Comet / Summer's Approach

My wife wanted to see the comet, so I set the alarm clock for the absurd hour of 5 a.m. Having had cloud cover in the morning the prior day, I figured I'd get to sleep in and avoid an angry spouse and disappointed kids.

Well... 5 a.m. came and the clock-radio announced wake-up time. I quickly (and unstabily) went to our north facing bedroom window. Ah! Cloudy! NO... no... a star. No, not a star.... er.... huh? Hale-Bopp? Geeshhhh loooooookaddat!!! Hey.... honey..... get up!

I had placed the small scope (8" f/7 dob) out back with three eyepieces the night before. :-) This will be good... On went the coffee and out the back door I went. Hey... I can see it from the other side of the pool...

So, there I set up, with a kitchen chair putting me right at the eyepiece. My wife (Pat) came out and was floored at the visual appearance. Tail standing on end.... several degrees naked eye, pointing almost toward Vega. Out came two kids... standing there in the breaking dawn, all enjoying the view together.

Hey.... look.... the summer triangle is out, and immediately those warm night relaxing around the pool, up at the Peak, Lassen, friends, summer vacation.... all seemed to be around the corner.

But, back to the comet... 35mm eyepiece... nice wide view. The jet and waves (yes... Mr. Adler, it does look helical) shown nicely. In goes the 20 wide-field. Wow. Structure... in the dob it was a left handed comet... as one was taken in by the jet exploding off one side... it was easy to overlook the delicate material off the less active side of the nucleus. In went the 10.5mm and a stunning view... material coming off the nucleus almost directly toward the sun. The material from the jet looked to me like the crazy pattern described by a missle trail in the evening twilight... twisting and turning... luminous against the darker sky.

It is certainly worth getting up for.

Finished off the viewing as the sun washed out the dark... by looking at Alberio. Gold 'n blue jewels. I've forgotten what a fun scope the f/7 is. I think I'll put a Telrad on it and give it to my kids.

I know there are plenty of people shooting this ice-ball with cameras...

BUT.... I can't wait to see Gleason's shots through the 7/7! John... tell me how much your best print will be.... I'm putting my order in now!

Photon Feast with dessert!

Yesterday, the San Francisco bay area had a one day break from the cloudy/rainy winter we have been having. It was a thoroughly inexplicable occurance, since this was a nearly moonless Saturday. So, after the usual morning family obligations, I began fielding phone calls from astro-friends wondering who was going to Fremont Peak. Everyone had a bad case of photon-deprivation were ready to rumble on down....

Leaving the south bay, the drive is short... 37/10000ths of a light second and you're at the Peak. You're there in a flash. What a great trade... that quick drive to see objects 50 million light years away... plus some spectacular "object du jour" that were unique and unexpected...

Arriving at "The Peak" at 3:30pm, I found the observing area nearly full. Huh? Is this mid-summer or early February? What's the deal with the crowd? Ah... yes.... the lure of clear skies... enough to make any California astronomer brave the near freezing night temperatures!

I set up the 14.5" dob and began admiring the variety of equipment. Want to check out a wide array of astronomy gear? The Peak is da'place. 20" homebuilt dob, 18" Obsession, 18" Sky Design, 17" homebuilt dob, 12.5" Orion dob, 8" Meade SCT, 8" Meade LX 200, 12" Meade LX 200, 18" JMI NGT, 6" Cave Newtonian, 7" Questar (loaded), 4" Takahashi, 6" Astrophysics, 5" Astrophysics, Astrophysics Traveller... many, many others... and ... oh... the 30" Challenger reflector in the Fremont Peak Observatory.

As twilight was becoming night, we started looking for some satellites one member of our group had sent us as an observing schedule. Satellites? Well, what the heck... maybe its cool... I did enjoy seeing the Shuttle re-enter last summer. I got my 10 x 50 binos ready...

First was... the "Disco Ball".... heh heh heh... I can't believe I was looking for something named after one of (IMO) the wierdest fads in American dance. OK... just above Polaris... 6:44pm... HEY....WHAT'S THAT? Unreal! That buggers blinking erratically, quickly, brightly... it's the Spastic Saturday Night Fever Sat! Kewl... ;-) It was quite a sight. A half dozen of us or more watched that 7' mirror covered sphere tumble across the darkening sky.

Soon after, a few degrees above Deneb, the bright visage of Mir crossed. Man, that baby moves. I tried to see a supply ship nearby, but was unsuccessful.

I have to admit that awhile later I was probably the only person at Fremont Peak who was unable to find NOSS cross the northern sky. NOSS is three satellites flying in formation very close to each other. I had seen it a year ago... and believe me, seeing such a strange sight might lead one to consider the possibility of alien visitation.

Now it was dark enough to observe. The Hershel Hunt began. Forty *7&&))*@ minutes to try and find the first one in Eridanus. Arrrrrrrr.. blow it off... too low.... to bright on the western horizon. Up to... Gemini? Yes... nicely placed if you don't mind using a ladder. First to ngc2371/2372, a bi-lobed planetary just south of Castor and Pollux. Hmmm... seen it before. OK... on to some galaxies... ngc's 2274 2389 2435 2481 and 2275. These were all easy targets, with good bright stars to hop from. These galaxies ranged from (approx) mag 13.5 to 14.5, and all were small objects.

Soon, Gemini was near zenith, making it difficult to operate the dob, so we began woking Leo. I had been in Leo the past two years, looking for Herschel objects, and my observing partner questioned whether we were nearing the end of the constellation. Ha! Leo is sooooo rich, I showed my friend three unmarked pages of objects still to be located.

Most of these objects seemed to be in the areas between the upper-back-side of the curve of the "question mark" and Leo Minor, and between Regulus and the Hydra/Cancer border. Ngc's 3900 2872 2906 2968 2970 3020 3067 3070 3274 3300 3437 3016 2874 and 3024. Some of these were *very* small... on the order of .5" x .7" of arc, and 13th magnitude and dimmer. Several challenging objects were west of the back triangle of stars in Leo, toward Leo Minor, where there are few good stars to hop from.

About now, one member of our crew came by and asked about a supernova in a distant galaxy located in Virgo. We looked through my 14.5" and felt we could see a bright point of light in the galaxy, winking in and out. Over to the 12" LX-200 to comfirm the location... yes... right one... and the blinker was there in that scope too. Over to the 18" Obsession, confirmed! Imagine... seeing the light emitted from a single star at such distance! Good stuff.

Now, it was getting cold. There was ice forming on the tops of several cars. I had enough layers on to make movement noticeably affected. But, any moisture in the atmosphere had frozen out, and the sky was very clear. It was about 2:30am and I moved up toward Ursa Major. This is another incredibly rich area for galaxy hunters. As I began, I thought of the Hubble Deep Field photo, and was, as always, humbled by the size and depth of the cosmos. But, I pressed on despite my insignificance. :-) Since I had done so little work in Ursa M, I had lots of nice bright stuff to look at! All mag 11 - 11.5, what a treat. I hit ngc's 3992 2681 2976 2975 and 3077. My partner had sat down in his chair as I swung up toward this section of sky. His replies to any discussion had been reduced to Cro-Mag grunts and at times, simple non-responsiveness. Soon, he was having uncontrollable yawning attacks and I knew he had to go before we all were afflicted. So, off went my friend, with about four or five other vehicles. I suddenly felt alone.... as I was the only scope set up on that part of road.

I walked over to the other big dobs and two LX-200's. Everyone was sitting, relaxing, talking, drinking coffee and hot chocolate, looking forward with anticipation to comet Hale-Bopp. From memory I began naming summer ngc and Messier numbers to try on the 12" LX-200. We kicked around in "summer" for a while, and thought about shirtsleeves and shorts (and mosquitos), about cold drinks on warm nights, short-all-niters, trips to darker skies, and more.

Now fatigue was beginning to take over. I walked aimlessly around for a while... looking to the east for the bright traveller to appear. I had not seen the comet since last fall when it was in Scutum. Would it really be *that* much bigger and brighter?

Suddenly, a disembodied voice in the dark called me to some 16 x 70 tripod mounted binoculars. ____OH____MY____GOD

What a coma. Was that a plume off the side of the nucleus? It must be. Look how big and bright it is. Is it another Hyakutake? No way. No, it is different, magnificent in its own right. This comet was not the "beauty queen" we saw a year ago March, this comet was, instead, specatular for its sheer size and activity. I had to see it through a telescope!

I walked over to the 6" AstroPhysics. Well, the nucleus had an active geyser spouting 90 degrees away from the tail. In the fountain was, well, clouds. And, material was not just coming off in the plume, but all around the nucleus. the coma itself was quite a sight... think of how the Ring Nebula is illuminated brightly at the edges of the "bubble" but not in the center. That is how HB's coma appeared to me. Like a distended upside down "U" with the area behind the nucleus being (to me) clear in appearance. The coma was bright along the edges, and the side with the brilliant fountain had a brighter coma.

And to think this is going to become brighter and larger....

I went up to the observatory and had a look through the 30". The fountain had the appearance of clouds as it seemed to have come off the nucleus in waves or bands. This one will be a DON'T MISS IT show in a month.

About then I began noticing the all nighters fatigue showing among others. One fellow, trying to look through a dob at the comet, rocked back a bit too far and rolled onto his rear-end and back (no harm). Someone pouring hot chocolate seemed to miss their cup and spilled the hot liquid all over the roof of their car (quickly melting the ice).

I had enough observing. The dawn was quickly approaching. It was after 5am. I crawled into the back of my truck, dressed like an Eskimo on Mars, and quickly was asleep.

I awoke at 8:30 to the sun ringed by a multicolored halo from high thin clouds extending in a V shape from Sol to the north-western horizon. We had tasted every last morsel of this flukey break in California's winter weather pattern. It was delicious, and I certainly had my fill.

As I stumbled out of my truck, all that was left were a few other all niters asleep in their vehicles, and a good size hot chocolate pond in the parking lot.

I drove relaxedly down the hill, past the horses with their winter coats, past the cows having breakfast, past the sheep and past the rushing stream following San Juan Canyon Road... back toward "civilization" a mere 37/10000ths of a light second away...

Fremont Peak - Winter skies December 14, 1996

Last night, Fremont Peak hosted a nice array of telescopes. Two 7" AstroPhysics sat next to the observatory, along with what I assume was a 100mm Zeiss objective in an AstroPhysics OTA. Down the hill sat a 7" Questar, 12.5" Orion dob, 12" Meade LX-200, 2 8" Meade SCTs, a 7" Meade Maksutov, 4.25" Coulter, 6" Cave and 14.5" dob.

As sunset approached, several of us began a naked eye search of the western glare for Jupiter. I thought I found it, low in the west below and to the right of the moon, but could not sight in it my scope. While I struggled, one of the women observers nailed it, low in the saddle of Fremont Peak. Looking at Jupiter, it became apparent that while we might have very good transparency, steadiness would be a problem. Soon, we began searching for Saturn. Again, the same woman was the first to locate it (in th e 6" Cave, I believe).

Darkness fell, and so did the temperatures. Soon, it was time to layer the clothing. The wind made strange sounds through the wires of the communications towers next to the Peak. To me, it sounded like a train approaching when the wind would howl.

Still, when the wind would break it was possible to get in some useful observing. Even then, the unsteadiness turned stars into planetary-nebula-like blobs for extended periods.

I started the evening by the refractor owners. My logic was that if I were going to blow my night vision looking at the moon, it should be first thing, before it was truly dark. So, I looked through the twin 7's and indeed, even though the views looked as if I was observing through water in a meandering stream, the detail was astonishing. I am quite sure the AP owners were enjoying the evening, since we saw so little of them as the night progressed.

After true darkness settled in, I began working Herschel objects in Perseus. This night I was without my friend who is working the list with me, so I was not able to check views in his 18" Obsession, nor did I have the use of his laptop computer with The Sky as my chart. So, I used my HB Astro-Atlas. I have to say I am very pleased with the HB atlas, as it is well detailed and provides a well thought-out system of symbols that lets one know key elements about the object you are viewing.

So, on to Perseus. The first Herschel object tonight would be NGC 1582, a bright open cluster about midway between Capella and Epsilon-Perseus. In a 19mm Panoptic, the cluster was rich and coarse, with many bright stars. This was an easy target.

On next to NGC 1205, another open, just 1.5 degrees away in Perseus. This object is small and glows dimly around mag 11. Compared to it's neighbor 1582's bright mag 7, this one was tough. A row of stars forming a nice line sat off to one side of the cluster, flanked by two brighter stars. This made it possible to identify the cluster (without using the LX-200's goto button).

NGC 1624 was a short hop from 1205, but this too proved a difficult object to locate. Open clusters are not my preferred target, since they are easily lost in the rich background of the Milky Way. However, after thinking several groupings were the cluster, it was obvious when I was on it since there is nebulosity involved. This cluster is small, about 5 arc minutes, and dim, roughly in the mid 10's, but a nice sight,

Now the fun was about to start. Just north of Algol, in a rich field of galaxies sits NGC 1186, my next target. At first, the field seems lacking in any notable objects. But quickly smudges begin appearing. 1186 shone at mag 13, and was obviously elongated. Its size is listed a 2.3 x 0.7 arc minutes. From there I spent time cruising dimmer galaxies all in the general area. These included NGCs 1160 (elongated galaxy close companion, mag 13.00), 1175 (edge on galaxy with bright core, mag 12.80), and finally down to Rho-Perseus to find NGC 1207 (elongated galaxy with bright core, mag 13.00).

By then it was time for a break, since Perseus now occupied Dobson's hole. The temperature was now a factor, so I agreed to honor a good natured challenge I had made once by e-mail, and participated in an arm wrestling contest. This is a great way to warm up in cold weather!

Orion was in a reasonable position, so up to (what else?) M42. What a view! My new Tele View 19mm Panoptic showed detail I had never seen. . . just incredible. M43 was so pronounced I kept calling people over to look. The extent and definition on these two objects was astonishing, and this in poor seeing conditions. Someone asked about finding NGC 891, which had been elusive for that particular observer, so with assistance from the owner of the 12.5" dob, I soon had this nice edge on in view. The dust lane was most pronounced, and the sight was a treat after all the faint stuff up in Perseus.

By now Eradinus was high (relatively) in the south. I have spent little time in this galaxy rich constellation, and decided to jump in. The first few were so large I could hardly believe it. NGC 1232 was comparatively bright and easy, classified as a barred and ringed spiral in the HB Atlas. The bar was perhaps discernable, but the ring was a real challenge. 1232 is an easy target, with a size of 8.5 x 7.5 minutes, although its mag 9.90 is spread out over its large size. Next to NGC 1187, also big and bright, is a round galaxy at mag 11 and 6.0 x 4.0 minutes.

At this point, Jay Freeman came by. Jay had arrived under the cover of darkness. A few of us thought we recognized his voice, but were unsure. Then, when we heard him remark he wasn't setting up a telescope, it was a confirmed Hacksaw Reynolds sighting (albeit an audio "sighting"). Jay eventually stopped by and asked if there was anyone crazy in the group. Being a curious person, I volunteered in order to draw out the inferred request. Jay was after M31's satellite galaxies Andromeda 1, 2 and 3. I gave up my scope and got to observe a star hopping aperture enhanced Jay Freeman in action. Soon, the faint glows of all three objects were part of the night's conquests. Jay always brings something new to a star party!

Back to Eradinus. Now, I was into parts of the constellation with galaxy clusters. NGC 1332 was very elongated and had a bright core. It was not difficult at mag 10.3 and 2.2 x 0.9 minutes. In the same field were NGCs 1325 (edge on galaxy, mag 11.6, 2 minutes), 1331 and 1319, both mag 14. After another "warm-up" break, Eradinus was getting low over the Peak, so I finished with NGCs 1395 (same field as 1303), then 1637 and 1084. Eradinus is an area that is so rich, I plan to visit it often in the winter.

Now, after midnight, a mini-van pulled into the observing area, carefully weaving its way between telescopes and other gear. Even with only the running lights on, it seems extremely bright. Who would be arriving so late on a winter night? One of our group went over and said a beautiful 20" dob was being unloaded. I went over and found the owners talking about turning on their car's headlight to aid them in collimating. WHAT! Amazing! A few of us tried using our red-LED flashlights to collimate, but this proved difficult. After some fiddling, we tried star testing. Yuck. . . a field full of bright comets! So, fearing loss of night vision, I went up the hill and brought the owner of a laser collimator down. Within 30 seconds, the scope was dead on.

On went a H-Beta filter, and the 20 gave a great image of the Horsehead Nebula. That done, and our night vision still intact, I returned to my scope to work Canis Major. Fifteen minutes later, the 20" was packing up and leaving. Maybe next time they'll remember their winter wardrobe. ;-)

So, while hunting down open clusters, and looking for NGC 2374, I happened across NGC 2359. What a surprise! Dryer's describes this nebula as: VF,VVL,VIF, size (mins) 8.0. It jumped out at me like cake frosting (upon repeated views, it did eventually seem VF to me). But, if you have not seen this one, and are in the neighborhood, it is worth viewing. It is easy to locate too, starting at Iota-Canis-Major and drawing a line through Gamma-Canis-Major, then continuing just over 4 degrees in the same direction.

By then, I was getting chilled and tired. I decided to finish my Herschel hunt the usual way, poking around at the bright stuff which, after viewing the ANT's (almost not there's), would by comparison seem to me to have the same magical qualities that first hooked me into this nocturnal habit. M42 again, 4565 filling the field even though it was low on the horizon. Up to NGC 2903 in Leo, M51 showing structure at low elevation. Up to M108 and M97 (the Owl's eyes were black pits with averted vision). Back into Leo, there were M65 and M66 in the same field, then nudged over to NGC 3628 (very nice!). Now, with Ursa Major up higher, back over to M81 and M82. . . pull the scope toward me and into view comes NGC 3077 (big blotchy galaxy). Finally, some time spent back in the belly of the lion. What a great sight, all those galaxies filling the night.

Winter observing is great. . . plenty of time to take your time and get a real night-full of astronomy. Summer may be more comfortable, but for getting your "money's worth". . . winter is the winner!