OR: Saturday, In The Park...

[Mark Wagner]

Every day is Saturday.  Or so it feels.  What day of the week is it?  Those who don't relate, hopefully at some point you will.

After a failed attempt to go observing Sunday, Richard Navarrete and I met Monday 12/2 at 15:30 in the overflow parking lot at Henry Coe State Park.  Some of you already saw the photo looking mostly west from the site.  Coe is close and convenient, and dark enough to make Herschel 400 / DeepMap 600 objects good targets.  So that's what we went after.

The forecast was clear skies with average transparency and seeing, a distinct improvement over Sunday.  Low clouds in the distance to the south and north, very short contrails left by passing jets, no breeze (starting out) to speak of.  And nice temps - not like the prior week there where I had my full northpole gear on by sunset.  Late, before packing up, Richard read out about 48 degrees, not even jacket weather (for him).

Below are the objects I logged and took notes on.  Whenever I found myself heading toward the light dome of SJ to the west, Richard hit the return carriage and reset me, moving me to the east into the dark parts of the sky.  It worked very well.

But, the real stars of the night were seeing related.  Richard called my attention to it, almost jumping out of his shoes grabbing a view of the Trapezium in M42.  To call it "steady" is a big understatement.  The E and F stars were easy, no effort at all to see - tiny pinpoints separated by black from the neighboring bright members of the Trap;  It was so good, it totally interrupted my H400 observing, we just kept going back for another look.   Likewise with Jupiter at opposition, big, bright, detailed... and the two moons on each side using our aperture masks "refractorizing" our 10" Dobs, crisp and clean perfect disks.  You felt like just gawking.  What a great surprise for an average seeing forecast!

We were packed by 22:30, and I was in bed by midnight.  Great and convenient observing.

Now, the last entry in my notes is for Surya, who the week before at Coe was asking me about NGC 891.  In my 10" f/5.7 it was there, but you had to know where to look, and work at it.

I also had a couple easy galaxies that "vexed" me taking up dozens of minutes each mis-star-hopping to a WTF.  I was hearing the uttered words "die hard" from Richard.  True, I just can't quit.

The Winter Sky itself was gorgeous, worth the trip just to sit and look (we did a little of that too).

Lastly, since people are talking animal sightings, om my prior trip returning from Coe down by Anderson Reservoir on the way home, I came fast around a turn to the looming visage of the hulking dumb-eyed "La Vaca Negra", instilling fear of imminent crash.  My reflexes are still good though.  I did however consider afterwards the possibility of being buried and crushed under fresh Corriente steak tartar, hoping for rescue.  I really must slow down.

It sure was great.  The seeing was the show. 

Here's the finds.  Some of the OC's were really nice, others more or less denser knots in the WMW and hard to decipher. All items are NGCs thru my 10" f/5.7, star hopping off a 1990's version of The Sky, my trusty guide:

7009    PK 37-34.1    Planetary Nebula    Aqr    21    4.2    -    11    22     8    Size: 1.7  !!!, PN , vB, S, elliptic   
7mm: Bright oval running E/W 3x1, perhaps a darkening in the interior off to the west slightly.  Dimmer shell immediately close to the bright inner shell, then a slightly larger and dim large shell.  No sign of ansae. Looking again though, ansea may be very small and tipped WWNW/EESE.

7217    UGC 11914    Galaxy    Peg    22    7.9    +    31    22    10.2    Size: 3.7  B, pL, gbM, er   
7mm: Face on spiral with pinpoint bright nucleus and round bright core surrounding, fading evenly to a large dim outer area of spiral structure, perhaps elongated NW/SE.  Perhaps some dark lanes marking the elongation.

7662    PK 106-17.1    Planetary Nebula    And    23    25.9    +    42    33     9    Size: 2.2  !!! PN  or ring , vB, pS, R,    
7mm: With NPB filter bright mottled interior with slight annularity, tight dimmer ring which immediately transitions to a large dim oval elongated NW/SE,   Easily picked out at low power at 71X.

7448    UGC 12294    Galaxy    Peg    23    0.1    +    15    59    11.7    Size: 2.7  pB, L, E 173deg , vgbM, *11 f   
7mm:  Dim, large, elongated NNW/ESE with a brighter mid section containing either a dim star overlaying or dim pinpoint nucleus. Central area clearly brighter and between two equal mag stars separated widely.  Perhaps some broken or separated areas to W with stars embedded, and a bit also to the SE.

7479    UGC 12343    Galaxy    Peg    23    4.9    +    12    19    11    Size: 4.1  pB, cL, mE 12deg , bet 2 st   
7mm: Long and mottled NNW/SSE with star at SSE end, sharp edged at NNW trailing end, brighter to NNE. Seem dimmer than mag 11.

637    OCL 329    Open Cluster    Cas    1    42.9    +    64    0     8.2    Size: 4.  Cl, pS, B & vF st
12mm: Hand full of brighter members.  Six N/W in two groups with a pair trailing to the east, over a dense haze of background members.   Also extends dimly to the north then west.

559    OCL 322    Open Cluster    Cas    1    29.5    +    63    18     9.5    Size: 4.  Cl, B, pL, pRi   
12mm: Five stars in a chain, two together forming the eastern end with a dim background running throughout E/W.  Nice but not great.

381    OCL 317    Open Cluster    Cas    1    8.3    +    61    35     9    Size: 6.  Cl, pC   
20mm: Large and dense with many dim members of near equal magnitude. Nice chain of five stars running straight N/S with some stars condensing at its southern end.

654    OCL 330    Open Cluster    Cas    1    44.1    +    61    53     6.5    Size: 5.  Cl, iF, Ri, one *6-7, st 11...   
12mm: Excellent small and very condensed cluster with many dim background stars in a tight ball overlayed by around a dozen brighter members.  Very short "bright stars" hop from 663.

663    OCL 333    Open Cluster    Cas    1    46    +    61    15     7.1    Size: 16.  Cl, B, L, eRi, st pL   
12mm: Very large, very dense, many bright members, fills entire 12mm FOV, super dense in dim background stars.  Perhaps 50 bright members.  Excellent.

659    OCL 332    Open Cluster    Cas    1    44.2    +    60    42     7.9    Size: 5.  Cl, lRi, st B   
12mm: Small and round with about 8 brighter but not bright members overlaying a dim scattered field.  Not very notable.  Close to 663.

436    OCL 320    Open Cluster    Cas    1    15.6    +    58    49     8.8    Size: 6.  Cl, S, iF, pC   
20mm: Oddly sparse given the description. Several but not many brighter members overlaying a large dim field of background stars. Off the "feet" of the ET cluster.. 12mm does bring out more density in center of this group.
 
457    OCL 321    Open Cluster    Cas    1    19.1    +    58    20     6.4    Size: 13.  Cl, B, L, pRi, st 7, 8, 10   
20mm: Two bright beacons anchor strings forming this uniquely shaped star pattern. Eastern "eye" is slightly brighter, nice strings of stars extend E/W off the dense central area of the "thorax". A few stragglers and outliers to the N give the feeling of feet.

651    M 76    Planetary Nebula    Per    1    42.3    +    51    35    12    vB, f of Dneb; = M76   
7mm: Oriented very slightly SW/NE from true W/E, this is bright and detailed. Knots in the W end outshine the rest of the object, which itself is elongated in its brightest areas E/W.  A dark intrusion E/W bisects the shape with the eastern end larger but dimmer.  There is a "bridge" connecting the knots along the south side. Enveloping this entire object is a large dim area of extended nebulosity dimly visible N/S extending, but much more obvious the the North.  This object is really more NW/SE.

891    UGC 1831    Galaxy    And    2    22.6    +    42    21    10    Size: 13.5  ! B, vL, vmE 22deg   
7mm: Very challenging find in a 10", but as it passes through a chain of four stars that identify the field it is easier to locate.  View is of an extremely dim widish slash mostly north/sough, Hard to define edges, but there is a dark streak through the linear glow.  Feel confident of confirmed observation, but took several tries.

More of this!

[Richard Navarrete]

It was a memorable night at Coe. I haven’t enjoying such excellent seeing in years. A couple of add-ones for Mark’s excellent OR. We observed five planets. Venus was a brilliant gibbous, Saturn and her tilting rings, Jupiter with moons and festoons, a low on the horizon Mars, and of course our home, Earth. 

A one day old moon was a treat at sunset, and nebulosity was seen throughout the Pleiades.

I was using a new to me 10” Orion intelliscope. This scope has been a bit of a project. When I picked it up I was excited to see what appeared to be a pristine mirror with a beautiful coating. When I set it up that night I did a quick collimation with a laser and was dismayed to find I couldn’t get a star to focus. It looked like extreme astigmatism.  Thinking about it the next day, I decided to check collimation again. I made a sight tube from an old film can and found the secondary was way out of alignment. I corrected that problem and re-collimated. At the eyepiece that night I could get closer to focus, but there was obviously still issues.

I decided to take the mirror up to Chabot to be tested. I couldn’t imagine a mirror as bad as this looked could have been sent out by a company, or accepted by a customer. When I took the cell out and looked at the mirror, I noticed the mirror was locked down tight with the clips. I seemed to remember from my early days that the mirror clips aren’t supposed to be tight. I’ve mainly used an 18” Obession for 20+ years, and that sits in a sling.

On a Friday evening I went up to the Chabot telescope makers workshop to ask my namesake, Richard Ozer, to test the mirror. We set the mirror on the testing machine and Richard O. said the figure was very good! I had brought the entire scope, so we put it back together, with appropriate clip placement, took it outside, and enjoyed a beautiful image of Saturn. Hurray!

I was excited to get the scope out to darker skies, and Mark W. was kind enough to join me at Coe, even though he had work that day, and a hike scheduled the following morning. Once it got dark enough I started aligning the Intelliscope. I was getting giant warps (errors) from the encoders. I couldn’t figure out the problem, so I spent the night star hopping. No problem there, but I need to work on the azimuth bearing as it’s way too stiff. I had placed teflon on the base, but it wasn’t enough.  Time for laminate from AstroGoods. 

Upon reading the manual the next day, I read that there needed to be washers installed in the stop when setting the tube vertical for initialization. I checked my scope. No washers! I put a few washers in and tried alignment again last night and success!

I enjoy working on tweaks to make my scopes perform better, but this was an example of not getting swayed by a pretty mirror. When I met the guy to buy the scope I saw the mirror and was sold. There’s more to a good scope than just a shiny mirror.

Richard

Sent from the all new AOL app for iOS

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