OR: Pinnacles NP West Entrance Parking Lot, July 19th

[mtoma...@comcast.net]

Over a dozen stargazers, nearly all members of MIRA Astronomy Club, were at Pinnacles National Park west entrance parking lot on the evening of Saturday, July 19, with a few of us staying past midnight.  I spent much of my time on selected items from a list of “110 brightest NGC objects” that I had created years ago but never did anything with.  I saw a lot of tiny planetary nebulae.  I had no idea that there were so many easily visible ones.

The highs:

1. The sky was phenomenal.  The best I have ever seen it there in terms of clarity and stability.  I regret not staying late enough to view Saturn.
2. We were able to set up our equipment on the asphalt, not in the dusty dirt alongside the parking lot.  Prior to my arrival, a ranger stopped by and approved of two early arrivals setting up their telescopes in parking slots.  From what I was told, the ranger just wanted the telescopes out of the way of the vehicle path.  I never saw a ranger the entire evening.
3. No humidity!  By midnight, the temperature had dropped to 59 degrees F.  Humidity was 50%.  The dew point was 43 degrees F.  Not a single drop of condensation on anything.
4. My telescope worked!  (Sky-Watcher 7” Maksutov on a Sky-Watcher EQ6-R Pro mount with a Celestron StarSense AutoAlign sky camera).  This was my second outing with the auto-align device.  The pointing accuracy was amazing.

The lows:

1. Something triggered the outdoor lights motion detector several times over the four hours of darkness that I was there.  Bats?  Moths?  We never could identify the culprit.  One stargazer had covered the sensor with a brown paper bag, but it had fallen off.
2. There was a light on outside a building west of the parking lot the entire time.  A maintenance shop building maybe?  We did not see the light directly, but the roof and/or wall of the building was illuminated.  I had not seen this during previous stargazing events there.
3. The western horizon is brighter than I remember.  Sigh.

All in all, it was one of my best stargazing experiences at Pinnacles NP West.

[Ted Hauter]

Great to hear and you got my scope pick.

Dew was heavy for the Moon/Pleiades! 😅

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[Jay Freeman]

That sounds like a good list to have around, how about posting it? (You may have done so already; if so, remind us where ...)

-- Jay Reynolds Freeman
---------------------
Jay_Reynol...@mac.com
http://JayReynoldsFreeman.com (personal web site)

> [...] selected items from a list of “110 brightest NGC objects” that I had created years ago but never did anything with. I saw a lot of tiny planetary nebulae. I had no idea that there were so many easily visible ones [...]

[mtoma...@comcast.net]

Jay,  I do not know where or how to post a document to this forum.  Instructions?

On a side note.  Back in the 1990s, when the internet was still soft in the center and malware attached to macros was the new bogeyman, I was taught never to share an Excel file with anyone outside our company.  I will be happy to share my list of "111 (not 110) Brightest NGC Objects" in PDF and/or delimited text format.  Would that be OK with you?

Again, explain how I can make the list available to others in the forum, short of simply attaching it to a post.  Thanks.  If nothing else, I will attached it to a follow-up message.

Incidentally, my list appears to have come from a "Glen Cozens" of New South Wales, Australia back in 2011.  I probably downloaded it from the internet.  As an Excel file.  :-(

Mark T.

[Aris Pope]

I believe the building to the West and up the hill is where the ranger stays. No surprise 

Aris

On Sun, Jul 20, 2025, 3:14 AM 'mtoma...@comcast.net' via The Astronomy Connection (TAC) <sf-ba...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

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[Mark Wagner]

Honestly.....   the opposing "rules" applied from ranger to ranger make me seasick.  I'd recommend going with what was ascertained by Peter in his conversations by Ranger El Jefe.

[Steve Gottlieb]

Moving this thread to a new one.

The Royal Astronomical Society of Canada’s list of the 110 finest NGC objects for northern observers (compiled by Canadian Alan Dyer) has been around for over 20 years in their Observer’s Handbook. It’s also available online at https://www.rasc.ca/finest-ngc-objects. Great list for relative beginners exploring beyond the Messier’s.

You can download the list as an Excel table, a pdf, or as a target list for Stellarium, SkyTools and SkySafari. There’s even a pdf with individual observing forms for each object. It’s possible Glen’s list is the same as the one I linked above as he’s a southern hemisphere observer.

The RASC Observer’s Handbook (I don’t have the recent edition) also includes a personal list of 154 “Deep-Sky Gems” from David Levy, a “Deep-Sky Challenge” list of 45 objects from Alan Dyer and Alister Ling, a list of 74 “Southern Hemispher Splendours” by Alan Whitman, and a “Wide-Field Wonders” list of 45 objects (many tough) by Chris Beckett.

Steve

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[Akarsh Simha]

I’ve been chipping away at Alan Dyer’s 110 finest NGCs slowly and steadily

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[mtoma...@comcast.net]

Steve, thank you for this detailed input.  I have interpreted it as, "Mark, there is nothing more for you to do on this topic.  It's covered."

Whew.  I'm actually very good at doing nothing.  Just ask my wife.  ;-)

[John Pierce]

On Sun, Jul 20, 2025 at 4:00 PM Aris Pope <arispo...@gmail.com> wrote:

I believe the building to the West and up the hill is where the ranger stays. No surprise 

per google maps satellite view, there's 3 houses and a fairly large workshop building over there.

 

[Aris Pope]

Yes that's where the Ranger stays. 

Aris

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