OR: Astronomy and Nightscape photography at Mercey Springs
Muriel Dulieu Holzer
Saturday night June 20th 2026, I joined Mason, Paolo, Sam and a few others at Mercey Springs for a night of astronomy and nightscape photography with the CDARK meetup group https://meetu.ps/e/Q4TS0/4flzC/i
I brought my full frame camera with a 20 mm f1.4 lens and my Orion 10” Dobsonian. Unfortunately I forgot my Seestar.
When I arrived, after a 2.5 hour drive, I was happily surprised to discover the obvious: there are hot springs at Mercey Springs! A 45 minute soak in the warm sulphury water helped me relax and regain my energy after the long drive. I set up my tent in a Dagobah style little wooded area at the end of the parking lot. I could almost hear “Always more questions than answers, there are.”
I asked the owner if there was an area without any lights to set up our telescopes. He said to go up the hill, but then said we can’t reach it by car. As an alternative, he suggested that we go to the end of their air strip. That airstrip area is the private quarters of the staff but the owner wrote a handwritten authorization to put in our cars. The CDARK organizers decided to set up halfway through the air strip. We could see the road nearby but only around 3 cars drove by in the whole time we were there. A more annoying light was the camera and light activated by a motion sensor at the main entrance. It was far, a quarter of a mile away, but very bright. By choosing a spot for my telescope behind a building blocking the light, I could avoid that light and it was dark.
As the night fell, the quarter moon became more visible, with Venus and Jupiter on a line. I could not see Mercury. A few owls and bats were flying around, dinner time maybe? I had hoped to start the night with the night hike to be back when the moon set to enjoy the darkness at my telescope. But the organizers decided to observe first, and go for the hike after midnight to take pictures of the Milky Way. It was a nightscape photography meetup after all.
In addition to the organizers, there were more or less 8 people very interested in astronomy but with little experience looking into telescopes. As the only person with a relatively large telescope, with no camera attached, I got a lot of attention. I tried to find bright objects to show everyone what is out there, despite the moonlight. Somebody was impressed that I could find the Hercules Cluster, M13, and the Ring Nebula, M57, with the Telrad without looking at a star chart. It reminded me how I had been similarly amazed when Richard Navarrete did the same thing a year earlier on my first time at Coe. I got a special request to look at the globular clusters M10 and M12, so we did. Someone else asked what the difference was between a globular cluster and a galaxy. He had read Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson and thought the book lacked details. This was a question I had similarly asked a year ago at GSSP and I still remembered the answer. I talked about dark matter, globular clusters born at the same time as the Milky Way and intergalactic clusters, sometimes remnants of cannibalised galaxies. It felt strange to be the person people turned to for answers, I am used to being the one asking. Then we looked at the Blinking Nebula, and as it had been the first time I looked at it at Coe, it was a great success. Everyone got in line to look at it twice, sometimes even three times! The people were eager to understand this mystery of the blinking and asked me all sorts of questions about the anatomy of the eye. We somehow managed to figure it out to everyone’s great delight. After some back and forth about which part of the Swan was the tail and the head, we looked at Albireo in the telescope and saw its pretty blue and gold colors. I made an attempt to look at the Veil but it was not visible. Next we looked at the globular cluster M4 and I pointed to the bar of stars in its middle. For completeness, I thought we should try a galaxy or two, so we looked at the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. It was barely visible. The Sunflower Galaxy, M63, was nearby so we looked at it next. It was easily recognizable thanks to the bright star touching the boundary of its outer disk.
It was midnight already and time to go for the hike. Everybody packed up their cameras and tripods and we went up the hills. There was a dirt road going up the hills, maybe it is possible to go there by car next time after all?
Some people managed to take pictures of the Moon setting behind the hills. Now in darkness, it was delightful to walk around surrounded by so much beauty above our heads.
There were stars everywhere and the Milky Way was gorgeous. Halfway through the hike, there were some giant solar panels reflecting starlight that gave a strange atmosphere.
The hike ended up at two labyrinths made of stone where we tried all manner of light painting for our pictures.
At 2 am, we were back at the air strip. Most people headed to sleep but I was not going to go to bed before enjoying at least a little bit of the dark sky at my telescope.
Three or four people curious to observe with me stayed too. One person mentioned difficulty seeing so I tried to focus on very bright objects. We looked at M13 again and this time it was fully bright, appearing in all its splendor against the dark sky. The Lagoon Nebula was bright and clearly defined with its white wisps of nebulosities and its embedded cluster. The neck and body of the Swan Nebula were gorgeous. The Trifid Nebula was a little darker than expected but I could see its dark lanes. The Dumbbell Nebula was large, mottled and white like a plump white cloud. The Western Veil was faint but visible (I had forgotten my filters!). The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, showed hints of arms. Someone asked to see the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, which was large, smooth and very bright. He shared that he had seen some dust on pictures. I showed M32 in the same field as M31, which caused renewed interest. Getting close to 3 am, I decided to end with a personal favorite, the delicate open cluster Caroline’s Rose, NGC 7789. I surprised myself seeing the rose pattern so clearly in my 10”.
I would have liked to continue until the morning but we were all tired. After a short night's sleep, I woke up early and there were bunnies a little bit everywhere jumping around on the grass in the fresh morning.
The water in the shower smelled like sulphur and I suspect it came from the hot springs too. Getting into my car to leave, a family of California Quails walked through the parking lot. This ended up being a very pleasant stay, almost a mini vacation, and what a sky! I hope to come back soon in good company.
James Webster
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David Kirjassoff
Saturday night June 20th 2026, I joined Mason, Paolo, Sam and a few others at Mercey Springs for a night of astronomy and nightscape photography with the CDARK meetup group https://meetu.ps/e/Q4TS0/4flzC/i
I brought my full frame camera with a 20 mm f1.4 lens and my Orion 10” Dobsonian. Unfortunately I forgot my Seestar.
When I arrived, after a 2.5 hour drive, I was happily surprised to discover the obvious: there are hot springs at Mercey Springs! A 45 minute soak in the warm sulphury water helped me relax and regain my energy after the long drive. I set up my tent in a Dagobah style little wooded area at the end of the parking lot. I could almost hear “Always more questions than answers, there are.”
<image.jpeg>I asked the owner if there was an area without any lights to set up our telescopes. He said to go up the hill, but then said we can’t reach it by car. As an alternative, he suggested that we go to the end of their air strip. That airstrip area is the private quarters of the staff but the owner wrote a handwritten authorization to put in our cars. The CDARK organizers decided to set up halfway through the air strip. We could see the road nearby but only around 3 cars drove by in the whole time we were there. A more annoying light was the camera and light activated by a motion sensor at the main entrance. It was far, a quarter of a mile away, but very bright. By choosing a spot for my telescope behind a building blocking the light, I could avoid that light and it was dark.
<image.jpeg>As the night fell, the quarter moon became more visible, with Venus and Jupiter on a line. I could not see Mercury. A few owls and bats were flying around, dinner time maybe? I had hoped to start the night with the night hike to be back when the moon set to enjoy the darkness at my telescope. But the organizers decided to observe first, and go for the hike after midnight to take pictures of the Milky Way. It was a nightscape photography meetup after all.
<image.jpeg>
In addition to the organizers, there were more or less 8 people very interested in astronomy but with little experience looking into telescopes. As the only person with a relatively large telescope, with no camera attached, I got a lot of attention. I tried to find bright objects to show everyone what is out there, despite the moonlight. Somebody was impressed that I could find the Hercules Cluster, M13, and the Ring Nebula, M57, with the Telrad without looking at a star chart. It reminded me how I had been similarly amazed when Richard Navarrete did the same thing a year earlier on my first time at Coe. I got a special request to look at the globular clusters M10 and M12, so we did. Someone else asked what the difference was between a globular cluster and a galaxy. He had read Astrophysics for People in a Hurry by Neil deGrasse Tyson and thought the book lacked details. This was a question I had similarly asked a year ago at GSSP and I still remembered the answer. I talked about dark matter, globular clusters born at the same time as the Milky Way and intergalactic clusters, sometimes remnants of cannibalised galaxies. It felt strange to be the person people turned to for answers, I am used to being the one asking. Then we looked at the Blinking Nebula, and as it had been the first time I looked at it at Coe, it was a great success. Everyone got in line to look at it twice, sometimes even three times! The people were eager to understand this mystery of the blinking and asked me all sorts of questions about the anatomy of the eye. We somehow managed to figure it out to everyone’s great delight. After some back and forth about which part of the Swan was the tail and the head, we looked at Albireo in the telescope and saw its pretty blue and gold colors. I made an attempt to look at the Veil but it was not visible. Next we looked at the globular cluster M4 and I pointed to the bar of stars in its middle. For completeness, I thought we should try a galaxy or two, so we looked at the Whirlpool Galaxy, M51. It was barely visible. The Sunflower Galaxy, M63, was nearby so we looked at it next. It was easily recognizable thanks to the bright star touching the boundary of its outer disk.
It was midnight already and time to go for the hike. Everybody packed up their cameras and tripods and we went up the hills. There was a dirt road going up the hills, maybe it is possible to go there by car next time after all?
<image.jpeg>Some people managed to take pictures of the Moon setting behind the hills. Now in darkness, it was delightful to walk around surrounded by so much beauty above our heads.
There were stars everywhere and the Milky Way was gorgeous. Halfway through the hike, there were some giant solar panels reflecting starlight that gave a strange atmosphere.
<image.jpeg>The hike ended up at two labyrinths made of stone where we tried all manner of light painting for our pictures.
<image.jpeg>
<image.jpeg>At 2 am, we were back at the air strip. Most people headed to sleep but I was not going to go to bed before enjoying at least a little bit of the dark sky at my telescope.
Three or four people curious to observe with me stayed too. One person mentioned difficulty seeing so I tried to focus on very bright objects. We looked at M13 again and this time it was fully bright, appearing in all its splendor against the dark sky. The Lagoon Nebula was bright and clearly defined with its white wisps of nebulosities and its embedded cluster. The neck and body of the Swan Nebula were gorgeous. The Trifid Nebula was a little darker than expected but I could see its dark lanes. The Dumbbell Nebula was large, mottled and white like a plump white cloud. The Western Veil was faint but visible (I had forgotten my filters!). The Whirlpool Galaxy, M51, showed hints of arms. Someone asked to see the Andromeda Galaxy, M31, which was large, smooth and very bright. He shared that he had seen some dust on pictures. I showed M32 in the same field as M31, which caused renewed interest. Getting close to 3 am, I decided to end with a personal favorite, the delicate open cluster Caroline’s Rose, NGC 7789. I surprised myself seeing the rose pattern so clearly in my 10”.
I would have liked to continue until the morning but we were all tired. After a short night's sleep, I woke up early and there were bunnies a little bit everywhere jumping around on the grass in the fresh morning.
<image.jpeg>The water in the shower smelled like sulphur and I suspect it came from the hot springs too. Getting into my car to leave, a family of California Quails walked through the parking lot. This ended up being a very pleasant stay, almost a mini vacation, and what a sky! I hope to come back soon in good company.
<image.jpeg>-Muriel