Site: The Black Water Falls State Park, West Virginia
Equipment: 7 x 50 mm Orion Vista Bino’s,
Discovery Telescopes 10" f 5.6 Dob on a Compact Equatorial Platform,
4.5" 12 v computer fan on duct tape mounting.
Aids: Sky Atlas 2000, Night Sky Observers Guide
EP’s: 26 mm Plossl (55x), 18 mm Meade superwide (79x), 16 mm konig (88x), 7 mm Nagler (203x),
2" 32 (44x) and 40 (35x) mm konigs
OVAS members: Jeff Ball, Larry Oyster, David Tolley, Bill (OVAS/KVAS), Rodger
Weather: It grew colder all night long. So I ran the fan a lot. After 2 AM the dew froze so I assume it was below 32 degrees. Fog rolled in off the lake and fields, we were over by the trees and were spared much of the fog. When the wind changed directions, the fog blew away. This must have happened 5-6 times that night. See to 6.0 ?6.5 mag. There is a new local light dome from the new home for way ward youth.
I’ve never been to a star party so I started at the other end of the field at a Sky designs 20" and observed M13. Much brighter than in my scope.
Alcor and Mizar were split in a 10 year old Pronto. A TV 85 is being assembled.
Reached my scope having skipped some lines and unattended scopes, Mostly Dobs and 8" SCT’s. Back at my scope, the fan is running and the Kendrick dew heaters are keeping the EP and Telrad dew free (without these the Telrad would be useless in minutes. The finder has fogged (?dewed?) over.).
I showed M13 and M92 the two bright GC’s in Hercules to some passers by. While in Hercules visited NCG 6229 a mag 9.4 GC. At 200 x it is faint with faint extensions seen surrounding a brighter core.
The guy nearby had a Star Master 18". The Dumbbell looked football shaped with an OIII filter in place.
Between this scope and mine was an amazing f7 10" Dob that’s been to Stellafane. It has a Swiss cheese mirror box to decrease weight, a focuser that works by moving the secondary either closer to or further from the primary and it’s (the secondary) mounted on a "U" shaped mount to avoid diffraction spikes. Wow. And he built it himself. I’m not worthy.
I hear a hair dryer a lot; it’s either the 18" or the 10 f 7.0.
Aquila. NGC 6760 is a faint, diffuse mag 9.1 GC, observed with 18 mm. NGC 6807 is a mag 12 PN, faint, diffuse.
Back to Hercules. NGC 6210 is a mag 8.8 PN. Faint, nearly stellar, seen best with 10.5 mm (135x) Pentax (thanks Jeff) and the OIII filter. Forms a triangle with 2 other stars. Could not push the power as sky would not support much over 140x.
Scutum. M11 is a mag 5.8 OC. Observed with Pentax 10.5 mm (I like this EP in my scope), a mini hand grenade EP.
Cygnus. The veil, used the 32 mm 2" Konig with the OIII filter (thanks Jeff). We had the best views of the veil to date. We saw a three sections. Bright, detail, wow. Nice extensions. The North American Nebulae, started with the 32 mm and the OIII, but changed to the 40 mm Konig, the larger FOV gave a nicer view. I’ve decided that I like these EP’s for Nebulae more than for star clusters. I think its because the stars make the aberrations near the edges more apparent. This was the best view of the NA neb to date. Dark skys rule. Pelican nebulae fainter, 40 mm with OIII.
Saturn – peeked with 7 mm Nagler and 5mm Radian (thanks Jeff)
Cassiopea. NGC 281 dim nebulae, 18 mm with UHC filter (the OIII doesn’t fit in this EP)
Triangulum. M33 faint glow, better with 40 mm Konig alone then with Konig + Deep Sky filter (thanks Jeff).
M76 The Little Dumbbell in Perseus. Mag 10.1 . Appeared dimmer than I’d remembered. Viewed with 18 and 7 mm. NGC 744 small open cluster, viewed with 18 mm.
?Fred showed up late at the opposite side of the parking lot, we all went down to look at NGC 253 the Sculptor galaxy in his home built 12.5 Dob. Bright, much more so than in the 10".
Orion. Looked at the Orion Nebulae (M42). Jeff found M78 an EN and RN, dimmer than I’d remembered. Viewed with 18.
Off and on during the night, Jeff from the astronomy club at NASA Goddard came by to share views of various nebulae with his 4.5" f4.0 reflector on a home built fork attached to a home built table. This guy pulled in faint object after faint object. I was ashamed of my aperture. He also was taking photos with a motorized "barn door" mount.
Packed up and went to bed.
Warmer (i.e. no frozen dew), less fog, steadier skys. Got to a late start because of lectures and late arrival after dinner.
I began in Ursa Major with M51. Close to horizon. Saw 2 faint patches in the 18 mm I assume M51 and its companion galaxy.
Went to look through Dave’s new TV101. Nice scope. M55 faint, some stellar appearing areas resolved with 8.8 Meade Ultrawide that he’d won as a door prize about 30 minutes earlier.
Decided that galaxies were too much for this early in the evening given the nonobservers present and their position low to the horizon. So I went back to showing M13, M92, and M11 to who ever came by.
M11 looked nice in the 130 mm Astrophysics refractor with the 22 mm nagler type 2. Saw the smiley face. This is Jeff’s astrophotography target for the night.
M101 in Ursa Major appeared large and diffuse with a small central concentration. Fainter in the 16 mm than the 26 mm.
M62 a GC in Ophiuchus was faint in the TV101.
More visitors and Larry wants to see the Dumbbell a mag 7.3 PN inVelpecula. Bright, viewed with 18, 26 and the UHC filter (my OIII will not thread into the 18). Back to M11 for the visitors.
NGC 6638 a faint m9.1 GC in Sagittarius, observed with 7 and 26 mm. Low near the trees. M22 at m 5.1 appeared bright, viewed with 7 and 26 mm.
Visited the Double Cluster in Perseus with the 26.
In the 18" Star Master saw NGC 6888, an EN. Looked like a big ring with the OIII filter. Looked better than the picture (fig 42-23) in NSOG.
At this time some guy who owns a TV 85 said he wanted to look at Jupiter as a moon was about to emerge from behind the planet. Wow, he was right. It appeared adjcent to the right side of the planet near the upper (?southern) equatorial band We looked at this (18 mm + 2x barlow (Meade shorty), about 136x) in my 10" dob, another guy’s TV 85 and Dave’s TV 101. Cool. I don’t look at the planets much so this was an event. One of the TV 85 owner’s stated that he had the best views of Jupiter that he had ever seen through my scope, I was filled with pride. I was impressed by how sharp the images were in the two TV scopes.
By now I’d looked through the Pronto, the TV 85 and the TV 101, I thought I was at a TV demo show, what nice refractors. The pronto looks like a nice finder scope for the Obsession.
It was getting late, we were down to an Orange tube C8 SCT (Larry), a TV 101 (Dave), the 10" Dob (me), the 130mm AP (Jeff B.), the TV 85, the 18" Star Master, Jeff and his amazing wide field 4.5" f 4.0 "horse" on the fork table mount (accounting for the name), and a home made 12.5" dob. Everyone was looking through each other scopes. Why leave.
M77 a faint galaxy in Cetus is a prototype of the peculiar Seyfert galaxies. It is dim in the C8, dimmer still in the TV 101, and still quite faint in the 10" Dob. 2 stars are superimposed on the galaxy. In the EP they appear brighter than in photos.
Looked at the Pleiades with the 40 mm Konig in the 10" Dob and with the 32 and 40 mm Konigs in the TV 85. You really see the edge aberrations of these Eps in the TV refractor, the view is not as bad in my reflector. These EP’s show softness and dimming near the edge that was quite apparent in the TV 85.
Ended the night by observing NGC 253 the Sculptor galaxy in the 18" Star Master.
Left at about 2 AM, the plan is for 6 hours sleep before the drive home. Larry and Jeff stayed behind. This is all that I recall.