OR: Henry Coe 4/14/26
Richard Navarrete
Return of the King
I haven’t had my 18” Obsession out for an observing session since July 2023 when I joined Mark W., Akarsh S. and a few other astronomers at Pinnacles East. I’ve been enjoying observing with a variety of smaller scopes since then, and started working my way through Sue French’s ‘Celestial Sampler’ for small scopes. Spring is galaxy season, so it was time to bring the big guy out again. It also meant I could bring out the 13x80 Stellarvue finder and the 20 Nagler, both of which are too heavy for my smaller scopes.
We arrived at our usual haunt, Henry Coe State Park around 5:00, but found the gate locked. Luckily, we were let in by some staff that happened to be there due to a proscribed burn that was to begin the following day. Conditions were cold and breezy, so Mark W. and I set up our scopes, and then started applying our layers of cold gear. Mitchell K. joined us around sunset with is 10” dob.
Before it became fully dark, we all took a gander at Jupiter. There was lots of detail, and four beautiful little moons with Io approaching very close to the planet. One of the perks of observing at Coe is cell reception. Mark checked on his phone and discovered that a transit would be visible later in the evening. We moved over to Orion and checked out the trapezium. Six stars! Might as well give Sirius and the Pup a try. Goal! That’s two months in a row that we’ve been able to split Sirius from Coe, and Mark was able to make the split in his 10” dob from his backyard the previous week.
You’d think this would all point to a great night of observing, but alas, in the end, we were foiled by dew. I noticed it on my eyepiece case not long after sunset. I had a table set-up, but I ended up moving my book, atlases and my notes to the back of my Rav4. It made it difficult shuffling things around as I needed them, but it kept the gear dry.
Before starting the article ‘Coma Squared’ in Sue’s book, I swung over to M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici. I’ve had better views from darker skies, but I was able to see the spiral arms of the galaxy and its buddy NGC 5195 easily.
On to ‘Coma Squared.’ M53 was the first object. A magnitude 7.6 globular cluster. What a beauty! I’ve observed all the Messiers at least once, and most of them twice or more. The first time was as a new amateur in an 8” SCT, and then again during a Messier Marathon in the 90’s. Since then there are many I’ve not re-visited. AT 172x, M53 was resolved to the core with a brighter center. Strings of stars extended out from the east and west. It was beautiful and dense. This is an object that deserves repeated observations. NGC 5053 is another globular that is very near M53, but I was not able to find it. Mark knew this globular and mentioned that it was dim, but I should have been able to see it. I had in fact seen it in 2004 with the 18” from a much darker site in the Sierra Foothills. This is what I wrote back then ‘Large, diffuse, dim. Situated between mag 9 and 11 stars.’
Well, on to Melotte 111, also known as the Coma Star Cluster. I’ve certainly noticed this grouping of stars in the past, but I don’t have a logged observation. The best views were with a pair of 10x50 binoculars, although it looked great in the 13x80 finder as well. Melotte 111 is a large, naked eye, bright cluster. There are a dozen or so bright members with a rich background of dimmer stars. Within the cluster there is a double star, 17 Coma. It was an easy split at low magnification. Both stars appeared white to me.
Next on the list was NGC 4565, one of my favorite galaxies, and an object I’ve observed many times before, but I was having trouble finding it tonight. I ended up asking Mark if he could find it. He came over and said ‘Oh, I always have trouble with this one’ and then five seconds later he had it in the eyepiece. It’s good to have friends. At 172x, this edge on needle galaxy stretches across the field. There was a stellar core and a bright central bulge. A dark lane was visible splitting the galaxy across the middle. NGC 4559 is not far away and looked like a smaller, dimmer, elongated version of 4565. I saw a bright core and dim extensions.
It was around this time that Mitchell said the shadow transit was well underway and just above the Great Red Spot. I couldn’t pass that up. What a great view! There was this black dot just above the GRS which itself seemed a bit separated from one of Jupiters main bands. It was tough to move on to other objects.
35 Comae was next, an easily split double star at magnitudes 5 and 9.8. I didn’t notice a color variation other than white. M64 is nearby and was supposed to be next, but at this point I decided to check out my finder. Covered in dew. The rocker box was dripping. The mirror was covered with dew, although surprisingly the secondary was clear. I went over to Mark’s scope and his mirror actually had drips running down its surface. Time to call it a night. It was around 11:00 so we decided it was early enough to pack up and head home. But, before I did, I swung over to Markarians Chain and enjoyed that string of galaxies for a few minutes. This is where I will be spending time if I’m lucky enough to have clear steady skies next new moon.
After a peaceful drive down in to Morgan Hill, and a quick stop at Jack-in-the-Box for some reinforcements, I made the hour drive home. All in all, the King made a fruitful return.
