Friday, December 31, 2004

Observing on New Year's Eve in Mendocino

I drove for my first time to Mendocino on New Year's Eve day... it was an amazing experience that even included some astro content (which is why I am posting to TAC...).

It was rainy most of the drive up, over The Bridge, through Marin and the cities, past the turnoff for Lake Sonoma, and into the Anderson Valley. This is a little known wine valley, compared to more famous Napa and Sonoma. But it is a beautiful place. We had lunch at the Sagebrush Saloon in Booneville, preparing for some wine tasting before the night's celebration. But during lunch I began wondering about my clothing, realizing I'd left the garment bag with the nights "duds" hanging in the closet back in San Jose! Asking the waitress if there was any place to shop nearby, she replied with friendly small town charm, saying "you're screwed" :-) Thus began my unexpected journey to Ukiah. This allowed me to drive out to the coast at Fort Bragg, and enjoy a bit more coast scenery, passing by the town of Mendocino, on my way to our final destination of Fensalden Inn, in Albion. No wineries that day :-(

The Fensalden Inn is on the old stagecoach route through the area, and the Inn itself was a stage stop. It is quaint, ecclectic and very picturesque (ducks, goats, birds, streams, cypress trees, rainbows over the ocean in the morning) Nice group of guests, from Geneva, Napa, Newport Beach, the bay area, I was even surprised to meet a woman there who was a year behind me in my high school in Los Angeles - a few drinks, and there were lots of stories to tell. But soon it was time to head out to dinner.

Dinner was at the Ledford House Restaurant. There was a four course french dinner, which included something called "salmon sorbet"... a word of advice, never, ever, ever, taste salmon sorbet. But the rest of the dinner was great. The wine was great, the champagne was too (it was late harvest reisling mixed with champagne). The party outside was also - - - somehow I think the outside activities are typical Mendocino!

And that's where the observing part of this report comes in. The sky was clear when I stepped outside. I looked up, tried to stabilize myself the best I could, and looked at all the double stars! Even Rigel and Betelgeuse appeared double (shoot, I couldn't even read the bill when it came)! Although I did not have a "GREEN LASER" with me (please, kill that thread!) I was able to give something of a sky tour to some of the less inebriated revellers. Well, we all had a great time. Fortunately, the B&B was a very short distance - I could have (and perhaps should have) walked back...

Thanks to all who made recommendations for where to go, what to do, on the trip. I finally got to drive past the turnoff for Lake Sonoma - and if I were going there to observe, I'd definitely head up into the Anderson Valley during the day (the late harvest Reisling and Gurwurtz are awesome!)... maybe even put on a few more miles and enjoy the afternoon on the Mendocino Coast... in fact, the relative closeness of the valley and that gorgeous coast to Lake Sonoma make it a great combined observing/tourism area...

Happy New Year to all...

Friday, December 10, 2004

Treasue Hunts and TGOs

We had a great turnout at Coe last night for the end of year pot luck star party. There was way too much food, as usual when people do a pot luck. Chocolate torte, pork rinds, prawns, homemade Cajun gumbo, KFC, veggie platters, bottles of wine, all sorts of good eats. Thanks for Joe Bob for the Fosters, and Steve -newcomer and transplant from TACiego, for being aware of the old TAC traditions (you can bring the Fosters next time). Thanks to everyone for participating. The perimeter of the lot was full by sundown, temps were mild, almost spring-like. Skies were quite clear, and the roughly two dozen observers were at their scopes enjoying themselves. We did have a visit from CSAA, as one observer had locked keys in car - the driver was promised free food upon arrival, and did indeed make it up the windy road in what to my experience with AAA was record time. Interesting to see how quickly a car can be broken into!

Richard Navarrete and I were using our 18" Obsessions to hunt objects on the Herschell 400-II list. A list of objects observed are at the end of this report - they were mostly in lower Cetus and Camelopardalis. Open clusters and galaxies, some were very challenging, leading us to speculate that the transparency was poor - as the clear sky clocks had predicted. The CSCs definitely were incorrect regarding the cloud cover, and especially humidity - both forecast as ugly, but turned out to be non-issues. What was an issue was a stiff breeze that started a few hours after dark, and kept up until (and not surprisingly) we had finished tearing down our scopes.

There were a few visitors during the night, one being Stacy Jo's mom, here from Colorado Springs. Nice woman who was enjoying seeing her daughter out with friends, and taking in the outstanding sunset. Another was a park volunteer, Lisa, who partook in the pot luck and had fun picking out some of the dim galaxies in my scope. After years of people asking about finding objects by star-hopping vs using go-to, Lisa in two words captured what the fun is in star-hopping. She referred to it as a treasure hunt. That was it! It is the kid part in a lot of us, the challenge and fun. I'm sure even die-hard go-to telescope users remember that kind of fun.

Many of the objects on the list were difficult. Some of the galaxies were nothing more than mere haze, some, surprisingly large - but almost not there. The wind would blow the scope off the object while we were at the computer, confirming position. I began thinking of these as Transient Galactic Objects (TGO - pronounced like the sandwich shop chain). They'd be there, then they'd be gone. TGOs are frustrating, and usually weather dependant. The wind created many TGOs and finally, put an end to the evening for several observers.

Finished by observing some eye-candy. M42, NGC1980, the big bright M-opens, all spectacular. It is easy to see why we drive to Coe and skies even darker still, comparing last night's views to those in town, at MB, or Houge.

And, as expected, as soon as the scopes were in our vehicles, someone said "hey... the wind's died down"...

And it had. I hope the mass sacrifice served well for those who remained. It was a fun night, good food, good crowd of friendly folks, other than wind among the best conditions I've seen for a December in many years. A good way to end the deep sky observing year.

I get to be the first to say, on to a great 2005...


Open Cluster
NGC 2253
Other description: Open cluster.
Constellation: Cam

Open Cluster
NGC 2192
Constellation: Aur
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 6.0'

NGC991
Magnitude: 12.4
Size: 2.7' x 2.4'

Galaxy
NGC 1045
Constellation: Cet
Magnitude: 13.0
Size: 0.7' x 0.4'

Galaxy
NGC 1073
Constellation: Cet
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 5.0' x 4.6'

Galaxy
NGC 1114
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 13.0
Size: 2.0' x 0.8'

Galaxy
NGC 1162
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 13.0
Size: 0.5' x 0.4'

Elliptical Galaxy
NGC1172
Magnitude: 12.7
Size: 2.3' x 1.8'

Galaxy
NGC 1187
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 11.0
Size: 6.0' x 4.0'

Galaxy
NGC 1199
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 11.5
Size: 0.8' x 0.6'

Galaxy
NGC 1209
Constellation: Eri
Magnitude: 11.4
Size: 1.0' x 0.5'

Thursday, October 14, 2004

CalStar 2004 - Fun and Friends

The saying "Short and Sweet" certainly applies to this year's CalStar. The star party was cut a day short, first time in five years, by impending rain. But what took place while we were all there was great.

I was able to visit with friends from all over the state, some I get to see only at this event, others no more than twice a year. I had wonderful conversations about life and all its twists and turns with Jane Smith, Even Garber, Marsha Robinson, Richard Navarrete and Jeff Gortatowski. I spent most of my time observing with several in that group. What a great way to build friendships, and keep those that are long term.

Thursday afternoon was hot, Friday cooler but not by much. The evenings were all cool but comfortable. Thursday evening was the best observing in terms of consistency, Friday also quite good but with some bands of clouds swinging through.

I'll list some favorite observations, but first, I want to thank Mike Koop and Rob Hawley for the fine job they did finishing up all the arrangements for CalStar this year. One other item, it was great to see Paul Sterngold for the first time in years, good talk about life, Paul - thanks!

My favorite observations were nearly all using my 18" Obsession f/4.5 Dob, and magnifications that included 100X, 186X, 283X and 568X.

NGC 281 is the PacMan Nebula. Fun object - nice small open cluster with several bright components, and around it a large haze of nebula that has a prominent dark intrusion - giving it that "PacMan open mouth" look - extending in toward the brightest star in the cluster. I liked the view best with the DGM VHT filter.

NGC 6946 - always a fun object, but even more so as we could easily identify the supernova.

NGC 147 - a local group galaxy - large and diffuse - but the view through the 30" Starmaster Dob of the brightest globular (Hodge 3) in the galaxy was a trip. Dim, but definitely there. Thanks to David Kingsley and Brian Zehring (sp?) for the view. Here's the Adventures In Deep Space web-page showing it:

http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/gcextra.htm

IC 1613 is another local group dwarf galaxy - and with matching star patterns between the eyepiece and computer screen, I would detect some brightening and perhaps some HII regions (???).

We (doing group observing) also ran through several open clusters in Cassiopeia. Started with NGC 7789, one that everyone loves, then progressed to a nice chain including NGC 7788, NGC 7790, King 12, Berkeley 58 and Harvard 21 (there was one more - began with an "F" but not in my notes). This was a fun and diverse group.

Jones 1 was a nice large annular planetary - easy to find. It showed best, again in the DGM filter. I had heard about this object for years and just never got around to chasing it down.

We did a few fun galaxy trios as well, from the Miles Paul "Atlas of Galaxy Trios" - NGC 6928 was prominent and obvious, NGC 6930 dimmer but easily found next to a pair of bright stars to its southeast, NGC 6927 was a challenge, and I can only wonder if anyone has found the fourth galaxy NGC 6927A - I guess not, otherwise it wouldn't be a trio!

The best view of the two nights was one stumbled upon accidentally (take note, goto users!) - when I was hunting for NGC 392 - part of another Miles Paul Galaxy Trio. Instead I landed on NGC 383. Looking at it I saw two galaxies to its south. I called someone over thinking it was the trio - until they asked about the two galaxies north of 383. I was puzzled. So I began studying the field. NGC 383 looking disturbed, as if it had two cores - so I went to higher power and found it to be two galaxies - NGC 382 was also there. Up to 283X and I began noticing other galaxies as well - NGC 366 and NGC 387 - which formed a nice chain with the others. I kept looking.... and soon NGC 375 popped in, then UGC 1679, out west of NGCs 383 and 382. These two popped in during a brief moment of great transparency and excellent seeing - there, then gone. The last one I found was NGC 388 southeast of the bright pair. What was rewarding about this was being able to see them, and only afterward going to the computer and confirming them position by position. The next day several of us were looking at Uranometria and other reference, and found that one of the appendix pages in the most recent Uranometria contained a blowup of the field. This group is described in "Adventures In Deep Space":

http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/ngc383ch.htm

Part of the Perseus - Pisces Supercluster - it is described as one of the largest known structures in the universe:

http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/supercl.htm

The observing was truly great...

It was somewhat sad, too, to pack up and leave on Saturday. Back to things that this trip proved such a good respite for... as well as the thought of winter approaching with less nights observing...

But, I do remember some spectacular nights out last winter. You just never know... some things, like this year's CalStar, really are short and sweet...


Saturday, September 18, 2004

Hey Diddle Diddle, A Short Night at Fiddle(town...)

I had a great weekend.

As anyone that watches the sky knows, Saturday looked fairly dismal for amateur astronomy purposes. So, after seeing the Clear Sky Clocks predicted a short window of "Yes" between blocks of solid white, a friend and I decided to combine a few other activities with an attempt to do some astronomy. We had actually looked at places like Point Reyes - all the campgrounds were full inside the park and nearby - or up to Calavares Big Trees State Park up highway 4 outside of Angels Camp - but it was full too. So, it was decided that the best option would be to hit the road for Fiddletown, just outside Plymouth (Pokerville), on highway 49 just north of better know Sutter Creek and Jackson.

The drive was easy, a real surprise - almost no traffic - and soon we were heading up into the wild country rising east of the central valley. It is a beautiful area - and made even more spectacular by the reading out loud of "Rush To Riches" - an excellent read of California's history from the mythical times of native Queen Califia up through the end of the "Free For All" of California's incredible Gold Rush. If you are unfamiliar with this history, it is fascinating, surprising, and a great way to feel more connected with the various places we all go throughout the state as amateur astronomers.

After a short visit to the Pokerville Market to fill my thermos with coffee, we drove toward Fiddletown, but turned toward the valley just north - the Shenandoah Valley - home to dozens of Amador County's great wineries. I prefer the friendly and casual nature, beautiful setting, friendly and free tastings offered there, compared to the commercial feeling I get visiting the Napa Valley. Our stops included Spinetta and Vino Noceto. Spinetta had a great Black Muscat and Frost Wine - but we purchased a Heritage Red and a Barbera. Noceto was fun for the Doggie Diner "head" outside - those of you have been in the San Francisco area for a long time remember these fun canines.

After the tasting, we headed over a backroad toward Fiddletown, just a few miles away as the crow flies. This day happened to be the Fiddletown "Fiddle Jam" - just a lucky quirk that we were there on the right day. We caught the last hour of the event - with what I take to be mostly local talent on a stage set up in the middle of Fiddletown Road - causing a detour around the "downtown" area of this little hamlet. There were all sorts of crafts, food, colorful locals to people-watch at, and of course music. It was a fun diversion.

Following that was a 10 minute ride toward Volcano, and our observing site.

As expected, we were alone there. The sky was clouded over, and nobody was within earshot other than neighbor Paula's Great Dane and Rottweiler. The Dane always greets us - barking and growling - but too afraid of anyone to come near. The only other signs of life were the ants, which seemed to be totally unaware of the "ant stakes" sitting atop their ant-holes.

I set up the 18" Obsession and 10" CPT - crawled into the truck to stay warm, and read more Gold Rush while waiting for sunset. A quick taco dinner cooked on a camp stove and bottle of wine took out the day, and under still cloudy skies it was back into the truck to stay warm and read.

Around 9 o'clock or so, I stuck my head out a door and saw a clear sky. Out we went, to the telescopes. Seeing was okay, but did not hold up well at high power - this was a night for low and medium power eyepieces. A lot of eye candy was devoured - tasty stuff - then I opened up the Night Sky Observers Guide to Delphinus. I had left my computer packed and decided to play with Sky Atlas 2000 and the Uranometria - a paper night. I tore through several objects in Del, the one that eluded me (or so I think) was Abell 72 (PK59-18.1) - I thought I saw a glow around the brighter of two stars - but no - the image shows it off the star. Negative sighting. :-( I did have fun though tracking down several small dim galaxies well off the main body of the Dolphin.

After a few hours bands of clouds began drifting through - and driving us back into the truck for more local wine and Gold Rush history.

By midnight we were beat, and it wasn't until about 2:30 a.m. that I awoke to find the sky perfectly clear again. When I woke next, the sky was laden with heavy clouds that forced me quickly out of the truck to start packing the telescopes.

We soon hit the road, with no destination in mind, which is a fun way to be. At the intersection of 49 and Fiddletown Road, I decided on south, through Amador City, Drytown, then Sutter Creek and into Jackson. The clouds had cut loose and we were in the midst of the first good rain squall of the season. It was nice, and my truck certainly looked better after the free wash. We ducked into a local coffee shop - the double latte and hot chocolate were great as we read more from the book and chatted with a large bald guy in a Harley Davidson shirt and his woman friend. Nice town, relaxed. We sat on the couch for some time, sipping, enjoying. Off then to a local bookstore - hundreds of thousands of used books (or so they'd have you believe). Then headed out again... for points further south on 49.

In San Andreas I saw a sign I knew to expect - California Cavern at Cave City - a geologically fascinating place discovered by 49ers during the gold rush. Nine miles later we were passing the "Corndog Turnpike" (there's a sign for it, really), and down the road to the attraction. It was 50 degrees F outside, as we entered the cavern's warmer constant temperature of 53 degrees. Hard hats on, we witnessed other people crawling into and out of small holes in the formations leading to hidden rooms. The flowstone, soda-straws, stalagmites, stalagtites, curtains and cave bacon were great. If you want to find real dark, go into one of these places sometime and turn out the lights - but don't lose your candle of flashlight. This is where "black" is black!

An hour later, we emerged into the clouded skies again, drizzle falling on us as we headed to the truck for the ride back home. Gold Country is a true beauty spot in this amazing state. The history, the golden yellow late season grasses with the first rains upon them, the rusty colored earth in the hills and old buildings along the curving highway. I couldn't think of a better place to spend a day or so - away from the crowds and noise of the bay area.

Observing is fun, and this was a good trip. Observing combined with other memorable activities is even better. I look forward to more such adventures...

Saturday, September 11, 2004

Fremont Peak on 9/11

A few of us were talking about the anniversary of 9/11 up at the Peak. Hard to believe how time flies. Time does. It had been over a year since I'd been to Fremont Peak - and this I guess was good as for my annual pilgrimage. It is the first "dark sky" location I had observed from, and where I made the great majority of my long term astronomy friends. It did feel good to be back, as it always does. The SW lot was picturesque as always - fog covering the coastal plain - the Moss Landing power plant smokestack heat causing the fog to billow up into a tower. Rolling hills at my feet disappearing into the mist below - and the sun setting over the cloud-covered horizon. Golden and reddish tones. Beautiful sight. Those of us present stopped to watch for a green flash - the conditions were prime for it. There was no "flash" but we did see a green point! Hey... better than nothing.

Conditions were quite good all night. There was no need for a jacket - calm breeze but nothing bothersome, and the fog came and went, and came again. Seeing was very good - and in some 18" scopes we were playing around with mid mag 15 galaxies. A 20" tracking scope had the Blue Snowball at over 1000X - very steady - and in moments the seeing would settle to dead still at that magnification - the detail in the bright outer shell was spectacular - reminded me of a brighter version of the tendrils possible to see looking at The Crab on a great night in a big scope.

I was looking at some "Eye Candy" and working on the Miles Paul Atlas of Galaxy Trios.

The first object was NGC 6712 - a large globular in Scutum. It was bright - but not like M13 or M22 bright - no problem seeing it though. It was not as dense as the famous globs, but it was a rich globular. I was really surprised by the size.

Next object was a small planetary in Aquila - NGC 6751. I've looked at this one many times - it is in an easy to locate position - at the tail of Aquila - off the two brightest stars. It is small, rather dim (although it shows without a filter) and annular.

NGC 7463 is the brightest and largest member of a nice galaxy trio off Markab in Pegasus. An 8th magnitude star sits close by WSW of elongated galaxy - which is oriented E-W. NGC 7465 is smaller and dimmer to the ESE of 7463. At higher power, little NGC 7464 pops out perpendicular to 7463 on its south side toward the eastern end. All the galaxies have stellar cores. This is a fun trio.

Another nice trio is NGC 4799, NGC 7501 and NGC 7503. All are dim but easy enough. There are a pair of MCG galaxies along with the three brighter NGC's - which are small and difficult to pull out.

We looked at NGC 7635 - The Bubble Nebula. Part of it surrounds a bright star - it is large and sweeps around in an arc - like a big spiral galaxy. The nebula is brighter to the W of the star, sweeps N then quickly dives E and S in a big "arm". Very nice object.

NGC 7532, NGC 7534 and NGC 7530 is an easy trio. All have similar surface brightness - and are in a line. Two are close together with the third one separated out in a way that they'd be evenly spaced if there were four galaxies in a line. Instead, where the "other" galaxy would go there is a star outside the line to the S. The brightest galaxy (to the S) has a NE/SW sweep, the furthest one to the N has a dim star close by to the S. The next closest one has a bright core.

The last ones I put in my notes were NGC 7562, NGC 7557 and NGC 7562A. Only 7562A was difficult - a small slash of light that was a sometimes averted vision object.

If you are using a 15" or larger Newtonian, I would recommend the Atlas of Galaxy Trios. It is fun to go from an "Eye Candy" type object - where there's something fun and brighter to observe, to a challenging target that takes some patience and effort, and back.

When I woke this morning at the Peak - a good number of us remained. Three of us went to San Juan Bautista and enjoyed a very filling buffet breakfast at Dona Esther's, then toured the nearby Mission San Juan Bautista before driving home.

Next month - CalStar...


Sunday, September 5, 2004

Short Night at IHOP II

I was at loose ends for things to do on Sunday, and saw some traffic come across the TAC-SAC mailing list.... mention of terrific Clear Sky Clocks and people heading to Ice House Observing Plateau II. I had gone to Henry Coe the night before but had to leave very early, and left the truck packed up. So, it was an easy get away.

I arrived at Jane Smith's and we piled my equipment in her truck, headed out to In And Out, and then on the road toward Placerville.

It is a nice drive. Once through El Dorado Hills and Cameron Park, the mountains start up. Pine trees, gently curving roads and blue skies make it enjoyable. The road up to Ice House is well maintained and offers sweeping views. This was my first trip there, and I found the observing site to be large, offer good horizons, but rocky (and full of shotgun shells).

We were joined by Shneor Sherman, Alvin Huey and, around dark, a couple named Terry and Manny pulled in.

The seeing was very steady except low to the horizons. Transparency was also quite good. I had left much of my setup in my truck back at Jane's, since I planned to observe the same objects she did. I had my 18" Obsession and used the 20, 12 and 7 Naglers throughout the night. I had brought my Atlas of Galaxy Trios - the one Miles Paul compiled. Jane had her Eye Candy list. We alternated between the two. But first, Jane talked about the globular cluster NGC 6380 in Scorpius. Apparently, Steve Gottlieb had mentioned it as a real toughie. So, in the darkening sky we began our night's observing on this SGNB*. With my laptop running The Sky I soon found myself on the right star field. A small inverted "L" of stars provided a pointed, along its short leg, toward the location. A chain of four stars provided a boundary - kind of a visual backstop that told me "don't go past this" - and the middle two stars should somewhat bracket the globular. The Sky makes it look like a big glob, but I think it is not. For quite some time, as I waited for the sky to really darken, and hoping the target would not get too low, I could not see it. I was using my 7 Nagler which gave 294X. Then, after a while, I began detecting a small slightly oblate glow - not exactly where The Sky had the center of the object plotted, close, but slightly to the north. I had trouble at times determining if there was a star involved or not, and the glow came and went - all with averted vision.

We next went for some Eye Candy.

NGC 129 in Cassiopeia is a huge open cluster. It was astonishing to trace out the extent - filled most of the field of the 20 Nagler. What a great cluster and in such an easy position.

NGC 185 and nearby NGC 147 sit between M31 and the bottom star of the right hand "V" (trailing) legs of Cassiopeia. NGC 185 is large and round, diffusing out evenly. It is easy to find, too, as there are three naked eye stars it sits near. NGC 147 at fist glance looks a lot like NGC 185, but it is smaller, dimmer and elongated. This nice bright pair are two satellite galaxies of M31. I always like them, since they seem far off from their host galaxy - gives me a feeling of the distances. We also jumped over the border, past the three bright guide stars, to NGC 278, a smaller bright spiral galaxy which, at high power, showed some good spiral structure. Nice group.

NGC 1501 was a nice view too. Large planetary with dark mottling in Camelopardalis. I used the Lumicon UHC.

Observed the Crescent Nebula - NGC 6888. It too was very good, but this time I used the OIII filter. Lots of good detail in the fat end of the Crescent.

There were some "tourists" that stopped by too. Man, wife, couple of teenagers. They were all interested, but did not have enough warm clothing. I showed the daughter M15, NGC 7789 and NGC 7331. She seemed very interested and asked questions.

Jane and I also snagged a couple galaxy trios from the MiIes Paul atlas.

NGCs 6927, 6928 and 6930 were fun. There is a nice double star that sits SE of the dim and elongated galaxy NGC 6930, with brighter and larger NGC 6928 to its NNW. NGC 6927 seemed more difficult to me than NGC 6927A... but both had to "appear" from the background after some waiting and searching around.

All the above galaxies were in Delphinus, as were NGC 6956 and UGCs 11620 and 11623. I know I saw these, but by then I was tired, the moon was about to come up, and I didn't write anything down other than the numbers as "seen"...

The ride back was easy - good highway is nice.

* Dillonism - Steve Gottlieb Nut Buster

Friday, August 20, 2004

A Night at Bob's

With moon set early last Friday night, I took the opportunity to leave the bay area and head to the Sierra foothills for some observing and a little wine tasting. Both can be done in nice fashion in and around Fiddletown. The wineries are just outside Ol' Pokerville (Plymouth) in the verdant Shenandoah Valley - home to dozens of wineries. The usual backup on 205 eastbound on a Friday afternoon - when does that traffic start backing up? I left a 1:30 and it was already a mess. But soon, I was turning left on Fiddletown Road and veering away from the observing site toward the wineries. Since it was 4:45 by the time I got there (a few extra stops along the way made the trip longer than usual), I got into one winery, and had a few samples of the local fare. Afterward, I headed back to Fiddletown and up to the site, where I set up my 18" f/4.5 Obsession, read, and waited for dark.

A five day old moon was up, although dropping quickly in the west, but I poked around it anyway. Some nice views of Mare Crisium, Theophilis with its bifurcated central peak poking out of the shadows, and hints of the two other craters - Cyrillus and Catherina - to its south right along the terminator - there really was some excellent detail even at only 177X. As the sank into the trees, I was preparing some coffee for the night and enjoying some pasta with fresh pesto along with a bottle of red. Nice start to the night.

After dinner I was tired, and took a short nap in the truck, getting up later to a nice dark and clear sky.

I looked around for new lights, which I'd heard were reported up there. A house high up on a hill to the east had a light on, and some weird light show was going on at a house directly to the north through a break in the trees. Neither were what I considered intrusive, I was looking mostly up and to the south, and had my truck as a light-block. By late at night both lights were doused.

Here are my observing notes in fairly raw form (I have trouble too reading my own scribbling):

Abell 2199 in Hercules. Its brightest member is NGC 6166, easy to identify at mag 11.8 with a surface brightness of 12.9. To its southwest and west are a chain of stars that look like a small Serpens Caput, providing an easy landmark by which to orient and wait for eight other galaxies to come, one by one, into view. All the other galaxies were dim, and part of the MCG - ranging from mag 14.25 to 16.3 (the 16.3 was very difficult!) with most in the mid 15's. I spent a good deal of time on this target at 280X.

NGC 7094 - a nice planetary nebula in Pegasus. Without an OIII filter it was barely visible - just a hint of glow around an average looking star. With the OIII it was a direct vision target- round, annular with a dim central star. The western edge is possibly brighter - with averted vision the central star and dark center are much more prominent.

NGC 7177 is a bright galaxy in Pegasus with possible spiral structure - as I saw it. It is brightens along its NNE/SSW axis with a possible bright knot in the SSW. It has a bright core with an elongated disk - aside from its assymetry of the core. It is fairly round - and the bright section to the SSW is perhaps a star.

NGC 7217 is big and bright with a very obvious stellar core. It is a round galaxy that diffuses evenly. There is a star in the disk to the N and a bright knot ENE and close to the core.

NGC 7331 is always a favorite. It is very bright with a stellar core, very elongated with a bright knot possibly extremely far out in the N arm. At first the three smaller galaxies showed to its S. I detected a possible dark lane in along the W edge. The central area is large with a great elongation N/S. The core is offset to the W. later a 4th galaxy joined the other three to the N. The N end of the spiral arm seems to bend to the E. The faintest extent of the spiral arms appeared to reach over 8 arc minutes.

NGC 7137 in Pegasus is dim with a staller core and a bright star in the W edge. Round, perhaps a face on spiral but with a somewhat triangular brightening and maybe a dark intrusion in the eastern edge.

Stephan's Quintet was great. The eastern most galaxy - NGC 7320 - is large and extended NW/SE. To the N is a dimmer and smaller galaxy extended more N/S. Between and to the W are 2 small galaxies with the dimmer of the two to the E - both have stellar cores - they are very close together but distinctly two galaxies - and are aligned E/W. The 4th is SW and has a star at its NW tip - and it is extended NW/SE. This was one of the nicest views of this group I've had - easily seeing all 5 components.

Galaxy NGC 7332 forms a beautiful sight with NGC 7339. both are edge on - and 7332 is the brighter of the pair. NGC 7332 us NW/SE and has a bright core with notable stellar point. The other galaxy is E/W, dimmer but clearly visible and does not have a stellar core at 100X. 7332 is reminiscent of NGC 7331 in how it diffuses out. The dimmer galaxy may have a dark intrusion W of the core. Its core is also wider and possibly has a very dim stellar point. Reminds me of a smaller version of The Slug.

I like the Blue Snowball - NGC 7662. With a 7 Nagler and 2X Barlow (587X) and 1.25" Ultrablock - the hole in the center jumped out. The ring surrounding it was bright and the the third ring turned out to actually be extensions to the NNE and SSW. The brightest area is the NNE inner section of the second ring. The faintest outer ring - beyond the extenstions - is to the E.

NGC 7448 is a well framed galaxy - in three stars in a chain mostly NE/SW and E/W. It is elongated with a conspicuous central bulge. 2 other galaxies to the E at 100X just NE and E of a bright star. First galaxy is extended 4 or 5 x 1 and the ends seem to spread a bit. There is a very dim stellar core. A higher power the dimmer pair turns out to be 3 galaxies - the brightest elongated N/S with the "new" dimmer galaxy off the S end and close by to the E. The third galaxy is smaller and maybe WSW/ENE. Brighter 3rd galaxy is to the E and more distant - but about the same size as the second galaxy and has a higher surface brightness and a distinct stellar core.

Jumping to The Helix - with a 20 Nagler and 2" DGM VHT filter - chains of stars seem to zig-zag E/W across the nebula. The big planetary appears to have an "open" end to the WNW with the brightest and sharpest defined section being the N and S outer edges. It is VERY large in the 7 Nagler and the brightest knots seemed to be at the W edge of the "horseshoe" shape with N/S brighter than E.

The galaxy NGC 7457 is a modest size disk elongated to the W with a bright core and stellar point. Its elongation is about 1.5 x 1.0. This is a nice looking galaxy. There appears to be a bright knot NW of center about 2/3rds out. A nice chain of stars runs E/W... 2 E of the galaxy, 2 W and a dimmer pair just to its S.

I finished by visiting NGC 7554 and NGC 7469. By this time I was tired to the point of starting to stumble around, so I did not take much in the way of notes. I do show that 7469 is small, round and has a bright core, and that to the NNE is an IC galaxy elongated E/W.

I awoke before sunrise and found Venus blazing in Gemini, and noted too that Saturn has moved, and is now east of the Gemini toward the Eskimo Nebula.

I spent a good part of the next afternoon wine tasting again in the Shenandoah Valley - at Montevina and Deaver. The Barbera and Refusco at Montevina were excellent. So was the "rocket fuel" Port at Deaver.

A 2.5 hour drive back, and the short trip was done...

A Night at Bob's

With moon set early last Friday night, I took the opportunity to leave the bay area and head to the Sierra foothills for some observing and a little wine tasting. Both can be done in nice fashion in and around Fiddletown. The wineries are just outside Ol' Pokerville (Plymouth) in the verdant Shenandoah Valley - home to dozens of wineries. The usual backup on 205 eastbound on a Friday afternoon - when does that traffic start backing up? I left a 1:30 and it was already a mess. But soon, I was turning left on Fiddletown Road and veering away from the observing site toward the wineries. Since it was 4:45 by the time I got there (a few extra stops along the way made the trip longer than usual), I got into one winery, and had a few samples of the local fare. Afterward, I headed back to Fiddletown and up to the site, where I set up my 18" f/4.5 Obsession, read, and waited for dark.

A five day old moon was up, although dropping quickly in the west, but I poked around it anyway. Some nice views of Mare Crisium, Theophilis with its bifurcated central peak poking out of the shadows, and hints of the two other craters - Cyrillus and Catherina - to its south right along the terminator - there really was some excellent detail even at only 177X. As the sank into the trees, I was preparing some coffee for the night and enjoying some pasta with fresh pesto along with a bottle of red. Nice start to the night.

After dinner I was tired, and took a short nap in the truck, getting up later to a nice dark and clear sky.

I looked around for new lights, which I'd heard were reported up there. A house high up on a hill to the east had a light on, and some weird light show was going on at a house directly to the north through a break in the trees. Neither were what I considered intrusive, I was looking mostly up and to the south, and had my truck as a light-block. By late at night both lights were doused.

Here are my observing notes in fairly raw form (I have trouble too reading my own scribbling):

Abell 2199 in Hercules. Its brightest member is NGC 6166, easy to identify at mag 11.8 with a surface brightness of 12.9. To its southwest and west are a chain of stars that look like a small Serpens Caput, providing an easy landmark by which to orient and wait for eight other galaxies to come, one by one, into view. All the other galaxies were dim, and part of the MCG - ranging from mag 14.25 to 16.3 (the 16.3 was very difficult!) with most in the mid 15's. I spent a good deal of time on this target at 280X.

NGC 7094 - a nice planetary nebula in Pegasus. Without an OIII filter it was barely visible - just a hint of glow around an average looking star. With the OIII it was a direct vision target- round, annular with a dim central star. The western edge is possibly brighter - with averted vision the central star and dark center are much more prominent.

NGC 7177 is a bright galaxy in Pegasus with possible spiral structure - as I saw it. It is brightens along its NNE/SSW axis with a possible bright knot in the SSW. It has a bright core with an elongated disk - aside from its assymetry of the core. It is fairly round - and the bright section to the SSW is perhaps a star.

NGC 7217 is big and bright with a very obvious stellar core. It is a round galaxy that diffuses evenly. There is a star in the disk to the N and a bright knot ENE and close to the core.

NGC 7331 is always a favorite. It is very bright with a stellar core, very elongated with a bright knot possibly extremely far out in the N arm. At first the three smaller galaxies showed to its S. I detected a possible dark lane in along the W edge. The central area is large with a great elongation N/S. The core is offset to the W. later a 4th galaxy joined the other three to the N. The N end of the spiral arm seems to bend to the E. The faintest extent of the spiral arms appeared to reach over 8 arc minutes.

NGC 7137 in Pegasus is dim with a staller core and a bright star in the W edge. Round, perhaps a face on spiral but with a somewhat triangular brightening and maybe a dark intrusion in the eastern edge.

Stephan's Quintet was great. The eastern most galaxy - NGC 7320 - is large and extended NW/SE. To the N is a dimmer and smaller galaxy extended more N/S. Between and to the W are 2 small galaxies with the dimmer of the two to the E - both have stellar cores - they are very close together but distinctly two galaxies - and are aligned E/W. The 4th is SW and has a star at its NW tip - and it is extended NW/SE. This was one of the nicest views of this group I've had - easily seeing all 5 components.

Galaxy NGC 7332 forms a beautiful sight with NGC 7339. both are edge on - and 7332 is the brighter of the pair. NGC 7332 us NW/SE and has a bright core with notable stellar point. The other galaxy is E/W, dimmer but clearly visible and does not have a stellar core at 100X. 7332 is reminiscent of NGC 7331 in how it diffuses out. The dimmer galaxy may have a dark intrusion W of the core. Its core is also wider and possibly has a very dim stellar point. Reminds me of a smaller version of The Slug.

I like the Blue Snowball - NGC 7662. With a 7 Nagler and 2X Barlow (587X) and 1.25" Ultrablock - the hole in the center jumped out. The ring surrounding it was bright and the the third ring turned out to actually be extensions to the NNE and SSW. The brightest area is the NNE inner section of the second ring. The faintest outer ring - beyond the extenstions - is to the E.

NGC 7448 is a well framed galaxy - in three stars in a chain mostly NE/SW and E/W. It is elongated with a conspicuous central bulge. 2 other galaxies to the E at 100X just NE and E of a bright star. First galaxy is extended 4 or 5 x 1 and the ends seem to spread a bit. There is a very dim stellar core. A higher power the dimmer pair turns out to be 3 galaxies - the brightest elongated N/S with the "new" dimmer galaxy off the S end and close by to the E. The third galaxy is smaller and maybe WSW/ENE. Brighter 3rd galaxy is to the E and more distant - but about the same size as the second galaxy and has a higher surface brightness and a distinct stellar core.

Jumping to The Helix - with a 20 Nagler and 2" DGM VHT filter - chains of stars seem to zig-zag E/W across the nebula. The big planetary appears to have an "open" end to the WNW with the brightest and sharpest defined section being the N and S outer edges. It is VERY large in the 7 Nagler and the brightest knots seemed to be at the W edge of the "horseshoe" shape with N/S brighter than E.

The galaxy NGC 7457 is a modest size disk elongated to the W with a bright core and stellar point. Its elongation is about 1.5 x 1.0. This is a nice looking galaxy. There appears to be a bright knot NW of center about 2/3rds out. A nice chain of stars runs E/W... 2 E of the galaxy, 2 W and a dimmer pair just to its S.

I finished by visiting NGC 7554 and NGC 7469. By this time I was tired to the point of starting to stumble around, so I did not take much in the way of notes. I do show that 7469 is small, round and has a bright core, and that to the NNE is an IC galaxy elongated E/W.

I awoke before sunrise and found Venus blazing in Gemini, and noted too that Saturn has moved, and is now east of the Gemini toward the Eskimo Nebula.

I spent a good part of the next afternoon wine tasting again in the Shenandoah Valley - at Montevina and Deaver. The Barbera and Refusco at Montevina were excellent. So was the "rocket fuel" Port at Deaver.

A 2.5 hour drive back, and the short trip was done...

Saturday, August 14, 2004

Cold Night in August

Last night Richard Navarrete and I set up our 18" Obsessions on a hilltop in the bay area. Only one other observer was present at the time, and as the sun dropped below the western mountain range, we enjoyed a pastel swath of filtered light along the ridge line that ranged from golden orange to magentas and violets. I've been so busy this season that typically, I would be setting up scope and equipment late into the sunsets and dusk, and miss this spectacular show. The Belt of Venus was rising in the east, and with a chill breeze blowing steadily through our coats we stood, chatting with more arrivals, waiting for the dark.

And more people did arrive, well into the start of real dark. I was surprised then, and later when they departed, how few know to arrive and leave an observing site with lights dimmed, parked such that upon departing they needn't back up and glare out those remaining, or to at least announce they were departing and there'd be white light. Hopefully, they will learn...

We looked over our list - the ones we'd been working on over the years, and determined that the only objects left were winter and spring targets. Same exercise every year at this time - look over the list, determine there's nothing new, joke that we can pack up and go home, then, look for other stuff to observe.

Once dark was on us we began poking around using an observing list Richard had brought that had been put together for the Lassen Star Party in 1998. Lots of objects predominantly suggested by Jack Zeiders, Doug Ferrell, Ray Galak and me. Later, we would open the Night Sky Observers Guide to Lacer and Pegasus.

NGC 6894 was our first target. A nice planetary nebula in Cygnus easily located using the bright stars 39 and 41 Cygni as landmarks. It was obvious in the 20 Nagler, although faint and small. With the 12 Nagler its ring shape was brighter on its western edge, with a 9 Nagler and OIII filter some extensions to the SW and NE became visible, although the brighter ring portion was more even in appearance than with the 12 and no filter - which showed the brighter western portion better. The planetary is V mag 12.3 and 44" in size.

NGC 6930 is misplotted in The Sky, which Richard and I were both running on our laptops. This galaxy was easy to see with galaxy NGC 6928. The challenge objects were galaxies NGC 6927 and NGC 6927A. 6927 is v Mag 14.5 and I assume 6927A is about the same - both are claimed to be in the mid 15's on The Sky. Turned out NGC 6828 is also misplotted, but not as far off as NGC 6928. With my 7 Nagler, even the two dim little galaxies were quite obvious pieces of fluff - definitely there.

NGC 7240 in Lacer turned out to be part of one of two excellent galaxy groups we observed. This one, small, at mag 14.5 but a higher surface brightness, formed a nice group with NGC 7242, IC 1441, UGC 11963 and MCG 6-44-22, all dimmer galaxies. The MCG was unquestionably the most challenging in the group - but the four fainter galaxies were all at or dimmer than mag 15, according to NED. Only the UGC and 7242 showed any distinctive shape.

NGC 7248 is a nice galaxy at v Mag 12.4 and sb 12.7. It has a bright core elongated WSW - ENE, and an extended halo that is brighter on the SE side. NGC 7250 is clearly elongated and involves a bright star. Its core is small, elongated N-S and shows a stellar point. There are some extensions running NE-SW.

IC 1434 is a nice open cluster with a very notable chain of about 20 stars running WWSW - EENE. Worth looking at.

IC 5217in Lacer is given away by a nice long chain of stars close by to the NW. This is a stellar planetary. Richard used his OIII on a 9 Nagler, saying it helped. I could tell it was a planetary by its color alone.

We also poked around looking at some doubles and the big globulars.

While all this was going on, the fog that had begun covering the valleys started up toward us. By 1:30 it had reached us, and soon thereafter the stars disappeared.

I woke once during the hour prior to dawn and saw Venus, through the dark tinted window of my truck. Amazed that is could show so well through the fog, I opened the door. There was brilliant Venus, north of Orion, the sky clear and blazing with stars. I went back to sleep, and woke with the sunrise breaking over the eastern hills. High up in the sky I could see Venus still, clearly visible in the daylight.

I packed up, and began the drive. I descended through the little remaining fog, past the lake, and back onto the freeway. Another new moon spent on a hilltop, with friends and the sky... on a surprisingly cold night in August.

Saturday, August 7, 2004

Columbia to Plettstone via Moccasin Creek

Yesterday I drove from the east bay to the old gold town of Columbia, on highway 49 - just north of Jamestown and Sonora. Columbia is a State Historic Park and is beautifully preserved and rebuilt - with running stagecoach, active gold mine and pedestrian main street full of interesting shops, displays, restaurants and hotels, as well as a live theater. A large chocolate Dreyers ice cream cone in hand with which to stroll the old streets on a warm, lazy afternoon, provides a great prelude to a night of observing at Michelle Stone's Plettstone Astronomy Preserve... its great to have places to go in Gold Country, and Michelle's is simply, the best.

Michelle had told me some time ago about the road north of her property, what happens to highway 49 between Mariposa and Sonora. Still, despite the cautions, I could not believe beautiful, tranquil "Gold Country Road" ... a place I'd spent many an afternoon casually driving and enjoying gently curving ridge-hugging scenery, I thought "what the heck... I'll try it".... and so, I descended through the bustling western authentic gold town of Sonora, south toward Coulterville and Plettstone... near Yosemite.

The start of the drive was fine, some twisty-turns, familiar gold country scenery... down into an alluvial canyon where a meandering stream kept switching sides of the bed. Soon I came upon a turn, a fork in the road. I stayed on 49, which bared to the right, away from 120 and the north entrance to Yosemite. The place was called Moccasin, a small town, somewhere, maybe in the hills behind the trees - all but invisible to the casual passer-by. But what did grab my eye was the Water Works. There's a small dam, holding back the stream from its northwestern flow. To its east is a large brick building, facing the reservoir contained water... and to its right are "the works".... machines that must puff out smoke and clang loudly when the flow is at maximum. The mountain, and I mean it in the literal sense, it is not a hill, it is massive, rises abruptly from the riverbed, and on its flank coming out of the Works are four very large pipes, running up the mountain to concrete bunkers spaced strategically along their length. The only other place I've seen something close to this type of engineering feat is near the Grapevine at the south end of the Central Valley, where the California Aqueduct is ported up and over the mountains leading to Los Angeles. It is impressive.

Equally impressive was the drive along and up Moccasin Creek. The turns start immediately. The don't stop for perhaps 30 miles. The climb, twists and turns, no wonder they named it Priest Grade! The climb is tremendous, as are the views along the treed canyons leading out to the west. When I told Michelle about the drive this morning, she began laughing. I talked about getting to the top of the steep grade, up to where John Sutter had built a fort to protect his gold claims, only to find several more sequences of steep windy grades to follow. I haven't been on a drive like that one in years.

I finally arrived at an area that began looking like the terrain around Plettstone, when suddenly the sign appeared to Bear Valley Road, around the corner from my destination. When I pulled in a few friends were already there. It was going to be a short night, moonrise around 12:30 (cresting the mountains), but it was great to be there. Into Mariposa for a quick bite to eat at the Happy Burger (they recommend their ostrich burgers "pink"), and back to the observing site.

All during the afternoon the skies looked hazy. Fires had apparently broken out all along the Sierra foothills. I didn't think the transparency would be very good... but I would be surprised! Richard Navarrete and I teamed up to go over some of the Herschel 400, a project we'd both completed, but we were "out of objects" (isn't that ridiculous!) for this season, and just wanted to look at some objects that might be interesting. We both had laptops set up running The Sky. Richard set up his C11 and I the 18" Obsession. The first object was....

NGC 6826, the Blinking Planetary. I was looking at it from Chabot Friday night - always fun to see the "fuzz" blink out and have that central star show so well.

Next was NGC 6905 in Delphinus - The Blue Flash Nebula. I had trouble finding this one and had to look through Richard's Telrad. It seemed interesting - some internal structure. I began increasing the magnification, and at 283X the planetary appeared elongated - football shaped. If I recall correctly, there were brighter sections along the edge of the disk, making it seem somewhat bipolar - kind of a "proto-peanut-planetary", and I felt there was some dark area in around the central star - perhaps forming a ring (didn't take notes).

Two good planetaries... I suggested we drop the 400 and do some planetaries. The seeing was pretty good, and objects did not seem diminished by the smoke (maybe it had cleared).

We went to NGC 40 in Cepheus. It held high power, even disk, but again, some brightening along opposite edges.

Next to NGC 7008 in Cygnus - kind of comma shape. At 283X the view was great, with a 1-1/4" DGM Optics VHT filter. All kinds of bright knots - this planetary has a lot going on! The night was turning into something quiet good. We kept going...

On to Open NGC 6905 in Delphinus, then a visit to Cepheus - NGC 6369, a nice open cluster paired in a wide field eyepiece with NGC 6946 - a good face on spiral galaxy. In a finder they both look like galaxies.

Looking up again at Cygnus I moved to the Crescent - NGC 6866 - somewhat washed out - maybe the smoke was a problem after all. Also, had a heck of a time finding it - odd - usually it stands out well enough without a filter, but this night it was so *barely* there that I passed over it several times, as did Richard, both of us saying "where is it?" But as soon as I put the OIII filter on - definitely there. Nice, but not great view.

The most spectacular view of the night - hands down- was the Veil Nebula. The Waterfall, NGC 6992, showed more detail, or as much - no - more detail than at Shingletown this year - where I was just floored by the intricacy of the filaments. This night, was amazing. The bottom of the Waterfall curved back under the arc - Rashad saw it, Richard saw it, but in the Digital Sky Survey I can't see it. Amazing. Other sections that had previously been "suspected" were obvious - the entire center section, the gorgeous extension off the thin end of the Witch's Broom. What a night.

From off to my right came the invitation "have a look at the North American" - and over I went to a 17.5" Earlatron. The NA was magnificent - thick - white icing on devil's food kind of appearance. Slathered on. Across from the NA the Pelican Nebula was easy to make out - no doubt. Amazing! The contrast between the thick sections of nebulosity and the pitch black dark areas was stunning.

Michelle has the place!

After a beverage break, Richard and I poked around NGC 6866, a nice open cluster in Cygnus, then up into Cassiopeia, where I began with the diminutive cluster NGC 654, which led me to NGC to its big splashy neighbor NGC 663, again on to little NGC 669 and finally, hoping over to M103. Any of these three non-M clusters could take the place of M103 in Charlie's catalog.

Being so close, I also jumped over to the ET cluster, NGC 457 and its dim neighbor at the alien's feet, NGC NGC 436.

It was getting late now, by the "moon clock" - The Great Plaster Ball was beginning to show some brightening over the eastern hills. Michelle called a few of us over to look through the outstanding 15" Plettstone scope she has for her personal use. She was proclaiming that this was the best view of M57 she'd ever had. I thought "ho-hum... another M57" and began to call out "last call for M57"... and then I looked...

The Ring was green, at least to me. I think my color perception is quite acute. There was a green hue in the grey. The object was magnified over 300X and... all of a sudden, a pinpoint in the center, then gone. Then it was back, gone, back... soon I was pretty much holding the central star with averted vision. The only other times I've seen it are through the 40" Nickel at Mount Hamilton, and the 30" Starmaster Jim Ster hauled up to the Oregon Star Party last year.

Yes, Michelle, it was the best view I've ever had. Quite a telescope you made - competing with a 30 and a 40. You win! :-)

Thanks, Michelle, for such a fun night. As usual, it is hard to leave. The beautiful environs of Mariposa make you want to stay, and if you can't, certainly you want to come back.

Best of luck, Michelle, at Oregon Star Party this year... I'll be back up at Plettstone next month.

The drive home was quick... traffic on 580 westbound to 680 was a bear, even on a Sunday at noon. Amazing. I'd rather leave civilization behind. Even if the alternative were Mocassin Creek.

Monday, July 26, 2004

Doubles from Danville

Last night after 11 PM I went out back to my 10" f/5.7 scope and poked around Aquila for double stars. The moon was already past 1st Q and bright, low in the west. The limiting magnitude was probably around 4, at best - the sky looked silvery rather than black. Conditions were about 7 out of 10 for steadiness - there was some scintillation making the stars a bit fuzzed out - squirmy - rarely did I see real pinpoints on the brighter targets, but of course the dim field stars all looked good. I spent about an hour, part of which was sipping a warm beverage - all in all it was a very pleasant experience.

I began with Zeta, a type AO star 83 light years distant at mag 2.99, with a 5 arc second split to its 12th magnitude companion. No dice. The 10 was not going to hit mag 12 in these conditions so close to a bright star. I looked for quite a while, occasionally thought I saw something north of the field's lucida. I think this would be a fun target on a better night.

Next was pi, type F2 and 570 light years away. This was an easy target being very close to Altair and Tarazed. This is a close double, with a separation of only 1.4 arc seconds. It showed some elongation but would not split cleanly. The pair are listed (in the reference I was using - The Seasonal Star Chart) at mag 6.0 and 6.8.

On to 5 Aquilae, type A2 and 259 light year. The pair are mags 5.9 and 7.4 and an easy wide split at 13 arc seconds. I hopped to this target off Lamda Aquilae - my 9x50 finder making it easy. The color was quite nice, the primary being solid white and the dimmer companion a washed out blue - a tinge. A visually pleasing pair.

11 Aquilae is a mag 5.7 and 9.2 pair, type F8 primary, 155 light years distant. Located conveniently just off Zeta and Epsilon, there is a noticeable color difference between the components, with the dimmer member seeming to be even dimmer than the 3.5 magnitude difference. Easy split at 17 arc seconds.

15 Aquilae was, to me, the prettiest of the night's doubles. At the southern tip of the constellation, just off Lambda, it is easy to locate. The primary is a type K1, red, at mag 5.4 and 324 light years. Visually, the primary appeared yellow gold, the latter showing the red nature of the star. The companion though, described in the reference as "lilac" ... to me appeared coppery yellow, and was noticeably dimmer at mag 7.2 with a wide 38 arc minute separation.

After 15 Aquilae, I went on to observe 57 Aquilae, Struve 2446 and Struve 2628. They were fun too, but did not compare 15 Aquilae. It was getting late, and my cup was empty. I was done.

The scope is still out back, where I will continue in a different constellation tonight, with a bigger moon.

Maybe I'll even look at the ..... moon?

Friday, June 11, 2004

Cold with Bad Seeing

That was Chabot last night. Good public turnout, but definite chill in the air, and Jupiter had maybe a few bands at 72X. Fortunately, M3 looked decent at 120X. Packed up and out of there by 10:20 pm.

Next stop... SSP...

Sunday, May 23, 2004

Backyard Action in Virgo

I had my 10" CPT set up out back last night. Before the clouds moved in, I was checking out a good assortment of deep sky object. M51, M88, M65 and M66 along with a no-doubt view of NGC 3628. M3, M5, yes, the seeing was rather soft, but still...

I moved up to Virgo and began poking around. I counted 9 galaxies in Markarian's Chain. NGC 4388 was probably the dimmest, mag 11 visually with a surface brightness of 13. I also picked out NGC 4461 at mag 11.2 and sb of 12.8. The view of M51 was in an 8" scope and it showed the two cores clearly, with a dim disk around the big galaxy and hints of brightening in two places marking spiral arms.

Very cool to see these from the backyard. Not a night for lunar/planetary, but the deep was still good.

Friday, May 14, 2004

The Comet and the Cluster

Friday night May 14 I went to Chabot Space and Science Center in Oakland. Several familiar faces were there... a nice group that always enjoy getting together. The telescope maker's workshop is a great place to meet other amateur astronomers, reminisce about times past and to make new friends. Chabot is a outstanding example of what public science can be. If you have not been, I hope you go soon. I plan to go again next Friday night.

The evening started out very unpromising. Low clouds formed over the east bay hills and extended well out to the north and west. It looked like a classic cloud-out. I had my truck packed with equipment, the 18" Obsession, 10" CPT and 10x50's with a parallelogram binocular mount. I thought they'd all stay in the truck by the looks of things. So, inside I went, to spend time among glass pushers... a gritty group covered in rouge and scented with the smell of cooking pitch.

Just after sunset I walked outside, toward the observatory, and was amazed to see an intense solar pillar shining up through a layer of distant clouds on the horizon above where the sun had just set. It extended about 8 degrees - a thick spike of light - a column. I found that it was even more obvious with averted vision. The last time I saw a display of this type was at a Mount Lassen Star Party perhaps five years ago. Several of us saw it form the Devastated Area parking lot, and Marsha Robinson took several excellent pictures of it which I may still have. Solar displays are a treat.

Since the sky was so poor, I was looking for ways to pass the time. I had not brought my 10" f/8 mirror (there's a lesson here)... so I visited the Mars Exhibit. Some of the old sci-fi movie clips they have in a mini-theater are amazing. Some just plain funny, others, old classics like The Day The Earth Stood Still, are still fun to see. I went back into the telescope maker's workshop, heard stories about people mistaking blimps for UFO's, head-on micro-meteorites, and all sorts of fun stuff.

Then I walked outside again and, amazingly, it had cleared. The bright planets and Oakland's mag 3 skies... Gemini dropping into the west, Regulus and the sickle Leo looking dim compared to Jupiter just to their east. My target lay between the two constellations...

Twinkly stars and a definite object du jour helped me decide to leave the telescopes packed, grab the binos, parallelogram mount, and head toward the observatory.

Soon I had Comet Neat and the Beehive Cluster in one field of view. It as not really even dark yet, and the coma was obvious. The pinpoint stars of the big cluster were brilliant, pairs and chains.... this is the way to look at M44, with the fuzzy glow of the comet in contrast, a uniquely interesting pair.

Several telescopes were set up outside the observatories, maybe some manned by Chabot volunteers, others were perhaps like me, local amateur astronomers setting up scopes for the public. I was the only binocular observer.

I knew what I was doing. The wide field of the binos were a perfect frame for this great sight, a bright comet next to the biggest cluster this side of the Hyades and Coma B. As I expected, the public was interested in the telescopes - obviously thinking "what good is a binocular when there are telescopes here?"

So I was on my own for a while. Soon my friend Ken Head arrived, and we began inviting people to look through the binocular.

People were amazed at the parallelogram mount. Thank you Glenn Hirsch for selling it to me! The way you can lift and lower them while the field of view remains unchanged is just great. Tall, short, kids, you name it, they all were able to have the same view by just moving the parallelogram up or down. A great piece of equipment.

It really was the view of the night, and I began telling people so. The reaction people had ranged from "wow" to "gasp". They kept coming back. This view was a highlight that I won't forget. As the sky grew darker, the tail began to tenuously display.

People I'd met months ago stopped by and looked. Fun.

The big scopes were showing Jupiter and who knows what else, but not the comet. To my north the big 36" Cassegrain would silently slew... I'd look over at it and think about the old movie clips I'd just seen in the science center, and I could not help but think of the big scope as Gort. Maybe Michael Rennie took a peek through my binos, Klaatu posing as Carpenter.

The telescope making class ended and some ATMers came out and looked through the binos. I had a line of people - people from all over the world drawn to the science center.... and looking through perhaps the smallest aperture instrument of the night.

Around 10:20 I looked over toward the west and saw billowing dark advancing toward us. The fog was coming up. A cold breeze picked up and suddenly the clouds were blowing through. The night was done.

It was very easy to pick up the binocular mount and get to the truck to escape the cold. Inside, my two telescopes had sat unused.

I had a great night sharing views of a truly amazing sight. It was fun to share the experience. Several people told me the binocular was the show of the night. So, there's an exception to the saying "aperture rules"...

Hope some of you got out and saw the comet and the cluster. I'm looking forward to seeing the photos some of the talented astro-photographers took of this sight....

Sunday, April 4, 2004

Observing at Shingletown - April 10, 2004

I went to Shingletown on Saturday to meet with people in the town who are helping organize SSP 2004. I arrived at 1:30 in the afternoon and after the meeting went out to the airport. There were some clouds, which made us unsure about what the evening would be like. But I set up my 18" Obsession, up went a 18" StarMaster, 22" StarMaster, 22" Bruce Sayre made Dob, and a 25" home built Dob.

Transparency was variable. At times it was excellent, other times there must have been thin cloud cutting down the limiting magnitude. The planets were crisp and full of detail early on, but the seeing softened significantly as the night wore on. Temps were chilly, but not cold.

This is really my time of year for deep sky observing. I have picked at the H2500 list over the past several years. What I have left are predominantly in Virgo, Canes Venatici and Coma Berenices. I spent my time working in CVn.

At one point the 25" owner called me over to look at Abell 1656. I counted 25 galaxies in the field of view. I don't know the magnification, but the scope was tracking and I had a very good look at the area. We were also trying to see who could see what in a parallelogram formed by Denebola, Chertan, Zozma and 93 Leonis. I came up with 12 stars. That's not a bad night.

I most enjoyed taking my time, relaxing, talking with the other observers, looking through their telescopes. I was using the Sky Atlas 2000 Deluxe and Uranometria for star hopping. I think I had the only undriven scope there. I think most of the others were goto equipped.

Objects I viewed were:

NGCs 5440, 4248, 4719, 4986, 5141, 5143, 5142, 5149, 5238, 5243, 5263, 5352, 5355, 5371, 5358, 5350, 5354, 5445, 5225, 5154, 5312.

This was not a rushed list. There were multiple objects in some fields. Most were located in the relatively barren sky northeast of Bootes. Some were not too difficult, as Cor Caroli and Chara provided a good pointer. Others were adversely affected by the transparency, making them much more difficult than they should have been. One thing we all noticed was at 1 a.m. the light to the west from Redding disappeared entirely.

Probably the most pleasing object for its pure aesthetics was 5326, which shared the field with M3. Reminded me of M13 and NGC 6207.

By just after 2 a.m. I was tired. I pointed my scope to the west, and got into my sleeping bag. There I lay, in a sleeping bag, on a futon, on the runway of the Shingletown airport, listening to the other observers packing up. I watched the sky for a bit, fading in and out of sleep. I was asleep quickly.

In the morning I heard the sound of footsteps nearby and woke to find two women walking the runway, smiling at my grogginess, and saying good morning.

I stood up and looked at the craggy snow capped peaks of Mount Lassen in the morning sun.

What a great place to wake up.

I stood up, looked down the runway, and imagined what it would look like on the morning of June 17th.

It was worth the drive up and back.

Saturday, March 20, 2004

Coe report March 20, 2004

I arrived at Coe just before 3 PM on Saturday to find the parking lot very full, likely spring fever sweeping the bay area and getting people outdoors. The western edge of the lot was lined with cars and trucks of people who were hiking into the park and spending the night. The center and eastern side of the lot mostly filled with day trippers. One hiker returned from hiking about 12 miles through the park. Rich Neuschaefer was there, and Richard Navarrete soon showed up. We sat and watched as people left, and their parking spots were replaced by amateur astronomers. The lot stayed full all day until sometime around midnight. Charlie Wicks and Michael Swartz each hauled out their Coronado solar equipment - and we enjoyed some excellent views of a very detailed surface, and large prominence off the lower limb. Imagine, getting a tan while doing astronomy!

Bob Havner was conducting the SJAA's Messier Marathon, and it seemed successful at getting some newcomers out observing - hard to get a real count, all the extra vehicles in the lot made it tough, but (based on the rather liberal use of headlights and interior car lights) I think there were around a dozen newcomers. Craig and Elana showed up with the behemoth D&G refractor. Daniel Stefanescu, Heather (?), Jim Collins, Mitch Roberts, Glen and Maria... I'm surely missing a few people - lots of observers.

The night began a bit breezy with heavy clouds to the west. During the evening you'd have to chase the open parts of the sky, but where it was clear, it was very good.

I had my 18" Obsession set up beside Richard, with his 18" Obsession. We both looking at targets in Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices and Hydra. Lots left in Virgo too, but the other constellations were in better position earlier. These are all the winter/spring constellations that contain a large number of Herschel targets, so, with the poor weather the past few years, it is difficult to get much time to chase them.

We actually started out looking at some shadow transits on Jupiter. Two, the trailing shadow clearly larger than the preceding one. Io and Ganymede. Kept looking for Io on the planet's disk, but not sure we really saw it. In moments of best seeing, it appeared Io might be intruding into the NEB (?) just slightly. Views of Saturn were also excellent last night.

Richard began poking around at bright Messiers, wherever there was some clearing, and I joined him. Some looked quite good... mainly the big open clusters. Then I began looking at planetary nebulae. The most stunning was easily the Eskimo Nebula, which under very steady seeing showed its central star - which contrasted well with the slightly brighter gold star just a few arc minutes to its north. Around the central star was a dark gap, a donut, and perhaps a few other shells. I had taken the magnification up to 293x, and decided to try the VHT filter Dan McShane at DGM Optics gave me: http://users.erols.com/dgmoptics/LPRfilters.htm . The contrast gain was remarkable. I did not compare it to an OIII or UHC, but I also had never seen the Eskimo with such clarity. The dark "donut" now jumped out, with a bright edge where it met the inner shell. That shell was bright and gave way to a dimmer, larger shell, which seemed to diffuse raggedly out into a third very tenuous shell. The color too was remarkable, clearly greenish-blue. Wish I had paid more attention to the color with the filter on - I was so interested in the structural detail that I didn't think about it. However, using this filter in the past, in particular up at Shingletown looking at the Veil Nebula, what was obvious about the filter was that it did not overwhelm the stars in the field - so you get the benefit of a good high quality, contrasty, nebula filter, and keep the stars too. I think looking at the Eskimo was the view of the night.

The NGC number I logged are: 5014, 5123, 5145, 5173, 5198, 5169, 5319, 5312, 5326, 5346, 5337, 5395, 5440, 4248.

I enjoyed NGC 5123 as it has additional bright (for me) galaxies on either side of it - just at the extremes of the field of view of my 20 Nagler - and interesting star fields - a small parallelogram of stars next to the target, and a "Hyades" shape near one of the other galaxies. Fun to hunt down.

Another fun field is NGC 5169, 5713 and 5198.... a nice easy star hop in a wide-field eyepiece from M51.

As for the dimmest of the night, I found NGC 5319, which NED lists surprisingly at mag 16.5, and The Sky at 15.5. Lots of averted vision and checking position. Very faint glow. I looked for NGC 5318A, which I think is MCG6-30-97, but, too dim. NGC 5312 was also in the field.

I enjoyed the view of NGC 5326, as it is in a distinctive chain of stars that are part of a very recognizable star field, with other galaxies in easy to locate positions. NGC 5346 was the most challenging of that view, coming in around the mid mag-14s.

It was nice to finish next to a bright Messier - M106 - on it neighbor NGC 4248. Fun to pop out some of the small galaxies near the big Messier.

Clouds moved in, and Rich, Richard and I pulled out chairs together, poured a few drinks, talked and joked about all the past Messier Marathons.

The best, I think was when we had a perfect night to observe, a big turnout, and Comet Hale-Bopp rose over the NE mountainside looking bright as a car headlight maybe around 2 a.m. Gorgeous.

The funniest was arriving at Coe having a snowball fight just before sunset - after which there was a party at my house.

We had a Messy-Marathon at Pacheco several years ago, when every Dob had water in it, the area was so wet.

After talking a bit, a cold wind came up... and that was it.... we all headed for our trucks, and called it a night.

Just nice to get out...

Sunday, March 14, 2004

Observing note from March 14, 2004

I was at Fiddletown over the weekend. Saturday night the sky was so-so, with intermittently good and poor transparency. The shadow transit on Jupiter early in the evening was very good, and views of Saturn at very high power were excellent. Sunday's late afternoon clouds cleared at sunset and the night was much better than Saturday in terms of transparency, although steadiness was a bit off.

My observing highlight was Sunday night when searching for NGC 4627. The galaxy is interacting with NGC 4631 (Arp 281, The Slug), a clearly disrupted edge-on spiral galaxy 15.5 x 2.7 arc minutes at PA 86 sb 13.1. Nearby is NGC 4656, also disrupted at 15.1 x 3.0 arcminutes PA 33 sb 14.5 - and also known as the Hockey Stick (or Crowbar) due to its distinctive shape.

When observing NGC 4631 I was tired from lack of sleep the night before. I could not help thinking I was seeing HII regions in two, and maybe even three or four places in the galaxy. I took the scope up from 102X to 294X and, waiting for the seeing and my eyes to settle, confirmed small knots of blue, glowing in the dark lane of the big galaxy. The thought that I can see star forming regions, similar to the Orion Nebula, in another galaxy 22.5 million light years distant amazes me. It gave the view of this galaxy a distinctly 3-D appearance.

I began wondering in which galaxies can we, in amateur telescopes, visually detect HII regions? M33, M101, M51... M82... ... NGC 6822... ...

Can anyone add to this list?

It was also astonishing that I was able to easily see NGC 4631 in my 10x70 finder. Easily.... its shape was obvious even with such small aperture.

Sunday, March 7, 2004

Another lunar drawing

I've been having fun with.... the moon. What a surprise.

Here's a drawing of Petavius I did from Coe Sunday night:

http://www.resource-intl.com/040307.jpg

10" f/5.7 CPT at 207x driven on an Equatorial Platform. Pencil on paper.

This is the third drawing I've done. I'll be interested to see the progress after a few hundred.

1st drawing: http://www.resource-intl.com/040302.jpg

2nd drawing http://www.resource-intl.com/040303.jpg

Friday, March 5, 2004

Trapezium

I was just out in my backyard where the 10" f/5.7 has been set up all day. Threw in the 12 Nagler and peeked at M42, even with the moon up and thin cloud. Trap was great. So I went up to the 7 and it was easy to see all six stars. Very very steady. Put in the 2x Barlow with the 7 Nagler and everything was sitting perfectly still in the eyepiece (scope is on a tracking platform). All six stars, the bright ones with very nice tight concentric circles around them - tiny bright dots in each. F star was jumping out - held very steady. Nice views.

Tuesday, February 10, 2004

Magnets In My Boots (A short night of observing)

Tonight I had my 10" CPT set up out back, on an observing pad. The conditions looked so good this afternoon that I even collimated.

Funny how 20 minutes of looking at the sky can be so fun. That's all I spent out back, but worth it.

I first looked at Saturn. My 10" is an f/5.7, and with a 7 Nagler I could see some excellent ring detail, but the real show for me was the surface of the planet. Subtle colors - three major "band" demarcations on the disc. The dark polar region, then a lighter colored band, with somewhat darker again toward the equator. Made me wish I'd set the scope up on my equatorial platform. Maybe tomorrow...why not, the CSC for La Caja looks good:

http://cleardarksky.com/c/LsGts1ObCAkey.html

I swung over to Jupiter, still low in the east. Blah. Too low. A few good bands, but mushy.

I thought then about how the public viewing at Houge Park would look at the same view and get excited. Then I thought about a young mother and her son - a baby she held on her hip, named Jove. That's right. There's the connection, looking at Jupiter I thought of baby Jove.

The mom was funny. Dresses like she is out of the 60's. She looked through my 10" scope that night at Houge and, with her eye at the eyepiece said "when I look at these things, I feel like I'm transported - like I'm leaving the earth and am going to the thing I'm looking at".... I enjoyed that. I thought it fun, and funny. So I told her (on that wintery night) that the same thing used to happen to me, and that I worried so much that I'd put magnets in my boots. She looked at me and said "really?"

Fortunately for me, I'd put on my Sorell boots, and knew just what to do. I told her "Sure.... here...." and I took off one boot, reached into the front and pulled out a spent chemical heater. Handing it toward her I showed her the "magnet"...

She looked at them, still saying "really?" I think she's still wondering about that one.

Houge can be lots of fun.

Well, tonight I moved form Jove up to M81/M82. The sky seemed kind of bright, and I just somewhat pointed the scope to the general area I knew the objects to be in. Then I looked through my 9x60 finder and, there, was a funny looking star, or something. I centered it, looked in the eyepiece, and there at 74x were two galaxies. Both easy to see, the bright core and dim spiral of M81, the dimmer M82 still obvious - a slash of light in the sky. I don't know about others, but when I saw this I found myself thinking "this is fun.... this is fun!" and, that I get a visceral reaction to seeing these things. What a kick! The photons tickle my optic nerve, and I react.

I then began hopping around. NGC 2903 - one of my backyard test objects. Sure enough - dim, but I've seen it dimmer from La Caja. Very cool.

On to M65/M66 - point, look in the finder - uh.... maybe.... look in the eyepiece and... another pair of bright galaxies! What a blast. I looked then for NGC 3628 - trying to complete the Leo Triplet. But, tonight was not the night for so much dimmer a target.

I thought to myself how cool it was to be able to get out for just a few minutes - to take even a little time to do what I enjoy. If you have a scope - it is worth setting up, even for just a few minutes out back.

More tomorrow.

Sunday, January 18, 2004

Sunday/Monday night

I was out last night. Up on a mountain top, where the fog came to within fifty to one hundred feet below me. City light were gone. Not just dimmed - - gone. Some dew, yes, but not bad. The sky was very dark.

Some highlights (there were many) -

NGC 1977the Running Man - easily identified three individual NGC reflection nebulae in the object.
M42wings extended around in a complete circle using UHC filter. Dim nebula NGC 1980 visible.
Rosette Nebulaeasy - jumping out obvious.
Abell 1367 in Leocounted 20+ galaxies in 48' field.
NGC 4565dark lane bisecting this edge on was sharp and very obvious. NGC 4562 was easy just to its SW. Some of the dim IC galaxies to its north were just peeking in.

When I woke in the morning, the fog was just sitting below me, covering everything. Mountain tops were little islands poking above the "ocean"... Light fog began blowing by me from the north, and facing away from the sun a light "arc" in a parabola shone - a white and hints of electric blue rainbow. Surreal scene.

I had a great time. I hope others got out too.

Scope18" class Dobsonian.
Locationundisclosed
Seeingsteady but not rock solid
Transparencyvery good to excellent
Limiting magestimated at mag 6.6.
LightNo light domes.
Tempwas comfortable