Observing Report: Goldendale Sky Village

[Akarsh Simha]

Hello fellow adventurers,

I happen to be in Washington state at my brother's place in the Seattle area, and I knew I was going to be here for the new moon period. It turns out new moon fell awfully close to the US national holiday called Memorial Day. So I naturally brought my 28-inch from California with me.

Looking for locations to go to during the long weekend, I considered Chickahominy reservoir in Oregon as well as the Palouse Falls State Park in southeastern Washington -- both in the Bortle 1 / Bortle 2 range of light pollution. The former was an 8-hour drive each way, and having never been to the latter, I didn't know what my camping options would look like, especially on one of the busiest travel holidays in the US. Luckily, I used the "Phone a friend" lifeline and ended up at the Goldendale Sky Village (GSV) in Washington state, as a guest of Bhavesh Parekh who I met last month in Portland; I learned about GSV from him then. Wow, what an amazing creation for and by amateur astronomers. I also got to chat with the founder Christopher Smythies to learn a bit more about GSV and the off-shoot in Arizona, Chiricahua Sky Village, where some of my friends have setups. Christopher later also looked through my scope at a few objects, including Iris Nebula which he was imaging.

Coming to the skies, GSV is not bad for where it lies. Dark enough for "serious deep-sky work" although no Bortle 1. I'm guessing the first night was sub-par with visible high clouds and the second night was decent albeit perhaps of average or below-average transparency. Yet, I was able to hit the mid-16th magnitudes on my 28-inch without "too much strain".

One of the fields I really wanted to look at was NGC 3718-NGC 3729-HCG 56. I spent considerable time on both nights observing and sketching the field, delighted by being able to see the twisted "arms" of NGC 3718 and also picking up hints of the dust on the core. Research shows that these aren't spiral arms of the main galaxy at all! Instead, this system is an oddball with an elliptical or lenticular galaxy in the center and a spiral-like disk perpendicular to it, perhaps the result of a merger. What we see as "arms" emanating from the "face on" elliptical/lenticular galaxy is actually the stars in the perpendicular disk. NGC 3729 seems to be a theta-type galaxy, I need to dig more into it, and I believe it is interacting with NGC 3718. Hickson 56 is in the far background, of course, and sports 5 galaxies (haven't verified that all are members), all of which were not difficult. My favorite view of NGC 3718 was with an 18mm Baader Classic Ortho.

DSS2 Color image of NGC 3718 and company

I looked at the beautiful pair NGC 6670, which Uwe Glahn featured as DeepSkyForum Object of the Week. In fact, that's how I put this object on the list: by using the constellation-ordered DSF OOTW on the Adventures website. It was an excellent view.

NGC 5907 was incredible: I could see the mottled dust on the galaxy and it was very beautiful! I could not isolate the knot that bears the designation NGC 5906.

IC 1101 was another highlight, which I looked at because a fellow visual observer wanted to see it, having had poor luck with his 18-inch. I haven't tried with an 18-inch, but I suspect it may be doable with the right conditions. With the 28-inch, it was straightforward, and held continuously with averted vision. IC 1101 is one of the biggest known galaxies, and is believed to harbor one of the most massive SMBHs we're aware of -- exceeded by Ton 618 and Phoenix A, the former being visible in my 18-inch. Moreover, it's perhaps the easiest way to see a billion-year old photons from a galactic halo as opposed to only a quasar in amateur telescopes. IC 1101 of course, looked pretty extended albeit of low surface brightness. I wanted to see if I could pick up any other members of Abell 2029, the cluster whose cD galaxy is IC 1101. Looking at the DSS2 imagery, it appeared that PGC 54178 was a tangible candidate, but I wasn't sure if it was a bona fide cluster member. In any case, this galaxy was visible continuously to averted vision. I tried hard to pick up any other galaxies. I spotted something fuzzy at 15:10:53 05:46:47, but it turns out it's a tight double star. I may have had very brief glimpses of PGC 54174, but not enough to confirm. Perhaps if I had tracking and better seeing, I would've gotten further. However, it turns out that PGC 54178 has a redshift very similar to that of IC 1101, and SIMBAD lists it as a confirmed member of Abell 2029. Wow, two galaxies at over a billion light years of lookback time!

DSS2 Color image of cluster Abell 2029

The galactic merger NGC 6240 in the odd location of Ophiuchus was also interesting, and although I had hoped to see more structure, all I could pick up was the one tidal tail going NNE from what appeared as an amorphous glow.

Other objects of interest are two Hickson groups -- HCG 80 and HCG 78. Over a decade ago, I told myself I'd attempt every one of the 100 compact groups in my 18-inch, but that plan fell flat as I got distracted by many other interesting things. I plan to continue it now with a mix of observations through 18", 28" and Jimi's 48". All four members were detected in both groups, but HCG 78c and HCG 78d were retinal torture.

As the sky brightened from astronomical twilight, I ended the night on NGC 6905, the blue flash nebula, which showed interesting structure at 486x.

We got only two usable nights, so I spent the rest of the long weekend doing non-visual astronomy things, especially discussing ideas from Bhavesh, and trying to absorb a truckload of telescope-making knowledge and ideas from Dave Kasnick and Howard Banich.

Clear Skies

Akarsh