Bright night observing from Los Gatos

Bright stars seemed to twinkle frantically as dark set in. I put my 10" f/5.6 Dob and Equatorial Platform outside to cool down and left it to cool down for an hour. Walking outside at 9:30 p.m., the sky was bright. I could barely see the Milky Way... I think it was mostly imagination, knowing where to look. Saggita and Delphinus were both barely showing, a measure of how bright the sky was, probably due to pollutants (other than light).

I went through portions of the Herschel 400 list, which I use for backyard observing. I looked for targets on my list and saw if they were included in any of the Astro Cards. With 20mm Nagler in the focuser, I was at 71X, quite a bit lower power than I am accustomed to. Still, the view through the 20 is spectacular. The only other eyepiece I would use during the night was the 12 Nagler, a jump up to 118X. I also used a Telrad and University Optics 11x70 finder, along with Lumicon's UHC and OIII and Orion's Ultrablock filters.

As you can see by the list below, even in an suburban backyard, with a bright(ish) sky, deep sky observing is possible, and in fact, enjoyable.

NGC 6781, mag 12.0, 1.8', in Aquila is a smallish planetary nebula. I suspected it without a filter, but upon installing the UHC it was an easy target. Although it is described as a "planetary ring" I saw no evidence of a ring, just a fairly solid circle. The object is easy to locate, one third the distance between Delta and Zeta Aquilae.

NGC 6755, mag 7.5, 15.0'. This cluster appeared as a change in contrast, a slight hazy brightening, in a fairly rich Milky Way star field. It was decent size, but otherwise non-descript.

NGC 6756, mag 11.0, 4', appeared as a small "frosty" glow. Not much too this open cluster in suburban skies. I used the stars Delta Aquilae and 63-Theta1 Serpentis as guides, with the cluster being slightly toward Theta on that line.

NGC 6802, mag 8.8, 3.0' in Vulpecula is a cool open cluster! Near "The Coathanger" (naked eye cluster) it sits just east of and about mid-point between Zeta Aquilae and Beta Cygni. The Astro Cards provided a very nice hop to this object. the cluster appears small, dim, and looked like an unresolved globular cluster. The Equatorial Platform helped greatly in identifying this object, as I was able to spend time back and forth at the charts without any drifting. Two tight doubles sit on either side (off-line), both doubles have equal separations and distance from the cluster.

NGC 6820, low surface brightness nebula, 40' in Vulpecula is perhaps barely detectable from my backyard. This looks like a fun target for a dark sky site. I found perhaps two dozen stars in a faint, hazy, emission nebula. It was large, and seemed centered (at least what was the brightest or most visible section) outside two almost parallel chains of stars, outside the wide end of the chains. To locate this position, I star hopped in my finder, starting at Alpha Vulpeculae. The parallel chains of stars identified the place to look. I may try this again tonight with a filter (doh!).

NGC 6823, mag 7.1, 12' in Vulpecula. This cluster is a nice sight, with about two dozen stars, and sits in the center of the nebula NGC 6820. Again, this may be a fine sight in a dark sky. Check it out!

NGC 6834, mag 7.8, 5.0', in Cygnus. Small, compact open cluster, dim haze. There are bright stars in the center of this cluster. Located east of the line between Alberio and Eta Cygni, rather difficult to hop to.

NGC 6866, mag 7.6, 7.0' in Cygnus. This open cluster is as easy to find as NGC 6834 was difficult. Naked eye stars 31 and 32 Cygni can be pointers to the approximate area, just NW of the center point between Gamma and Delta Cygni. I dropped right on this object with only the Telrad. This is a nice compact open cluster with many stars, easy to identify. A chain of bright stars traverses the cluster from north to south.

NGC 6910, mag 7.4, 8.0' in Cygnus. If NGC 6866 was easy to find, this open cluster almost hands itself to you, it is so easy sitting just over 2 degrees north of Gamma Cygni. About 10 stars appear to populate the brighter components, forming a long "Y" (kind of, sort of). Two stars in the Y are brighter than all the others. The cluster is spread out, but still is a pleasing grouping.

NGC 6934, mag 8.9, 5.9' in Delphinus. I've visited this smallish unresolved globular cluster many times before, due to its easy location. Looking at the "Dolphin" one can follow the arc of its tail from the back of the diamond "body" almost precisely to the correct location. The globular, while a poor cousin of the big bright Messier globulars, is still a pleasing find, and unmistakable as a globular cluster. A bright star sits close by to the object's west, with two more stars still further to the west.

NGC 6940, mag 6.3, 31' in Vulpecula. I was surprised to find how large the constellation Vulpecula is. This object is toward the Veil Nebula, a favorite object for amateur astronomers. Two stars point at this open cluster... travel an equal distance away from Cygnus, using 39 and 41 Cygni as your naked eye guide stars. You'll drop right on the cluster. This open is drop dead gorgeous! Big, bright, rich with a stream of stars from the north west to the south east. This one could have easily replaced some of the tiny Messier open clusters! A real treat.

NGC 7006, mag 10.6, 2.8' in Delphinus. Remember how to get to NGC 6934, the globular two objects back? This one is kind of a twin, as far as how to find it. Using the center star in the diamond (the dolphin's back), traverse to the snout, then a little more than the same distance beyond in the same direction. This globular cluster is more of a challenge, dimmer, smaller, and definitely unresolved. At 74x with the 20 Nagler, a bright star sat halfway to the western edge of the field.

NGC 7008, mag 13.0, 1.4' in Cygnus. This one is barely in Cygnus, but is a remarkable object worth hunting down. Use Deneb (Alpha Cygni) and Alpha Cephei (Alderamin) as the guide stars. Place the southern outer ring of a Telrad circle on the center point between the two stars, you should be close to NGC 7008. This planetary nebula is so interesting, I visited it again the next night. Here are the two night's descriptions:

7/18: planetary nebula, fairly bright, largish, bi-lobed? Bright star to south, very close. North edge brighter than south. Interesting object.

7/19: 12mm Nagler with Orion Ultrablock filter. Cool object! Bright, perhaps annular and elongated slightly NNE-SSW. Very bright knot on the northern edge. Pair of stars almost toughing the souther edge. Needs more magnification and a darker sky.

The next night I was out again, but that write-up will need to wait.

It was a nice, but bright night in my backyard. I still got in some very enjoyable observing.

Technical data

Location	Los Gatos, California (37:13:36N 121:58:25W)
Scope	10" f/5.6 Dob on an Equatorial Platform
Eyepieces	20mm and 12mm Nagler Type II
Filters	Lumicon UHC, Orion Ultrablock
Finders	Telrad, University Optics 11x70
Temp	70's
Wind	None
Humidity	Low
Time	9:30 to 11;30 p.m. PDT

Out From The Shadow A Night At Henry Coe

Henry Coe State Park sits inland from California's coastal range of mountains. It is the state's largest park by size, and due to the status of wilderness area, possibly the state's least visited on a visitor per acre basis. It sits 2400 feet above a long thin valley containing the communities of Morgan Hill, Gilroy and Hollister, as well as lesser populated towns. One can stand in the overflow parking lot half a mile before Coe's park headquarters, and look south a few dozen miles to the twin summits of Fremont Peak State Park, once the heart and soul of amateur astronomy in the San Francisco bay area.

Saturday the 26th of August, 2000, I arrived mid afternoon to join other readers of TAC's mailing list for a night of observing. I found only one other observer in the overflow lot. An hour later, four of us sat under the shade of the large oak at the southern extreme of the lot. Looking south, I could see fog laying in early around the communities of Gilroy, Hollister and San Juan Bautista. Fremont Peak looked like it might have a dark night. A deep haze covered the valley northward, extending to San Jose, where it was grayish and high. We might have a good night at Coe as well. In the last few hours before sunset approached, many old and new observers drove into the lot, filling it up again almost beyond capacity. By true dark, there may have been 35 to 40 telescopes of all types and sizes. This is always a wonderful occurrence, as people share views, get to meet other members of their avocation, build camaraderie, try each other's equipment, and learn the sky with observers of a wide range of experience and preferences. An observer's dream come true!

Before describing some highlight objects I observed, I'll comment on the wonderful conditions. Temperatures never dropped below the 60's Fahrenheit during the night. Relative humidity was an amazing 19 percent at astronomical dark, rising to perhaps 25 percent with no breeze by the time I turned in at 4 a.m. As the night progressed, all the cities in the valley dimmed out under the thickening low fog, even San Jose was dimmed considerably by about 2 a.m. We could see Fremont Peak above the fog to the south, so observers there must have had some light dome to their north from San Jose as there was to our northwest. But, the transparency and steadiness of the night from our location was outstanding. It was not easy to quit observing.

I began observing what remaining objects I could from my list of Herschel objects. Just the night prior, at Fremont Peak, I was observing with my daughter Mimi, both of us using 10" Dobs, and getting her an earnest start on the Herschel 400 list. My observing program is the complete Herschel list (2500+ objects).

Due to the peculiarities of weather, I have nearly completed the summer and fall objects, with many remaining in winter and spring. In Bootes, I logged 4 dim galaxies before the constellation had descended too low, and was washed out for the dimmest objects by the city glow.

In Bootes I logged NGC 5992, 5993, 5500 and 5579.

I flopped around for a while, not knowing what to look at. Visiting friends, having people come up to my 18" Dob and ask to see this or that object, which I enjoyed doing. I made the rounds for a while. Then a friend came up asking to see a planetary nebula in Lacerta. IC 5217 turned out to be a fun object to find. Located in the northwest part of the "diamond" (head?) of the lizard, this planetary is 1' in size, tiny, near stellar. With my 20 Nagler it appeared very slightly non-stellar, and just a bit more so with the 12 Nagler. The location is between naked-eye stars 3-Beta Lacertae (mag 4.4) and 4.6 4-Lacertae. Just over halfway between these stars, to the north of center, are a pair of dimmer stars, bisecting the line between the bright pair, mag 6.5 and 7.4. Identify the mag 7.4 star by the distinct chain of dim stars, perhaps 10 of them, strung together over a 12' area to the SW from the mag 7.4 star. The planetary is 16' S of the mag 7.4 star. Have fun hunting this one.

After a while, looking at page after page of my Herschel list for some unfound objects, I came upon a handful in Hercules. Many of these were rather forgettable, ranging from dim smudge to extremely dim smudge, nothing really remarkable. However, NGC 6146 would be very nice in a real dark sky, since it is in the midst of a very rich galaxy field. Same could be said for NGC 6166, in even a richer galaxy field. Oh for real dark skies! Another rich cluster surrounds NGC 6173, the next find on my list.

In Hercules, I logged NGC 6146, 6154, 6166, 6173, 6186 and 6372 before it began sinking into the brighter skies.

Out of objects again, I fumbled for a bit. Then I remembered the printout I made of the SAC Deep Sky Database. Lots of objects other than Herschel. Out came the Andromeda listing.

I listed three "objects" as spectacular. First was NGC 72. Located conveniently in Andromeda one third of the distance and on the line between Alpharatz (Alpha Andromedea) and the next star in "the chain" of the constellation, mag 3.2 31-Delta Andromedae, this object at 100x appears to be a fairly large smudge, at about 5'x3'. Upon closer examination, it appeared some stars overlay the object. With progressively higher magnification, eventually up to 302x, the "galaxy" broke up into five galaxies, with hints of two more. All within the small smudge. The group included NGCs 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72 and MCG5-1-70. Outside of the group NGC 74 could be viewed averted E some 6'. Many people observed this interesting tight group in my telescope.

The other standout of the night was NGC 83, also in Andromeda. This galaxy is among the brightest of eleven galaxies in the 20mm Nagler's field of view. Find this field 2.5 degrees perpendicular to the midpoint of the line described by Alpharatz and Algernib (the north eastern most star in the Great Square of Pegasus), on the outside of the square. NGC 83 will be among a group of three mag 11.2 stars, all within 2' of the galaxy, and forming a small parallelogram with it. A mag 7.5 star sits 23' E, and a pair of stars separated by 2' sits 14' W of the galaxy. About 6' S of NGC 83 is NGC 80, appearing almost the same brightness at mag 12.1 compared to 83's mag 12.5. Both have surface brightness in the low 13's. Careful study brought out NGCs 90 and 93, mags 13.7 and 13.3, 8' and 10' E of NGC 83 respectively. Interestingly, The Sky by Software Bisque has NGC 90 misidentified as NGC 91. Returning to the little parallelogram of stars that includes NGC 83, look 5' N and find IC 1546 and NGC 85, sitting a mere 1.5' apart in an E/W orientation. These two are a great catch, as both are under 1' in size, with magnitudes in the high 14's but higher surface brightness due to their small size. Almost 3' further N of the last pair is the dim galaxy NGC 86, tiny at 0.6' x 0.2' ... at mag 14 and high surface brightness of 11.5. From here, turn W about 12' to find NGC 79 and IC 1542 , two galaxies in the mag 14 range. The last two objects I found in this field were NGC 94 and 96, sitting close together (5' separation) and N of the line between NGC 83 and the mag 7.5 star to the E. NGC 94 is the closer of the pair to the line, but was a "maybe" with averted vision. NGC 96 was about mag 14, but again, its small angular size gave it a significantly increased surface brightness.

Eleven galaxies in a field no larger than the size of a full moon. What a place!

The total logged objects in Andromeda last night included: NGC 911 (the emergency galaxy!), NGC 7618, NGC 72, 67, 68, 69, 70, 71, 72, MCG5-1-70, NGC 74, 846, 43, UCG 130, NGC 89, 71, 80, 83, 90, 91, IC 1546, NGC 85, 86, 94, 96, 74, IC 1542, NGC 233, 562 and NGC 39.

Not a bad night.

Around 3:30, with only a few of the observers remaining, I trained my scope on M33, HII regions galore. M76 was a fun target, showing a bright bi-lobed shape. M74 was still dim, but obviously a good sized spiral galaxy without much detail. M77 showed its bright Seifert core and round face on spiral disk, but little if any arm detail. A quick jump over to NGC 246, one of my favorite planetaries in Cetus, then NGC 7331 which showed a bright core and lengthy elongation of its spiral arms and three small galaxies nearby. Remembering Jay Freeman's direction on how to easily find Stephan's Quintet, I had no problem getting there, but did not have the nice high power view Jay had the prior night in his C14... still, a nice view at lower power. Back to the Blue Snowball, which I had seen hunting a nearby galaxy earlier in the night.... what a great color!

After several more "tourist" objects, I settled down for some great views of M31. Sitting almost at zenith, the twin dust lanes were so outstanding I began calling people over. I felt as if I was seeing some ragged edges to the lanes, and their sweep was greater than what I ever remembered. NGC 206, the bright emission knot containing blue supergiant stars south of the core looked much like a large galaxy, very obvious. M32 was elongated with a bright core. Detail I see usually in much darker skies were putting whipped cream and a cherry on the top of my night! What views.

I finally swept over to M110. This large elongated galaxy just NW of M31's core is really bright. It stuck me how it is overshadowed by its giant neighbor. Placed almost anywhere else in the sky, it would be a showpiece galaxy, much as Henry Coe State Park and other lesser known sites in the bay area have been in the shadow of Fremont Peak for years. But things change. Coe, Pacheco, Montebello and other locations have emerged as excellent alternatives, exceeding "the Peak" in many important ways.

There was even someone out last night inviting some of us to come to his private property, 4,000 feet high up in the Ventana Wilderness, where he has room to set up telescopes around his observatory and 30" scope... a Fremont Peak ex-patriot.

More on that later. I'm still savoring a really excellent night of observing among so many good friends and acquaintances at a great location... Come join us next time!

Fremont Peak good night

I took Mimi to the SW lot at Fremont Peak last night. There were two other telescopes set up, but the rest of the park seemed empty. By midnight a low fog had buried the coastal cities and it was quite dark. It was also in the 60's all night, until we left just after 1 a.m. That was the sort of night Fremont Peak is for.

Mimi began her Hershel 400 in earnest, bagging 21 objects, some quite dim. We both were using 10" scopes, her's was the blue f/4.5, mine the snakey f/5.6. No computer, just Tirion Sky Atlas 2000 (old version) and Telrad. Mimi thoroughly enjoyed having both scopes the same size, and working the same objects. Kind of reminded me of another observing partner :-)