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...

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...

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...