approaching the preceeding limb, it sat just behind its own shadow. The shadow, inky black, was a wonderful contrast with the little moon's disk. Still, the disk of the moon was so well defined, a dark limb was obvious on it, a rather reddish color. The moon looked like a globe, instead of just white spot. Never saw that amount of detail before. The GRS was also obvious, and significantly redder than last year.

As for LSA itself, Saturday was the better of the two, but still some dewing (blow driers were the music of the night), although my scope didn't get much dew at all. I was in Cass, Perseus and Lynx for most of the nights. One surprise object found by Steve S and Jim T, where I was at first very skeptical, was IC443 in Gemini. After aquiring it in Steve's 12.5" NGT, I put my 18" (with OIII) on it, and sure enough, this previously elusive supernova remnant was visible, at least one thick streamer.

A few meteors was worth noting as well, one already mentioned on list. At a sharp decending angle in the west a very bright shooter fell to the horizon, illuminating the entire landscape around us. We thought it was an ordinance from Fort Hunter Liggett for a moment. One on the spot mag estimate was -8. Late at night I was facing east talking with other observers and a meteor began literally screaming across the easter horizon, no more than 20 degrees up. It had a bright head and trail that reminded me of Comet Hyakutake.... very very long and bright tail. Really, really awesome. Afterwards, I estimated it travelled about 90 degrees across the horizon with a good 30 degree trail.

Plenty of other neat stuff to report, but that will have to wait for another night.

Desire

There are no astronomical objects described in this report. But what a night!

Sometimes it is best to just trust instinct. Last night is a perfect example.

Despite a first quarter moon that would not set until after midnight, I let instinct guide me and drove to Henry Coe State Park. The clear sky clock for Coe unbelievably suggested a clearing between sundown and dawn... that would be near perfect. And it was. With winter's approach I did not want to lose such rare opportunity. When you get them, grab them. I was lucky... I should trust instincts more.

It was relaxed. As the sky darkened I enjoyed a slow dinner augmented by some Shirraz, then opened The Night Sky Observers Guide to Perseus. There was no rush. Broken clouds overhead slowly thinned and passed. I was thoroughly enjoying a view, sounds, aromas, and a sky that combined to make this cool fall evening spectacular... if I could save it to relive it, I would do so many times. But at least I keep it in my head.

It is easy to become compulsive, pushing, rushing, checking off a list too quickly without savoring it. I no longer rush things. What I logged was inconsequential, I've stopped counting. Occasionally we have a renewal of spirit, our desire rekindles, even ignites, and the experience take on greater significance. I consider myself fortunate, for me this was such a rare night.

How rare? I was surprised by dawn. Astonished. It seems forever since I had a night like that.

The clear sky clock had been right, the window began closing... clouding over from the north shortly after sunrise, winter was returning. I looked again at the incredible view, at the light haze in the valleys, golds and reds of the trees... beauty in my eyes, then stepped into my truck and headed home. Nearing the freeway I found myself looking in the rear view mirror, reflecting, back to the night, and smiled.

I could not ask for more. Coe was near perfect. I hope you all can have a night like mine. I followed my instinct, I'm glad I did.

The Ghosts In My Backyard

I went outside for a while tonight. More to digest my daily dose of e-mails and other worldly input (kids, work, sucky hockey team, work, work), more so than to get a dose of deep sky. My 10" f/5.7 set was up, cooled and ready to roll. Even the finders were right when I got out there.

My eyes took a while to acclimate. But it sure seemed bright. Maybe a CME precursor illuminating the regular skyglow, maybe my imagination. But it did seem bright.

I popped in the 20 Nagler and began peeking around Gamma Arietis (Mesarthim) and 1 Arietis. My targets were galaxies. I began with NGC 772, off Mesarthim. My 9x50 finder put me precisely in the right field. Using the 12 Nagler to darken the background, I could barely see it. Flickering in and out of perception, mag 10.3 barely there. Ghost number one. I moved up to the other star. Three galaxies in the immediate vicinity. NGCs 680, 691 and 697, these are all on the Tirion Sky Atlas 2000 (new edition). Well, only 697 was visible, as a ghost... fleeting, bits of nothing.

For the heck of it I moved into Triangulum, to find NGC 890, a bright galaxy just below the northern end of Triangulum. Again, the ghost of galaxies barely there. A hint, a tease.

Teasing is only good for so long.

Boy, did the sky seem bright. I packed up and called it a night.

I had such a good time last Saturday, I can hardly wait to do it again.

I look forward to next time....

Houge Park last night... cloud magnet

When I arrived home just after 10 last night, I headed in, sat down, and out of the back window what did I see but.... the moon.

I stepped outside and it was clear.

An hour and a half later I put the dogs out for their late night... uh... breath of fresh air... and up above me... stars, stars, stars.

What a surprise.

Houge was a bust. It seems everywhere else was good.

Better luck in 2 weeks!

But, I do think we all had fun.

Old Friends

"Old friends, sat on the park bench like bookends..."

I had a great time at CalStar this year. Much to my surprise not only did my daughter Mimi accompany me, not unusual, but my son decided last minute to join us. He even used my 10" CPT Dob to hunt down some Messier objects. That has to be a first, and alone made the trip memorable.

But if the newness of my son participating in the hobby I so enjoy added a spark, old friends provided the backdrop, the musical score, or maybe even the continuity that makes star parties, big and small, so familiar and enjoyable. I had a really great time.

The old friends are not just people. They can be objects seen through the eyepiece only in special places, like CalStar at Lake San Antonio. Skies back in San Jose just do not support more frequent visits. Galaxy trios - pairs of galaxy trios - NGC 48, 49 and 51 appearing quietly in the eyepiece - not there at first, then slowly revealing themselves. Then look, there are the others, these old friends from prior trips - the three IC galaxies dimly mimicking them closely to their south, all six in the field of view.

I turn from the eyepiece and there's my friend Nilesh and his wife Minal. It has been a year. This is indeed a special place. Wonderful people I rarely get to see. Jim Everitt, been a while. The Astronomical Unit - club members from around Santa Barbara - familiar faces!

All weekend the same continued. Saturn in Steve Kennedy's 24" Dob at 600X looking like a Hubble photo - not a shimmer or ripple in the steady view. Turn around and there stands Jeff Gortatowski, a friendly name on a mailing list who I get to see a few times a year, standing there with cup in hand asking for some special coffee. Bill Dean, afraid of fire with his beard a year long - last time I saw him it was shaved for granny's visit! Walt Reis from the Central Coast Astronomers, stopping by, becoming more than just another "object" in print. It is hard sometimes to tell which old friends are more fun to see.

Then I realize there is no separation. One in the same, all old friends.

Lichtenberg, Alsing, Searle, STF2816, NGC7700, Tom Parker, Susan Wicks, The Shadow, Turley's laugh, Rashad's too. Zeta Aquarii as two perfectly round beads through the Genesis next door.

Navarrete, of course, always upbeat. Koop, keeping it together. Thanks Mike, for the hard work. Another old friend. NGC 1501 at 1000X.

Incomparable times.

Jane, thank you for the wine and company. Gary, you're forgiven for the "Hairy" picture.

Shirley from Valley Catering, serving up the dinners. A new old friend.

Speaking of new friends, I have to mention the astronomy club from Atascadero. A big thank you to whoever their teacher is, for it was the teacher that somehow found out about CalStar and brought the students. I turned my 18" Dob over to two young ladies, seniors in the high school's astronomy club, and talked them around the sky. They pushed the scope, peeked through the Quickfinder and had so much fun, it was absolutely contagious. I'm sure "walking" the waterfall side of the Veil through an OIII filter will be a great memory for them.

I guess I like the new friends too - old friends in the making. Like first time objects I get to visit again next year.

I hope I see old and new friends there next time. Eye to eye and in my scope.

Old friends... sat on their camp chair like bookends. Meeting each year back at CalStar...

I sure missed some of my old friend this year. My thoughts were with you.

I'm sure thankful for the new friends too. Let's do it again in 2004.

Using NSC's at Fremont Peak

Late Saturday afternoon I asked my 15 year old daughter Mimi if she'd like to accompany me to Fremont Peak for the evening. A few astronomy friends had indicated their interest in getting "away" from the crowds to one of the local observing sites. I had originally planned to visit Michelle Stone near Mariposa, but work commitments would not allow that far of a drive. So, after consulting the clear sky clocks, it looked like the Peak was the best choice.

Mimi had grown up observing at Fremont Peak. As a five year old she'd sit on my lap where I could easily show her the constellations, while our friends were busy looking through their telescopes all around us in the southwest lot. Going twice a month for years manifested in Mimi becoming a proficient star-hopper, and by age 10 was "burning up the sky" with her own 10" Dob, and became known as the Messier Monster.

Over the years friends in TAC moved from Fremont Peak to discover other observing sites, and the old days of 30+ telescopes and owners "partying" in the southwest lot faded to occasional visits and fond memories. I have been to the southwest lot perhaps twice now this year, up by the ranger's house once. A far cry from the twice or more visits each month for many years. As you might imagine, for a child growing up learning to love observing, the place holds special memories for Mimi and me. On the drive up yesterday at sunset she wistfully speculated that should the park ever close, she'd like to have enough money to buy the land and turn it into a privately run astronomy park for everyone to enjoy. It is her love for the place that makes me take her back every now and then.

We arrived to find the parking lot full of cars. Turns out they were there for the observatory program. It is nice to see so many visitors in the park, and such attendance for the FPOA programs. But it did result in a small parking crises. All the cars were around the perimeter of the lot, so I parked in the middle, as was customary all those years ago when amateur astronomers would pack the place.

Mimi wanted to hike the Peak. It was already dark, perhaps 8:30 p.m. or so. But we took off anyway. The road was easy to follow, but the path at the top was more difficult to discern, illuminated only by the glow of the Milky Way and hundreds of stars overhead. At the top, Mimi and I scrambled up the rocks and sat next to the flagpole. Down below us the cities glowed like galaxies, some big, some small, some round, others with ragged edges. Lots of dark between them. I could look out to the south of Salinas to the back side of Laurentes Grade Road, where it goes over the ridge to drop down into Carmel Valley, where I almost bought a home three years ago. Down the valley from Salinas the glow of King City, or Soledad, or Gonzales... leading down to Lake San Antonio where we'll be later this week. It is amazing to sit up top of the Peak on at night, warm breezes coming upslope - and look at the views overhead and at our feet.

The walk down was quicker, and before long we had the 10" f/5.7 CPT set up. We looked over Mimi's Herschel 400 list, and again found that all she had left were the winter and early spring objects. That sure sounds familiar!

I had printed out a list of targets, Herschel 400, red stars and doubles that would be up. I had them sorted by R.A. from north to south. I asked Mimi if she'd like to try the list, and I could just peek in the scope to see what she'd find. This suited her, so off she went, using the 10", Tirion Sky Atlas 2000, Uranometria 2000 and the Telrad. I don't think Mimi has observed much using paper charts, having grown up using The Sky on a laptop instead. So, this would be a different experience, more of a challenge.

She began with UX Draconis, which was a very red star. It did not show on the SA2000, and the RA and Dec must have been a different epoch than the U2000, but she found it anyway. She was pleased, it had been a long time since she'd done this.

On next to NGC 40, which is a fine planetary nebula with a bright central star in Cepheus. She worked for this one. I ended up Barlowing it up to over 400X, and noting that the disk seemed to be irregular, with some darkening inside that made me think it was annular.

The weather was t-shirt temps until late, when I put on a light sweater. Could not have been nicer.

During the evening Mimi ran through about 24 objects. Since the list was in descending RA, she spent the night looking north into Cepheus and Cassiopeia. That means open clusters. Several of them were dim groups of stars overlaying a frosty appearance - even dimmer stars in the clusters. I thoroughly enjoyed coming over to verify her finds. The hazy background in the clusters gave them away.

My favorite views were of multiple open clusters in the same field or close by. NGC 7142 shared the field with 7133 and 7129. NGC 637 seemed to have some nebulosity. NGC 654 formed a gentle arc with NGC's 663, 659 and 581. Little visited jewels encrusted in the Queen's chair.

Later during the night Mimi moved on to NGC 6934, an obvious large open cluster that has a sharp edge to it. I knew this one, and suggested to her she can around for a big face-on galaxy, NGC 6946. Several other observers came by for this view. The galaxy was obvious to me, but several people were unfamiliar with it and I needed to center the galaxy so they could see it, then move the open cluster back into view so they could enjoy the two objects in the same field.

Mimi's last open cluster was NGC 457, the "ET Cluster"... this was easily the showpiece of the evening. After looking at the dim open's, ET was brilliant.

Mimi finished on Mu Cephei, the Garnet Star. I was very red, but more blood colored than the star she'd begun the evening on, UX Draconis.

I knew there was another pretty view just off Mu, and nudged the scope over to Struve 2816, in the heart of IC1396. The star is a triple, with the brightest component a yellow-gold star flanked by two dimmer blue stars. We finished with that wonderful view.

Mimi had gone back to the Peak, and again was observing in her old form.

I had great fun just seeing her enjoying observing again. I didn't have to find a thing.... Mimi was my neural setting circle, my NSCs. I just looked.

We'll both be at CalStar in a few days. See you then.

Objects viewed:

• UX Draconis
• NGC 40
• Beta Cephei
• NGC 7142, 7133, 7129
• STF163
• XI Cephei
• NGC 637
• NGC 559
• NGC 7160
• NGC 654
• NGC 225
• NGC 381
• NGC 1027
• NGC 136
• NGC 663
• NGC 659
• NGC 6939
• NGC 7510
• NGC 129
• NGC 6946
• NGC 436
• NGC 457
• Mu Cehpei
• Struve 2816

My Boring OR

I went out last night and looked through my 10" f/5.7 Dob.

Mars was swimming at 120X.

M13 was so-so.

My neighbor's outdoor party lights and neon palm tree, on a timer for their enjoyment, stabbed me in the eyes when I tried for M15.

M31 was a core and no more.

M32 was there.

I went in.

Hoping for better.

Backyard Magic

I set up my 10" f/5.7 scope in the backyard before doing the BBQ. Let is cool down nicely, tweaked the collimation. Ate dinner, fixed a coffee and went out back.

Mars, of course.

20 Nagler, 72x. Steady with detail. 12 Nagler, 120x. Good detail. Rock steady. 7 Nagler, 207x. NIce detail. Holding up very well. Put in the 2x Barlow. 414x, more detail. I could do a drawing, the dark markings are so well defined. Very good seeing snaps to exquisite. Magic.

I can't help but look at the foreign world and think of the first human, maybe one of my kid's friends, maybe your's, setting foot up there. Nobody has been there.

I keep watching. Ochre, the color of those soft "peanut" shaped candies... circus peanuts. But with banana bad spots on it.

I am amazed.

The southern polar cap is doing a disappearing act. Magic. I can watch it through this weird collection of aluminum struts, rods and several pieces of glass.

I'm telling you, it is magic. It is fun.

I watch for a while more. Subtle features - a bay of orange in the dark river crossing the planet. Smaller dark pieces extending along parallel to the main feature. Faded dark on the limb and up toward the southern ice cap. Haze on the northern one.

I'm so glad I set up the scope.

I look around.

Pegasus is up.

At 414x I point at M15. Find it in, well, the finder - I can see it at 9x. Center it then in the eyepiece. It is there, dim. Handful of stars.

I cup my hands around the eyepiece and look. Stars begin filling the field. Suddenly they are everywhere. The core is dense. The globular is beautiful. Stars are everywhere. No counting them

From my celestial backyard to the halo of my galaxy in 10 seconds.

It is magic.

I hope some of you are out tonight. It is a fine night.

Going back out to count features on Mars.

There is something magical to this.

A Lot of Mars... A Little Figaro. To OSP and Back

I drove to Mars last week, and returned from my trip last night.

Impossible?

Not at all... especially when you consider that where I went, after thirteen hours driving, was at a place only 2.1 light years from M31.

I left home on the 26th of August for Davis California, to meet Jim Ster at Jane Smith's house. I had been invited to join them on a trip to the Oregon Star Party, and having never been to a "big" star party other than the Riverside Telescope Maker's Conference, which is still trying to be something other than an ATM event, I could not resist. I did bargain with Jim and Jane to bring the 30" StarMaster in order that I would bring only my 10" Compact Precision Telescope. The deal was struck.

Jim arrived in Davis and we looked at the daunting job of packing the 30", and 18" StarMaster, my 10", four canopies, three tents, chairs, tarps, books, eyepiece cases, food, cooking gear and assorted other necessities into the back of Jim's 2003 Ford F-250 XLT Lariat King Ranch Crew Cab and four by six trailer. The extent of our advance planning was "sure.... it'll fit".... and sure enough, by the time we were done everything was in. However, I doubt there was room left to fit in a tennis ball. What a sight!

We arrived in Shingletown at nine and found Brad Franzella waiting outside the airport gate. It was going to be a short night there, so the only scopes were Brad's 10 and mine. The skies were soft and cloudy, and we stayed until 12:30 before heading out to the Temple's where we spent the night. After a nice breakfast at the Shingle Shack we were on the way to the mythical OSP.

The drive past Mount Shasta is just gorgeous, if only the rest of the trip were that interesting. After crossing out of California through the metropolis of Dorris, we spent hour after hour on highway 97 enjoying views of rather stunted and sick pine trees. There must be 10,000 pine trees per person in Oregon. We'd pass through a few small communities, but it was pine pine pine pine pine. Until we got to Bend. Then is was pine pine pine pine building. After Bend we went through Redmond, then headed east into the wild unknown country. Scrub forest lead to the town of Prineville, then into large open rangeland with hundred of cattle and deer. It was a side of America I had never seen, absolutely beautiful while amazingly desolate. What a place.

Soon we were tuning off the main two-lane road and onto a side spur - then another, then finally after about 30 miles we left the pavement. The last few miles passed and with sunset approaching we drove under a banner welcoming us to the Oregon Star Party.

What a sight! The road in was gravelled... an enormous shower truck and numerous RV's lined the entry. The gravel runs east-west with a T to the north at mid-point. The T ends in a turn-around out in the midst of a huge desolate field. People had arrived days earlier, and the place was packed all along the roads and in the tree lines to the north and west. We left the road and emptied our vehicles in the center of the large field to the northeast, then drove the truck off to park it near the road - you are not allowed to leave vehicles in the fields.

What ensued was a rush set up of tents, canopies and telescopes. By dusk I was done, and enjoying dinner and a cold Fosters, and taking in the view of over 930 other folks camping in the middle of the Ochoco (pronounced O-cha-cO, emphasis on first and last O's) of Oregon. This place is as far from civilization as I've been in a very, very long time. It was hard to believe so many other folks came to a place like this.

Clouds made the first night was a bust for observing, but it was great for socializing and meeting people. To our southwest we could see occasional lightning, and we all thought about what it would be like to be in a thunderstorm on a surface that, well, it resembled the Pathfinder photos of Mars. We were camped on roundish lava rocks that ranged in size from two to four inches. They were everywhere, literally. These babies took their toll on your feet after a couple of days. By the second day I felt like someone had ball-peen'd my toes. There was also lots of protected sagebrush, without question it was going to be under your tent and make you watch where you walked in the daytime and an ever-present hazard for both foot and telescope at night. You get an idea of what it was like. Oh... and yes, Albert Highe was correct about the bedrock under a few inches of dusty soil. I bent several big steel stakes trying to anchor my tent and canopy. Anyone attending should bring large pails to put rocks into to tie down tents and canopies.

People were saying the OSP site is better than the Texas Star Party's. Listen, gang, you don't know what you have at Shingletown. We have a piece of paradise by comparison.

Friday was day two, and began promising with good skies. I went over to Michelle Stone's encampment on vendor row and saw all the traffic. Michelle suggested I bring my scope over, and I agreed. What a trek! OSP's site is huge.

Michelle and I had lots of interest. From a vendor standpoint it was an excellent trip. Others southerner vendors who were there included Joe and Karen Sunseri, Tom Osypowski, Tony Hallas, and the ever-present party boy and sun god of star parites - Bill Dean from Coronado. Rounding out the California brigade were Alvin and Julie Huey, John Bunyon, Dennis Beckley, Ed Smith (newbie), Bruce Sayre, and several guys from the Eureka area who were thrilled to learn about SSP. There were other CalAstros there as well, and they'd swing by to gawk at the 30", but we weren't there to take names.

As night was approaching, I took out my precooked dinner, while others ate questionable ham from the chuck-wagon. Soon, all you saw was the sky overhead, thousands of stars and a glistening Milky Way, which seemed to be held up by a dark band at the horizon with hundred of red fireflies gently moving about. It was really a magical scene.

That night the 30" showed me things I'd never seen before. Jim was showing the NGC 6543 - the Catseye Nebula - to some touristas. I climbed latter and began enjoying some excellent ring structure when I suddenly saw a bight knot out to the west. This is IC 4677, the brightest part of the Catseye's faint outer halo. It was like a beacon in the 30. After I mentioned it everyone else climbed back up to take a look. We also were holding M57's central star with direct vision, and picking out a fainter star near the inside edge of the ring with consistency using averted vision. I played a bit with the Goto System, which is unquestionably contrary to my style of astronomy, and put in NGC 1275 - the brightest member of the Perseus Supercluster. In Jim's Terminagler I counted 25 galaxies in the field without breaking a sweat. It was fun to pump up the mag and see others popping out as we traversed the fields of faint fuzzies. Alvin Huey brought over a chart showing the members of this Abell cluster, but it did not go deep enough for what we were seeing. Object after object found its way onto the 30" mirror - the Crescent showed internal structure that Steve Gottlieb would have given his left, er, thumb for. The Waterfall in the Veil yielded filaments that snaked subtly though the brighter strands. Pickering's Wisp was flanked by other dimmer areas of nebulosity.

We continued on and on until about 4:30 a.m., when the rocks, sagebrush and fatigue just became too much. Dawn was arriving and we finished by viewing so many little pinpoint stars embedded in the nebulosity surrounding the Trapezium, it was simply astonishing. It was a shame the night had to end.

I spent the next day getting a major farmer tan on vendor row. I'm sure the rest of the gang was under the canopy, back at the homestead, sipping cool drinks and talking to the invariable platoon of folks attracted to Mr. Dob - the 30" big gun of the show. It seemed there were a great number of 8" and 10" Dobs at OSP.

I used the shower truck, which was marvelous. This was the most refreshing activity available at our location, there on the surface of Mars. We'll be looking into the feasibility of bringing a shower truck to Shingletown next year. The truck is clean, sparkling inside and out - hot water - private stalls. Nuttin betta.

Late afternoon the OSP committee held their astro-raffle. Everyone got a ticket to this activity upon arrival at OSP.

The tent the raffle was held under had enough room for less than half the crowd. The raffle went on for an hour and forty minutes. The emcee was taking his time and joking. Those in the sun were frying. It was during this monologue that it was stated the Andromeda Galaxy (the prize was an image of M31 by Tony Hallas) was 2.1 light years away. Yes.... Oregon is an amazing place. Mars underfoot, while bumping your head on M31!

Julie Huey won a prize. But several of our group had enough heat and finally left. Jane Smith tuned to leave, handed me her ticket and said "if the ticket wins anything, give it to Mimi" (my astro-loving daughter). I was standing next to Marsha Robinson (Mars) while the raffle continued. I was holding my ticket and Mimi's. A number was called - the last number was one off from mine. Bummer.

Now, all the prized were gone other than the two grand prizes - 10" Dobs. The emcee began calling numbers - 5..... 3...... "okay.... how many of you out there have those first two numbers - stand up - those of you standing outside, raise your hands".....

I raised my hand.

Then he said "7" and Marsha began jumping around. Mimi had a one-in-ten chance.... I looked a Marsha and shook my head "no"..... no way could this...

The voice said "2"...

Marsha screamed. I was temporarily deaf. People were motioning her to go up the to podium.

But it was the ticket I held. Mimi's ticket.

I was stunned. Not until half-way up to the barker did the rush of winning hit me. What a BUZZ. Hey.... let's do this again!!!!!!!

I handed over the ticket and "Gene" the emcee asked my name....

"Mark.... Mark Wagner....."

"And Mark, where are you from...."

Oh boy. I've heard that Oregono's don't particularly appreciate Califoreigners.

And, I am an organizer of SSP.

And I make 10" Dobs and am a vendor.

And my daughter has an 18" Dob....

So, quietly, I uttered "Los Gatos.... ..... ............ Cal-if-or-nia"

It sure was quiet under that tent.

But there, right up front sat John Bunyon - my tie back to the SJAA and home. John was beaming - showing me his thumb held high as in "way to go buddy"....

But it sure was quiet. The look on Gene's face was something you'd want a picture of. Disbelief.

What a moment.

Then I thought - how are we going to get this thing home?

I began hauling the scope out and a very surprised Jane Smith showed up. I told here "Jane - your ticket - your scope" .... she wouldn't hear of it. She made a counter-offer than was very nice and generous.

Anyone want to buy a new 10" Dob by Hardin Optical? :-)

That night the smoke moved back in. We were hosed. It was just darn depressing. Still, we had fun with the locals, and our own out-of-state contingent. By 12:30 though we had formulated a plan for the morning. We would pack up, bail out, and try to hook up with James Edwards at his family's 600 acre ranch east of Klamath Falls, in the Po Valley.

And that's just what we did. I was a long drive, but we were there by dinner time.

What a reception. Family members arriving, the Dobs being set up. Jim, Marsha, Mags, Jane and I being invited to join the family for a tri-tip BBQ dinner with all sorts of other great fixins. We sat at a big table outside eating while the sun was setting, looking down the 1/4 mile driveway to the main road down the hill, cows, trees, hoses, emerald colored mountains. What a scene. After a bit of good wine, Lanny, who is a friend of James stood up and serenaded us. Turns out he sings with the Sacramento opera. So, with the beauty of southern Oregon decorating our dinners, we sat, drinking wine, listening to the Marriage of Figaro. I looked at Anna, our host, and told her this was one of those moments like the scene of Shoeless Joe Jackson in Field of Dreams asking "Is this Heaven".... but that night the reply was "No... its the Po Valley".

The observing was not great that night, but the company, and the hospitality shown by shown by James Edwards and his relatives will never be forgotten. One of the best astronomy nights I've ever had. Thank you, thank you, thank you.... James!

We had a big drive the next day, so with the smoke of Oregon's fires overhead I turned in early. I slept in my sleeping bag outside, in back of the house. In the morning I woke to my face being washed by the farm's nice female Rottweiller. I scrambled to get the wet tongue off me, succeeded, and then enjoyed seeing the dog head over to Jane Smith. Jane buried her head in her sleeping bag after the first lick.

We packed up and headed south. Past some gorgeous wildlife refuges in extreme northern California, then down to Mount Shasta. It is a beautiful drive.

Before we knew it we were turning off I-5 into Davis, and the end of the trip.

We had sure had a great time. Friends sharing great experiences is really the spice that adds flavor to astronomy and makes it fun.

Next year, we'll return, better prepared. I hope more TACos will join us, at OSP, and at Table Mountain. We'll set up our own enclave with the big scope. It is worth the time, sky or no sky, it is worth the time.

Observing at Coyote 8/23

Coyote Lark Park is a nice place to observe. The parking lot at the boat ramp is large and paved, there are flush toilets, pay phone, garbage cans, picnic benches, and of course, a beautiful view of the lake and surrounding oak covered mountains. The short drive down the Gilroy Speedway makes it a snap to get to, and there's even an all night Denny's at the freeway on the way home, should you need a cup o' Joe to keep 'em peeled if you're nodding off.

I turned down an invite to help docent at Lick as I have much to do before heading to the Oregon Star Party on Wednesday, and opted for Coyote due to the easy drive and that I'd planned to leave by 1 a.m. When I arrived I thought I was alone, with nothing but boaters who were preparing to depart. Then up drove someone wearing an orange vest, pulling in next to me, and waving as I was setting up my scope. In the back of his car a blanket covered something.... the blanket had images of planets on it. Another amateur astronomer.

Out stepped Rev. David Crabtree. I'd never met him before, and I guess I expected someone in some sort of church garb, which is a silly expectation of course, but still, he introduced himself. I'd known him by his postings on the list, and I introduced myself. About that time Bob Elsberry appeared. Bob was a board member at the SJAA when I was, I'm sure he remembers those fun times as well as I do (and others on this list). I hadn't seen Bob in maybe five years, so it was fun just to say hi. Bob had been the club's treasurer until work duties curtailed his club volunteering.

I brought my 10" CPT again, and this time stood the scope up next to my car, sitting on the collimation bolts. I decided to clean the mirror. A little distilled water, a few cotton balls, and my mirror was ready for action. Folks I've never met before began pulling in. Ah... the gravitational attraction of a Big Mars was working. Other TACos I, ones that I knew, pulled in... Kevin Roberts, Rob Hawley, Geroge Feliz, Jerry Elmer, Robert Armstrong, a visit from out-of-town TACo Archer Sully, this was turning into a good group. The Reverend earlier had chuckled at me for posting on my OI that I was going to Coyote, but the "place to be" (in the note section) was The Peak. I was attempting to keep the group at Coyote small, but I failed.

Once I could see Vega, I began observing. The Double Double split nicely, very clean at 206X. Wide gaps, visitors at the scope enjoyed the view.

I have to interject here that TAC's web-page and OI calendar are a real asset in getting people out to observe. A husband and wife last night told me they found the web-page, saw the OI calendar, that people were going to Coyote, that there was a detailed map available right from the web-page, and it was an easy decision from there. Good job Steve Sergeant, and good idea Jim Bartolini!

I didn't really have an observing plan. In fact, Kevin brought a big English beer, which I enjoyed, and then reclined the seat in my car for a while to recover. When I rolled back out it was dark, except for Mars. I asked Kevin what he planned to do, and decided to tag along with him as he logged a few Messiers.

We visited M55, M75 and M70. These were all down in the Gilroy Nebulea, but still they were fun to hunt. I shot up to NGC 7331 and peeked around for the smaller galaxies nearby, found none, that stupidly looked for Stephen's Quintet. Nada.

Went over to 52 Cygni, the "Veil Nebula" star and split it. Nice split again at 206X.

I went over to the Helix Nebula, at 72X it looked quite large, but not a lot of detail. I used the Orion Ultrablock 2", then the Lumicon 2" OIII. The "hole in the doughnut" showed up best with the Ultrablock, but the OIII really showed the nebulosity much better.

Then I asked Kevin if he'd like to chase some NGC's on the Herschel list with me.

I opened the Night Sky Observer's Guide to Cepheus, since it was up high in a decent part of the sky.

We began with the nice combination of NGC 6934 and NGC 6946 in our low power fields. 6934 is a nice obvious open cluster of perhaps a couple dozen or so stars, really kind of a rich cluster, but in Coyote's skies 6946 appeared to be a rather muted galaxy. I am really used to looking at this pair in my 18" scope under dark skies, where they are spectacular. And, these are easy to find, jumping form Alpha Cephei to the red star Eta Cephei, then to the pair of deep sky objects.

We moved next to NGC 6951, since I decided to pass on the dark nebulae in these bright skies. This one too had a decent landmark to find it from, sitting close by to mag 5.6 4-Cephei. The galaxy was faint, but quite noticeable. A dim star sits just off its eastern edge, with several bright stars to its northeast. Once we saw this one, a 3-star in the NSOG, I knew the transparency was good enough to make deep sky worthwhile. This one was listed with a surface brightness of 13.2, so really, not too bad.

NGC 7023 was next. It is listed as and open cluster and reflection nebula. I believe it is a reflection nebula, at least that's what it is from Coyote. The mag 7 star that seems surrounded by an evenly dissipating glow is easy to find. Two other stars near the same magnitude frame it, almost equally far but forming a bent line. I tried and tried to convince myself I saw a cluster, but I can't lie, no matter how hard I try.

Then I went to one of my favorite couple of stars. I pointed the scope at the Garnet Star, Mu Cephei, and just enjoyed the color. Copper-red, bright, dominating its field of view. What a color, like a tiny bright rich Mars. Then I moved the scope over to IC 1396, which was our next target. This IC is a large reflection nebula embedded in a very rich star field. The field is very large, overflowing my 20 Nager, and ever so faintly between those stars was haze. I can't wait to go to OSP and look at this! Not that that view was not enough reward, but I then enjoyed seeing Struve 2816, the nice triple star so obvious in the field. Blue and two gold. Alberio with a bonus!

By now Mars was up high enough. I have to admit to looking at Mars more than any other planet. I rarely look at the planets, there are so few of them and so many other things to see :-) But up I went to Mars, again, and as soon as the view looked mushy, returned to my usual quarry and looked for the next deep sky target.

I think we poked around at some other open clusters, boy, there are a lot of them in Cepheus. But then, with a chill on the air and the hour getting late (with all that work waiting the next day) I decided to try one more object.

We looked next for NGC 7354, a nice planetary nebula in an easy location. Off the southeast leg of the constellation line, about the middle, I put the edge of my Telrad. The bullseye was outside the constellation figure, to the southeast. Looking in at 72X I could see a faint small round glow. No problem seeing this, its small size makes its mag 12.2 glow present a high surface brightness. I tried the Ultrablock here too, and it did help, I even pumped up the power to 206X, and yes, that seemed to help, but nothing could overcome the chill, the late hour and drive home.

I began packing up at 1:30. I was not the first by a long shot, and it seemed that everyone except Rob and Bob were packing up. It was a fun night. I was on the road just after 2:00, having waited for a few friends, and in bed by 2:45.

I slept in. My wife is so nice to me. I had a great night out, and look forward now to a trip with friends to the Oregon Star Party with my 10" CPT, an 18" Starmaster, and the BEAST, the 30" StarMaster.

Have a good week observing, everyone.

Martian invasion last night

Were you at Houge Park last night?

There was a Martian invasion.

I pulled into the parking lot around 6:45 p.m. and found most of the parking spaces full. There was some group there for "Mars" gathered by the playground, over 100 people having an al fresco Chinese food dinner. As darkness moved from east to west, the lot became nearly a gridlock, cars parked in every space, in every non-space, along the driveway in, double parked along the driveway in, and along all the side streets.

I have never seen Houge Park so packed.

People who never bring out their telescopes were there.

People who never looked through a telescope were there.

Did anyone do a scope count?

Some scopes had lines of 20 people or more.

I was showing deep sky targets and double stars until Mars was up high enough. Near midnight the seeing steadied up very nicely and lots of detail was popping out on the Martian surface.

I have never had such a busy night at Houge. It was a Martian invasion, but in this case, as Ray Bradbury said, we are the Martians.

At 12:30 a.m. countermeasures to disperse the Martians were implemented, when the sprinklers came on, scattering the crowd.

It was a fun night, from start to finish.

Next month, we're bringing shower caps along ;-)

SJAA... great job hosting a really fun event!

Planet night at Montebello: Discovery of Uranus

Last night at Montebello several of us looked at Uranus and Neptune while waiting for Mars to climb into steadier skies. I mentioned that Uranus is a naked eye object, although down in the soup to the east from our location it would be very difficult. The views through telescopes led a few observers to question my remark, and indeed Uranus did look pretty dim. But today, after a bit of browsing web-pages, I find its magnitude listed anywhere from mag 5.2 to 5.8, challenging from Montebello.

When I mentioned the planet is naked-eye, a discussion ensued regarding the planet's discovery. Who first noticed it? Well, it was Carolyn Herschel and her brother William, on March 13, 1781.

But the real question last night was, if it is at a visual magnitude that can be seen naked eye, why didn't the ancient Arabic, Greek or Chinese astronomers/astrologers discover it? Certainly the other five naked eye planets are brighter and move more rapidly against the stellar background, but I find it amazing that it took until the Herschels visually detecting Uranus' disk in a telescope for the discovery to be made.

Lick Observatory, Friday August 8-9, 2003

Last night I was fortunate enough to find myself unexpectedly at Lick Observatory on Mt. Hamilton for the Summer Visitors Program. I saw many familiar faces - among them James Turley, Rich Neuschaefer, Paul Mortfield, Alan Adler and Jeff Crilly..

I have to mention Jay "Count Dracula" Freeman - with his nice brass 80mm refractor. Jay is always entertaining, and had the longest lines of summer visitors waiting to view through his small telescope.

Must have been the blood color of the planet, and Jay's cape, that was the big draw.

Before dark, in fact, before sunset the moon was a washed out but interesting target. Early arrivals were enjoying views through my 10" f/5.7 CPT, which I had tracking on an Equatorial Platform. This combination of telescope and platform performed wonderfully during the evening.

We were set up behind the hallway leading from the central corridor in the main building to the 36" Clark refractor. You could look out over the valley to the east and see the mountain's shadow cast onto the more eastern slopes. Some folks who were looking sooner than I could see the shadows of the domes on the far hillsides.

As sunset approached the sky colors to the east took on tones of amber, turquoise and deepening purple. The edge of night was easy to discern as it climbed higher in the sky. As this was occurring I walked around the building to see the sunset. A low layer of fog butted up and slightly crested the peaks to the west, and the sun sat atop this, orange and flattening, to the northwest. The bay was very evident as were the wetlands at the south end of the bay. Light glistened off the wetlands - shimmering bright. The sky took on a yellow-orange-green neon hue as the sun dropped. Some think they saw a green flash, but if there was one, it was not the "strobe" described to me at Fremont Peak a few weeks back. 10 years of astronomy and I am still waiting for a "real" green flash.

After a quick dinner the sky darkened sufficiently to pick out the Double Double off of Vega. The public was quite fascinated by the view of this pair of binaries. They split quite nicely, when the seeing steadied, even at 207X. I moved next to Alberio, also at 207X, and found again that asking people who looked to describe the colors in the pair resulted in a wide range of answers. I think the most unusual was green and purple.

Once the sky darkened more I moved to M5. The globular broke up very nicely into pinpoints at 95X, although washed out by the brightness of the moon. I stayed on M5 until it was down close to the roof of the building just north of the 36" dome. I then moved to M13, which put on a nice show for much of the rest of the evening, until the "star" of the night was in position to be worth viewing.

Mars continued to improve to the point that I was finally using a Takahashi LE 5mm with the Tele Vue 2X Big Barlow, increasing the magnification to 579X. The planet was holding up nicely, even at that high mag, although seeing was still a bit spotty. But when the image snapped in, it was a great view. I also learned that the seeing we experienced at Fremont Peak on July 26th was shared by observers all over the bay area. Last night's seeing was not nearly as steady, but still, in those moments of "still" the view was marvelous.

During the later part of the evening, once the Summer Visitors were dwindling down to a small handful, a few of us went in to look at M92 in the big refractor. Overmagnified and swimming, I looked briefly and went back out to my telescope. Later, we were offered an opportunity to view another interesting object, so a few of us "hustled" back to the scope.

While waiting in line, standing on the floor to the north of the telescope, I was able to look around and just take in the whole scene. It was more than just a visual experience. The aroma of, well, I almost want to call it "history" permeated the place. It was actually the smell of the wood floors, the metal of the big scope, and probably grease in the gears. But the view of the dimly lit dome interior, the elevating floor of inlaid woods, the slit revealing a starlit sky set off by the sharp edges of the dome opening, the long tube of the 36" rising from just to my right where the eyepiece was --- up, up, up and appearing to breach the dome, which of course it didn't, all this was a view, a visceral experience that oozed into me through all my senses. Just off the tip of the scope, set against that starry background, was the object we'd view - sitting still and bright, and red-orange.

Like smelling the wine before sipping, anticipating a fine dining experience in the finest and perhaps most exotic of locations, Mars waited. What a place to be, with the planet so big and bright, so close that we'd joked with the public that if the "Martians" were to launch an invasion, this would be the month to do so. I climbed the few steps up to the eyepiece and looked in.

Bright light. White/yellow bright light.

It reminded me of a time years ago when I took my first look at Jupiter through the 36". It was overwhelming.

So there I stood, wanting the detail, but literally blinded by the light.

Then my eye began acclimating, and the south polar cap came into view. Shortly the color of the planet changed to a white-orange and dark markings started to reveal themselves. A few more moments and the entire planet was in clear view, good detail, but somewhat soft. Honestly, the views through my 10" CPT, Rich's 180mm AP and Alan's 8" equatorial mounted Newtonian were sharper.

But none carried the feeling I got standing at the eyepiece, in that dome that was saturated with history's smells, and the thoughts of Keeler, Barnard and other famous pioneers of astronomy standing where I was, looking through the same enormous instrument.

Back outside, the pubic was gone. It was just a few of us, Mars, and the seemingly ancient dome rising up just south of our telescopes. To our north a beam of light was piercing the sky. It was one of the new tools, something Barnard and Keeler never dreamed of, slicing through the night from the big slit of the 120" dome - a bright amber yellow laser shining into the upper atmosphere, providing a false star for computers to view, and average out the atmospheric instability that played with the views at the 36, and in our own telescopes. It was a trip from the early days of the observatory, inside that 36" dome, to the latest methods - shining into the heavens with laser precision and utility. It is amazing, looking at the dome and seeing "1888" cut into the facade, then looking at that beam of light helping make today's ground-based astronomy so much better.

I could not have had a better time.

I was back home and in bed by 4:45 a.m.

But, before I walked in my front door, I looked high to the south to the big planet, remembering the wonderful night with the public looking through my telescope, and the feeling I took home with me after viewing Mars while immersed in the history of that big dome and famous instrument.

Mt. Lassen report

Yep... the folks there make the trip.

Here's the crew:

http://www201.pair.com/resource/resource-intl/nelms20031.JPG

A few folks were unable to make it.

Now for an observing report:

Wednesday night I used the 10" f/5.7 CPT and three eyepieces - a 20 Nagler Type II, 12 Nagler Type II, and 7 Nagler. A family from Seattle arrived at the north end of Devastated Area, got out and turned off all their lights. I invited them to look through the telescope. It was a grandfather, maybe a few years older than me, had several grandchildren along. The eldest was a young lady maybe 17 years old who had studied and was tested in astronomy for the National Science Foundation. She knew every object I showed, and I was able to let her explain what she was seeing to her siblings . This was very satisfying. We looked at M5, M13, M57, Alberio, the Double Double, M27, M51, M8 and others. The youngest grandchild, six years old, was getting tired so they thanked me and left. I continued, pointing my scope toward Aquila and opened the Night Sky Observers' Guide. I logged several NGC open clusters and planetary nebulae. The views were rewarding, many of the open clusters having nice hazy background of unresolved dim stars with brighter members in chains. I kept at it until fatigue forced me to take down, and return to camp. Everyone was asleep when I returned.

Thursday night I set up the 18" Obsession and revisited several of the objects I'd looked at the prior night in Aquila. But this was a shorter observing session, as the clouds gave us only intermittent views then socked in fairly early. Still, what I did see was excellent, and it was fun to just be out in such a beautiful dark sky in an amazing geologic location.

Some like Bumpass Hell parking lot, for its additional elevation and wonderful horizons, but I prefer Devastated. Devastated is 2200 feet or more lower, which I find a more comfortable elevation as far as my energy level. At over 8200 feet I feel lethargic. Everything I do is more work. I also like the very short and easy drive back from Devastated - to either Summit Lake Campground or Lost Creek. I also think it is darker at Devastated. There is just something about the negative horizons at Bumpass that makes me feel as if the Redding and Chico light domes (small as they may be), along with the small towns visible in the northern Central Valley always catch my eye. At Devastated, the horizons are good but not negative, and there are no notable light domes (except when higher clouds reflect them). Devastated is also the home site of the annual star parties at Lassen.

Friday evening I stayed in camp, watching the clouds to see if there would be a break. Others went to Devastated, but did little or no observing and returned early.

Saturday was to be the public star party, which did not happen due to poor weather. The public event is the most gratifying part of the trip. It is fun to be with friends, and to observe, but I like to see how much the public (and park staff) enjoy the 2 hours they have looking at the universe through our equipment.

We'll return next year - and chances are we'll have great weather and lots of viewed objects to report on.

Mt. Lassen report

Awesome.

I'd forgotten what it was like to enter the park through the south entrance. For years I'd been coming in from highway 44 through Anderson or Redding, then through Shingletown, turning onto highway 89 at Manzanita Lake. That entrance is serene, with tranquil Manzanita Lake on the right and Reflection Lake across the road. The volcanic past of Mt. Lassen is well disguised in the peaceful waters, fishermen in waders and tubes, families camping with children playing... all first impressions for the uninitiated to Lassen. Not until one ventures further along the road, at Chaos Jumbles and Chaos Crags does the volcanic past of the place become undeniable. Yes, the Peak is visible from Manzanita Lake, but it is more a thing of beauty than a reminder of the power and unpredictability of Mother Nature.

Quite a different story coming in from Red Bluff, taking highway 36 to Mineral then entering the park at the south end of highway 89. The terrain is steep mountainside, with thick forests of pine and manzanita opening up in meadows of cascading streams and wildflowers. The park road snakes along the edge of ancient Mt. Tehama's chasm, down into the belly of the beast where hues of red, gold, brown and yellow paint the geothermal areas. The road falls away into the valley where Mill Creek continues to cut down through the V shaped terrain. The rough edges remaining from the big volcano form a ring, including Mt. Brokeoff, Mt. Diller, Diamond Peak, Mt. Conrad, Bumpass Mountain and of course, Lassen Peak. 8,000 feet below is the bottom of the boiler. You pass the Sulpher Works, where the smell of vents penetrates even closed car windows, then continue up to Emerald Lake, which still had ice in it, past Bumpass Hell parking lot, Lake Helen, winding up arnd around in the shadow of Lassen Peak's giant lava plugs - which poke out of the sides of the peak like Frankenstein's neck-knobs, past the Peak's parking lot and down the other side past snowfields, then Kings Creek Meadow - the archetype of mountain meadows - and down to Summit Lakes and our campgrounds.

We had the same campsites as prior years when we were displaced from Lost Creek Campgounds by the native folks. I have to assume they meet for their annual get-together on new moons, since our visits have coincided several times. I would be very interested in sharing the camprgound with them, but I suspect they want to keep their festivities to just indigenous participants. It would be like us not wanting early morning hikers right in our campsite.

When we arrived at the campsite several TACos had already arrived and set up camp. By Thursday afternoon everyone that would arrive was there. We had a great group of TAC "doers" - those who maintain the web-page, arrange star parties, keep the calendar, archives and so on, along with the friends of Alan Nelms who were there to remember "Nature Boy" and the fun we'd had with him in the early years of the Lassen trips.

So day turned to sunset, we ate our camp dinners, and headed out to Devastated Area to see if the clouds would clear. It was really just a few members of the group that provided the impetus to get out there, despite the cloudy conditions. The primary instigator was Steve Gottlieb, who's presence was as "observer emeritus" for the group - Steve is always a wealth of information about interesting and challenging objects. He and Randy Muller seemed to be almost vibrating with anticipation, and succeeded in getting everyone out to the observing site.

Soon after dark the skies began clearing. The Milky Way was glorious - and everyone was busy observing here and there, as bands of clouds floated by. I spent my time in Aquarius, using my 10" f/5.7 CPT to hunt open clusters and planetary nebulae throughout the area. It was a great time. However, several observers took down their equipment early on due to lightening far to our south. It was disconcerting to see the flashes, but there was no thunder so we determined we were a safe distance from the strikes. For some time we sat in chairs, there at 6,000 feet with the volcano standing tall just to our southwest, watching the light show, peeking through our scopes, and generally having a nice time. I packed it in at about 1:30 and returned to a dark campsite, where much of the group was sacked out after the long drive and campsite setups.

I think the highlight social night was over at Ken Head's campsite, where a small fire lit up the faces of a dozen of us, talking and having drinks on Thursday night. Several of the group had driven to Devastated Area to observe, but would return shortly after 11 p.m. - it was a total cloud-out. Some joined us at Ken's campsite. A real highlight was Steve Sergeant entertaining the group with various bottles of scotch - handing out small plastic cups with samples of this type and that of good scotch. I had never liked scotch until Steve's generous sampling. It was quite a night up there - thanks to Ken and Steve.

Friday was cloudy too, in fact, cloudier than the two prior days. Dean and I went to Manzanita Lake for showers and supplies, running into, as we always do, other TACos in the store and parking lot. We sat and talked over soft-serve ice creams, watched the skies, enjoyed the local wildlife, and had a relaxing time. On the way back we stopped at the bridge over Hat Creek, parked the truck and walked back to enjoy the beaver dam holding back a nice pond, with Lassen Peak and the forest below it reflected in the still waters. The only things that convinced me it was not a staged photo was the sounds of the stream cascading downhill below the dam, and the sight of fish "pecking" at the surface creating expanding rings in the surface of the pond.

That night too some of the party went out to set up telescopes, while others remained behind, deciding to venture out only at the sight of clearing skies. By 11 p.m. rain was beginning to sprinkle the campsite. Stacy was tending the fire she built, Peter had hauled in a load of dry wood he'd collected. We were telling stories about John Hales, Rod Norden and Alan Nelms, all who were just fun and funny beyond belief during prior Lassen trips and other times in the old days at Fremont Peak. It was lots of fun.

As the light rain turned to heavier drops the observers returned. There had been little to see, a few sucker holes to the south in Scorpius, but not much. Soon after midnight everyone turned in.

During the night the sound of real rain played on our tents. It would continue through the night.

I awoke to the sound of Bob Czerwinski suggesting to me that I get up, and we all go to Shingletown for breakfast at the Big Wheel. The rain increased. The weather report was for these conditions to persist until Tuesday. Randy Muller had already packed up and left, which caused a gradual chain-reaction of others following suit. There's always one in the group, and this year Randy was the leak in the dike that turned into a flood of attendees packing up and leaving.

By the time I had thrown all my wet gear into the truck the rain had subsided to a light drizzle. Rivulets ran through the campground toward the lake. Other campers too were bailing out. We stopped by the Loomis Museum on the way out and I cancelled the public star party scheduled for that evening. It was sad to do it, but there were no astronomers left and the chances of any sky at all were minimal.

We drove out, past the Crags, tranquil Manzanita and Reflection Lakes, down to the Big Wheel and had lunch. A few hours later I pulled into my driveway and the Nelms Star Party for 2003 was a fond memory. I had a great time, I know others did too. It was proof that the sky is merely the common ground we share, but that the friendships and comradeship in our group is the real glue. I think we've been going to Lassen for 12 years now, and this is the first "skunking" on record. So now I can't wait for CalStar, just two new moons away. I enjoy the familiar faces, the new ones too, and different places we go. We have a great group in TAC. We have a fun star party at Lassen each year - where we remember Alan.

Thanks, Alan...

La Caja de Los Gatos Observatory: July 14, 2003

Yesterday I received an upgrade motor and hand controller for my Osypowski built Compact Equatorial Platform. I had sent Tom O my old motor and a check for the upgrade middle of last week. Installing the new motor was true simplicity. Two screws secure the motor to the ground board, and everything is instantly aligned. Two cords came with the hand controller, a short one that can be tucked under the platform while in use, and a long one, which allows the user to be at the eyepiece comfortably while holding the controller.

Setting the platform up is simple. There is a solid top board upon which the rocker box of my scope sits, and a ground board that has the motor and bearings on it. When I place the scope on the platform, it sits down over a pin (I remove the ground board of my Dob, so I am using the rocker box with the hole in the bottom). There is no hunting around to be sure the scope is sitting correctly on the platform, there is no way to make a mistake. It literally takes me under 30 seconds to set up. That's just how it went last night. Oh, I also like that the platform is large enough to be under nearly all of the bottom of my rocker box. I am somewhat skeptical of designs that do not provide an adequate footprint to support the scope. Why? I once tried placing a scope that was too large for my platform on it. The scope jumped the track during the night, and it was a major pain in the boo-tay to screw around with it, trying to "right the boat" in the dark. I like platforms with plenty of support under the rocker box.

So, last night I did a rough polar align with my newly enhanced platform and waited for astronomical dark. The instructions described how to adjust the motor speed up or down as needed. I used Vega and Deneb as test stars for adjusting motor speed. I kept increasing the magnification until I had my highest power eyepiece in. When the stars would stay motionless for several minutes at a time, I switched eyepieces and began looking at deep sky objects.

The first was The Cats Eye Nebula, NGC 6543, in Draco. I found an easy trick to locating it - I use 18, 19 and 22 Draconis - which are in a straight line - and draw an imaginary line out to the east, about the same distance. I then use 33 (Gamma) and 32 Draconis to draw a line intersecting the first line. A low power eyepiece should get the planetary in view.

The seeing was okay, but not great. With my 7 Nagler and 3.8 Ultrascopic, I could see an oblong gray haze, and sometimes even a dimmer outer halo, barely. There were hints of a central star (oh... this is with an 8" f/7 Newtonian). I walked into the house and fixed my self an adult beverage, came back, and just like advertised, there was the Cats Eye, right where it belonged.

I moved to M13. I used the 20 Nagler and had a truly marvelous view. Nice little tight stars everywhere. I was able to relax, with the object staying dead center, and let my eye wander around, noting that when I avert my vision to about 30 degrees off axis, I got noticeably better resolution of the glob. I sipped my drink, looked up at the sky, looked into the eyepiece, went inside the house to see what the dogs were up to (they got bored when I began telling them about the globular) and made myself, another, er, glass of liquid refreshment.

Out I came again. I knew this night was just for testing the new motor and hand controller on the platform, but I was having fun. I pointed the scope at NGC 6940, the nice open cluster in Vulpecula, just off 39 and 41 Cygni. Into the center of the eyepiece, nice rich grouping of stars, one of my favorites among the non-M opens.

I also noticed on other thing, while the platform was tracking.... the sound my old motor made was gone. There is still some sound, but it is much more muted than before.

It was getting late, I've been working a lot of hours, and decided to turn in. The night was a big success, both in terms of how the new equipment operated, and in my hitting targets from memory.

I plan to be out back again tonight. Me, my Dob, and my platform.

Occultation of Zubenelgenubi

Set up 8" Dob in my backyard. Put in 12mm Nagler. Found moon and stars. Seeing was very steady. Nice detail on moon, but I decided to watch the two stars instead of checking out la luna.

Began watching............ ........... ................................ ............................. ......................... ....... ........................ ............................. ..................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

blink
............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

wondered how far to edge of moon.................. ............................... ................................... .................................... ....................................................

sipped coffee ............. .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. ..................................

looked away for a moment........................ ......................................... ................................ ............................. ............................. ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ........................... ............... .............................. ................................................................ .................................................. .................................. ...........................

BLINK
put telescope away.

Observing near 1st Q at Foothills Park

I had a very enjoyable evening last night, tagging along with Rich Neuschaefer for an evening of observing at Foothill Park in Palo Alto. It had been several years since I'd attended one of these events, hosted by Peninsula Astronomical Society member William Phelps. It is a rather cozy area for observing, to our east is the entire expanse of the south bay, looking east across from Mt. Hamilton to Mt. Diablo and north, and up to Montebello to the west. The site offers very scenic views, but is only open to Palo Alto residents. As an amateur astronomer with a telescope, I was allowed in to support the program. Several other TACos were there... and others who are active PAS members that I rarely see.

I had brought out my 8" CPT, the 10" is still on loan. The 8 is an f/6.9, and really performs on the moon and planets. The moon was the early favorite target. Seeing was rather soft though, and even with the 20 Nagler (70x) it looked as if it were under a slow moving stream. But the views were still pleasing, even when I bumped it up to the 12 Nagler (116x)... and the public loves the moon. Views of Jupiter were a waste, the public saw a 70x almost featureless slightly fuzzy ball with four pinpoint around it.

The best views I had were of the big globulars. M13 put on a great show, as did M3 and M5. People were fascinated with these objects. I think M5 was the best at 70x, and shared the field with the nice double star 5 Serpentis. People were able to enjoy the globular at over 24,000 LY and realize that the double star at only 80 LY was really incredibly closer. It helps them realize the view really covers tremendous distances.

I finished the night turning the 8" toward the small globulars in Sagittarius that I had been hunting with 10x50 binoculars a few night before. Of course they showed much more easy in the 8". I picked off NGC 6638, NGC 6642, NGC 6624, NGC 6659, NGC 6528 which shared the FOV with NGC 6522, and NGC 6652. They were all obvious, without the need for charts (I'd spent enough time with binos that I knew where to look).

Other objects that showed well were M22, M4, Alberio, and M28, the Ring and Dumbell.

It was a very friendly and relaxing evening. If you have an opportunity to attend, Foothill Park can be a good observing site.