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| Brian Tung... |
 Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 7:00 am |
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7:00 p.m. Sat 19 Sep 2009 PDT (2009-09-20-0200 UT)
For the first time in a while, I made it out to Lockwood for a dark
sky party. I went with a friend of mine Dennis who just got into
astronomy over the last year, but is really into it. He's actually a
member of LAAS and went out to Lockwood in May, when it was pretty cold
(apparently it got down into the 20s). It was a lot warmer this time;
I don't think it got any colder than 45 or so.
We left around 4:20 or 4:30; we had wanted to leave around 4:00 but I
couldn't get my act together in time for that. Part of it might be that
I decided to bring both Opus and the 10-inch Starsplitter dob (which I
used to call Snuffleupagus, but I'm now thinking maybe I should call
Cutter John!). I also decided for the first time to bring Burnham's
three volumes as a field guide; I realize a lot of folks think that's a
dicey choice as a field guide, but I wasn't really keen on covering a
lot of ground, and Burnham's is great for passing the time while the sky
grows dark. Good thing we were taking Dennis's Jeep. I think we could
have fit everything inside my Prius, but it would have been a bit of a
squeeze and I would have had to take out the child seat in all
likelihood. I also would have had to figure out something to do with
the alarm light, which is yellow, unfortunately, and would ruin night
vision and possibly imaging for folks.
We got into the site around 5:50, with still about an hour to go before
sundown. We spent maybe half an hour getting set up; I realized then that
I had forgotten my seat. Dennis had his chair which he loaned me for
most of the night, since he wasn't really using it once the observing
got under way. He also donated a couple of batteries to my Telrad.
In return, I gave him a couple of nice eyepieces as long-term loans,
so it's not as though he got the short end of the stick in that regard!
Not surprisingly, Jupiter was the first thing to poke its head out.
We had known (using PleiadAtlas) where it would be, more or less, but
had no luck finding it as the Sun went down. A few minutes later, we
were saying we couldn't find it, and someone said, "Oh no, it's out."
And sure enough, there it was, unmistakably! Amazing how rapidly the
sky gets dark enough at that time. I pointed Cutter John (we'll see
how long this lasts) at it, but only at low power: a 55 mm Plossl for
about 27x. Even at that magnification it was evident that the seeing
was still pretty bad, as it often is at Lockwood. The view in Opus,
at 130x, through a smaller window of air, wasn't noticeably better.
I could make out the bands and the satellites and that was about it.
But rapidly enough the sky got dark and impressive and we got down to
some serious dark sky observing. I spent the first hour or so just
getting reacquainted with the look of the rural sky. Cutter John's
mirror is very dusty, which might have contributed to a gentle haze
surrounding most of the stars. The haze would have been there around
all of the objects, too, but it was harder to tell there. Lots of old
favorites: the Dumbbell (M27), the Ring (M57), the Wild Duck (M11), a
couple of the Sagittarius globulars (M22 and M26), Albireo, etc. Most
of these were seen by Opus with a 24 mm Pan with a focal reducer (for
about 32x).
I did look at two new objects, NGC 7217 and NGC 7006. The former is a
spiral galaxy seen about 80 percent face on. You can find it by
starting at Scheat (beta Peg), a red giant at the northwestern corner
of the Square. Follow that out of the square to the northwest to Matar
(eta Peg), and then continue in that direction to pi Peg, a loose double
star. About two degrees south of that is NGC 7217, nestled in a longish
trapezoid of tenth and eleventh-magnitude stars.
The spiral structure is very subtle; there are no real arms to be seen
even in many long-exposure images. Needless to say there were none to
be seen visually, either. Part of that might have been that I never
went away from the 55 mm in the big scope, so it never got above about
27x or so. But even so I have serious doubts about being able to see
much detail in the structure of this galaxy. The thrill is mostly in
the hunt on this one, as it is for NGC 7006, which along with NGC 2419
(the so-called Intergalactic Wanderer in Lynx), is one of the most
distant globulars surrounding the Milky Way. Both were suggestions
gleaned from Burnham.
NGC 7006 is in Delphinus, just a few degrees to the east of gamma
Del, the orange-ish star marking the dolphin's snout. There are a few
line-of-sight doubles marking the way from gamma to NGC 7006, which is
bracketed on its southern side by two seventh-magnitude stars. Again,
not a lot of structure to be seen here, although I did catch a glimpse
of some star trails, visible more as a bias in the brightness than
anything really distinct. Not much of a central condensation in this
one, at least not that I could see. But what was very neat was that
once I found it (or NGC 7217, for that matter) in Cutter John, it was
simple to find and see in Opus--surprisingly simple, actually, although
again, that might have been a function more of the dust on the
ten-inch's mirror than any particular aspect of the objects or
environments.
Mostly it was enjoyable just to sit back and get back in the swing of
observing. At some point later in the evening, I went into the trailer
to microwave a bag of popcorn (took a lot longer with their microwave
than it does at home!) and recline in Dennis's chair and watch the
constellations roll slowly by. Dennis was getting cold so we started
tearing down about 11:15, but it was still a good night.
--
Brian Tung <brian.y.tung at (no spam) gmail.com>
The Astronomy Corner moved to http://www.astronomycorner.net/
Unofficial C5+ Home Page at http://www.astronomycorner.net/c5plus/
The PleiadAtlas Home Page at http://www.astronomycorner.net/pleiadatlas/
My Own Personal FAQ (SAA) at http://www.astronomycorner.net/reference/faq.html |
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| Sketcher... |
| Posted: Sun Oct 25, 2009 10:36 am |
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Guest
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Brian Tung wrote an observing report:
[quote]
For the first time in a while, I made it out to Lockwood for a dark
sky party.
[/quote]
I've not had a major, serious (whatever those terms mean) session in a
while, but I've been making preparations for a long series of such
sessions that will hopefully begin in the near future -- perhaps on my
next clear, moonless evening.
As for minor sessions: I recently discovered that blackening the
edges of the Galileoscope's plastic lenses had little noticeable
effect in reducing glare. IMO the results were not worth the effort.
(Nevertheless, I've not yet given up.) It would appear that all the
uncoated, plastic surfaces are the primary glare contributors. Of
course, for the price the glare is an acceptable trade-off. The scope
still shows far more in the night sky than is visible to the eye
alone. Furthermore, the glare is only noticeable in the presence of
'bright' objects such as the moon and Jupiter.
[quote]I went with a friend of mine Dennis who just got into
astronomy over the last year, but is really into it. He's actually a
member of LAAS and went out to Lockwood in May, when it was pretty cold
(apparently it got down into the 20s). It was a lot warmer this time;
I don't think it got any colder than 45 or so.
[/quote]
Would I be correct in assuming that the "LA" in LAAS is for Los
Angeles? I suspect there is more than one Lockwood on the planet. I
know of one in Montana . . .
[quote]We left around 4:20 or 4:30; we had wanted to leave around 4:00 but I
couldn't get my act together in time for that. Part of it might be that
I decided to bring both Opus and the 10-inch Starsplitter dob (which I
used to call Snuffleupagus, but I'm now thinking maybe I should call
Cutter John!). I also decided for the first time to bring Burnham's
three volumes as a field guide; I realize a lot of folks think that's a
dicey choice as a field guide, but I wasn't really keen on covering a
lot of ground, and Burnham's is great for passing the time while the sky
grows dark. Good thing we were taking Dennis's Jeep. I think we could
have fit everything inside my Prius, but it would have been a bit of a
squeeze and I would have had to take out the child seat in all
likelihood. I also would have had to figure out something to do with
the alarm light, which is yellow, unfortunately, and would ruin night
vision and possibly imaging for folks.
[/quote]
Burnham's is a great work! On One of these cloudy spells I'll have to
sit down and read through the three volumes once again . . .
[quote]We got into the site around 5:50, with still about an hour to go before
sundown. We spent maybe half an hour getting set up; I realized then that
I had forgotten my seat. Dennis had his chair which he loaned me for
most of the night, since he wasn't really using it once the observing
got under way. He also donated a couple of batteries to my Telrad.
In return, I gave him a couple of nice eyepieces as long-term loans,
so it's not as though he got the short end of the stick in that regard!
Not surprisingly, Jupiter was the first thing to poke its head out.
We had known (using PleiadAtlas) where it would be, more or less, but
had no luck finding it as the Sun went down. A few minutes later, we
were saying we couldn't find it, and someone said, "Oh no, it's out."
And sure enough, there it was, unmistakably! Amazing how rapidly the
sky gets dark enough at that time. I pointed Cutter John (we'll see
how long this lasts) at it, but only at low power: a 55 mm Plossl for
about 27x. Even at that magnification it was evident that the seeing
was still pretty bad, as it often is at Lockwood. The view in Opus,
at 130x, through a smaller window of air, wasn't noticeably better.
I could make out the bands and the satellites and that was about it.
But rapidly enough the sky got dark and impressive and we got down to
some serious dark sky observing. I spent the first hour or so just
getting reacquainted with the look of the rural sky. Cutter John's
mirror is very dusty, which might have contributed to a gentle haze
surrounding most of the stars. The haze would have been there around
all of the objects, too, but it was harder to tell there. Lots of old
favorites: the Dumbbell (M27), the Ring (M57), the Wild Duck (M11), a
couple of the Sagittarius globulars (M22 and M26), Albireo, etc. Most
of these were seen by Opus with a 24 mm Pan with a focal reducer (for
about 32x).
[/quote]
I just received my own 24mm Panoptic yesterday! I've updated my
eyepiece data to include the magnifications and FOVs when used with
various telescopes. The 24mm is likely to get a major workout once I
start my new project. It's slated to serve as a finder and first-use
eyepiece for various telescopes.
[quote]I did look at two new objects, NGC 7217 and NGC 7006. The former is a
spiral galaxy seen about 80 percent face on. You can find it by
starting at Scheat (beta Peg), a red giant at the northwestern corner
of the Square. Follow that out of the square to the northwest to Matar
(eta Peg), and then continue in that direction to pi Peg, a loose double
star. About two degrees south of that is NGC 7217, nestled in a longish
trapezoid of tenth and eleventh-magnitude stars.
The spiral structure is very subtle; there are no real arms to be seen
even in many long-exposure images. Needless to say there were none to
be seen visually, either. Part of that might have been that I never
went away from the 55 mm in the big scope, so it never got above about
27x or so. But even so I have serious doubts about being able to see
much detail in the structure of this galaxy. The thrill is mostly in
the hunt on this one, as it is for NGC 7006, which along with NGC 2419
(the so-called Intergalactic Wanderer in Lynx), is one of the most
distant globulars surrounding the Milky Way. Both were suggestions
gleaned from Burnham.
NGC 7006 is in Delphinus, just a few degrees to the east of gamma
Del, the orange-ish star marking the dolphin's snout. There are a few
line-of-sight doubles marking the way from gamma to NGC 7006, which is
bracketed on its southern side by two seventh-magnitude stars. Again,
not a lot of structure to be seen here, although I did catch a glimpse
of some star trails, visible more as a bias in the brightness than
anything really distinct. Not much of a central condensation in this
one, at least not that I could see. But what was very neat was that
once I found it (or NGC 7217, for that matter) in Cutter John, it was
simple to find and see in Opus--surprisingly simple, actually, although
again, that might have been a function more of the dust on the
ten-inch's mirror than any particular aspect of the objects or
environments.
[/quote]
Currently my observing notes exist in the form of stacks of 8 1/2 x 11
inch sheets of paper in ever growing piles. I'm not sure I'll ever
get around to better organizing and preserving them, but there are
plans for that as well. (I'm better at making plans than following
them.) One aspect of my 'new' observing plan involves maintaining a
computer log of observations. If I ever get around to it (like that
will ever happen!) I'll include my older observations. Such is my
excuse for not commenting on the various objects you've mentioned in
your report!
[quote]Mostly it was enjoyable just to sit back and get back in the swing of
observing. At some point later in the evening, I went into the trailer
to microwave a bag of popcorn (took a lot longer with their microwave
than it does at home!) and recline in Dennis's chair and watch the
constellations roll slowly by. Dennis was getting cold so we started
tearing down about 11:15, but it was still a good night.
[/quote]
Thanks for the nice report, Brian!
Sketcher,
To sketch is to see. |
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| Steve Paul... |
| Posted: Wed Oct 28, 2009 7:47 am |
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Brian Tung wrote:
[quote]7:00 p.m. Sat 19 Sep 2009 PDT (2009-09-20-0200 UT)
For the first time in a while, I made it out to Lockwood for a dark
sky party.
[/quote]
Encouraging write up. Thanks for posting it.
I seem to remember going after NGC 7006 at one time or other. Don't remember
if I ever actually saw it. I do remember finding the Intergalactic Wanderer
in the 10" Dob though.
-Steve Paul |
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