Day 2: we awoke late. Having stayed up until 4 AM, I did not get moving until the afternoon. It was cold and damp, light rain occured on and off. The showers have no roof, hygene took a holiday. Nate, George and I headed off to Bob's BBQ for salad bar and BBQ. The bar sufficed for vegtables. The asmosphere complemented the experiance. America of about 30-40 years ago. Only with more fast food and a Wal mart.
WalMart, what would we do with out it. Cruising the camping and hardware sections provided the entertainment on a damp afternoon. Then off to Subway to procure sandwiches for dinner and to the supermarket to procure snacks.
We spent the evening in Jeff's shelter with sandwiches, nachos, salsa and libations. Much conversation occured. Light rain came and went. We added more layers of clothing. We broke up around midnight. Jeff and the others chose to skip the "star party in the rain" and stayed dry in a hotel.
I woke up earlier. It was sunny. Nate or george had made coffee. The pleasant 70 degree weather encouraged a nice HOT shower. (The advantages/amenities of Chiefland are: electricity, hot shower, flust toilet, sink with running water, cheap rent ($5/day), close by Walmart, Subway, and of course Bob's BBQ.) We met Andy who lives there, observes, flys RC planes, and mows. A nice chap who chatted with us for a while. We headed into town for lunch, to procure dinner, and make a final supply run to Walmart.
Brief observing with the Nearstar showed much activity on the sun the large "tree shaped" prominance (a biggie) persisted.
George stayed at camp. Nate and I headed off to Manatee Springs SP to see the manatees. They were hard to see as they were far away and under water. We saw many fish in the crystal clear water of the spring. I saw some long legged bird catch two fish - got it on video. We saw turtles (?snappers?) and many - many trukey vultures. The sink hole was dry and not too entertaining.
We arrived back at camp and I built the scope (the fan had been running all day). Then i aligned the finders and collimated. I waited for it to get dark.
I tried to video the planets but with out sucess. I tried to video the little dumbell in Perseus but it was toodim, and my mounts polar alignment too far off. I broke down the video and started to observe:
'scope: 20" Obsession
Short Tube 80mm Finder
NSOG and BSA 2K as aids.
More info. from report from day 1 of the trip.
I began with Jupiter but the seeing was not what it was the other day and it did not tolerate power in the 360-430x range. As steady skys were the reason for the trip, I was a bit disappointed. So I began to "hop arround".
NCG 7789 is a nice (m6.7) OC in Casseopia. A nice rich OC. Viewed with 31and 22mm N.
Then it was off to M76 a mag 10.1 PN in Perseus. Small but two obvious lobes. Improved contrast with the OIII. The "little dumbbell".
Then I dropped down to visit the "double cluster with the 31mm N. Nice rich OC's.
Then it was on to Lepus. M79 is a m7.8 GC. This is small but tight. IC 418 is a m 9.3 PN in Lepus. A round glow. No internal structure. CS is bright. Oh for steadier skys with which to push the power. Bright.
Then it was off to M42 the great nebula in Orion. Bright. Some hint of green color near the "center".
M43 is next to it but not as bright. A central brighter comma shaped area is present. it plaes in comparison to M42.
NGC 2024 shows a prominent central dark dust lane. Viewed with the 31 and 22 N. prefered the view with the 22 N.
M78 is a near by EN/RN that is shaped like a cross between a comet and a triangle. Fan shaped. It contains 2 bright stars. NGC 2071 is near by but much dimmer. It is a RN.
I felt like looking at some clusters with the 31 N so it was off to NGC 2169, a OC (m5.9).The main stars of this cluster look like an X and a Y (although one end of the X has 3 rather then 2 legs). This is supposed to look like a 37. I'll have to visit here again.
NGC 1662 (m8.3) appears as a diamond of stars inside a circle of stars. The diamond is offset towards one edge of the cicle.
Moving to Monoceros I hunted down NGC 2244 the m4.8 OC that lies at the heart of the Rosette Nebula. N naked eye object from Chiefland, Fla. it was quickly centered in the telrad. It is a bright moderately rich OC.The rosette nebula is dim but clearly apparent in the 20".The Nebulosity grows in size and appears "brighter" with the OIII filter in place. One area is brighter then the rest. It ends at the wall (inner edge) where the glow abruptly stops.
Drifting to Canis Major M41 a m4.5 OC is rich and bright.
The CM twins: NGC 2354 (m 6.5 OC) is a moderately rich OC and is amorphous. Dimmer yet richer then NGC 2362. It appears more open and diffuse. Nearby NGC 2362 contains fewer but brighter stars (m4.1 OC) then 2354. tao CM dominates the low power field (remember that low power is 80-100x), lying in the center of this bright cluster.
Do you ever notice that when the transperency is not so good that star clusters make nice targets, especially bright ones!
M93 lies in nearby Puppis (a m6.2 OC). This is a moderately rich OC set against a rich background of nearly as bright field stars. It looks "tighter: in the ST80 then in the 20" dob. In the ST there are t bright stars adjcent to a tight smudge of light. With the 31mm N the OC fades and blends into the surrounding feld stars.
NGC 2467 is an OC (m7) just to the south by 2-3 degrees. This cluster was hard to see. The associated emession nebula was easily seen and suprisingly large (for some one used to PN). It was moderately bright in the 31N. It appears dimmer in the 22N. Dark lanes are suggested to the East. (Now I wonder how I knew that it was east.)
NGC 2440 is a bright (m9.4) PN, it: is irregular, fades peripherally, and has hints of lobes.It seems to have "over and under" lobes and a surrounding haze. Hints of structure. Viewed with: 6R, 7N, 9N, 12N, 22N, 31N. This is where tracking is nice. It helps with the higher powers and lets you run the power up and down on an object to see where it looks best of to look at different parts of the object. This is one look at it.
M46 is a OC (m 4.5) that contains a fairly nice and bright PN. This is one of my favorite objects as both classes of object are easily seen - with or without the OIII filter. This rich OC contains a bright PN! NGC 2438 is a m11.0 PN that is thought to be 3300 LY distant, while M46 is about 5000 LY away. It is a foreground object so it isn't actually in M46, it just looks that way. Used the 12, 9, 22 N's on the PN. This has a bright outer annulus with a darkened inner area. It looks like a little, tilted Ring Nebula. As an aside one of our club members asked if they ever got that giddy feeling as when first observing, well yes. When one looks at an object like this through a 0.5 m scope, I'd have to say - yes.
M47 is a sparser (m4.4) OC then M46 but it contains brighter stars. Off to .. the EAST ??? ... there is a bright yellow-orange star. There is a nice tight double in the center of the cluster.
NGC 2423 is a sparser OC (m6.7). It has a few brighter stars but more dimmer ones.One line of stars spells out a C and the other an L. These letters are oriented 90 degrees to one another. NSOG describes this as strears of stars and star poor voids.
Gemini contains NGC 2342 which is a m9.4 PN. Tonight we see less detail then the other night, a consequence of the deterioration of the seeing from the other night. It appears bright in the 22N with the OIII.
Monoceros is the home of M50 a m5.9 OC. It is moderatey rich, moderately tight (cluster). It is to the south of a bright yellow star.
Near by, a short star hop away lie NGC 2343 (6.7 )and 2353 (m6.5) both are sparse, open appearing OC.
Very close to Monoceros but actually in Hydra is M48 a bright (m5.8), loose OC. It contains some linear chains of stars near its center. It is bright and large in the ST 80 - it shows one linear section and one section that appears as glowing fuzz in the shape of a pistol. It is less impresive in the 20 as it is "open".
NGC 2539 a m6.5 OC in Puppis is a loose, bright OC near 19 Puppis. Three rings of stars resemble the "Mr. Bill 'Oh NO' face ( of SNL fame) though some can be made to resemble an S. Very impressively bright as this was not seen in the finder (ST 80). "So tell me pardner, how much haze was there."
So thats haw it went, a cruise through various star clusters and planetary nebulae in or near the winter Milky Way. This ended the star cluster and planetary nebula portion of the star gaze. We will now conclude with the galaxy portion of the evening.
In Ursa Major, first up was M51 (m8.4) and its companiaon NGC 5195 (m9.6). This was viewed with the 12N with the Deep Sky filter as well as the 22N and 31N. Nice views were had with the 22 and 31N. Spiral arms were seen easily. In the 12N the arms were seen with averted vision. The deep sky filter seemed to help a little.
M101 (m7.7) was viewed in the 22N, but it was barely seen. Nothing like the view that we had from this exact same location only 2 days earlier. The trasparency was not what it was the other night.
M109 is an edge on spiral, (m9.8) not well seen, the transparentcy is worsening.
M108 (m10.1) appeared brighter. It is a diffuse G, brighter towards one side. Perhaps this is because it is tilted towards us (not an edge on G).
By now I'm forced to find targets not hidden by clouds.
M53 the (m7.5) GC in Coma Bbernices is tiny in the ST80. It is a tight close cluster in the 20". it has a tight, dense core surrounded by a wide spray of stars.
Venturing into the Virgo cluster I arrived at M99 (G, m9.9) is a faint oval G. M98 (m10.1) is a faint oval G. M100 (m9.4) is more of a face on G, it looks spiral, but appears diffuse. M85 (m9.2) is a bighter oval G.
Fleeing clouds i drop down to NGC 4753 (m9.9) a faint diffuse G inside the "body" of Virgo.
M83 (m7.5) is a G with a stellar nucleus. It has a surrounding large, dim, diffuse halo. It looks bright in the ST80.
Clouds close in once again and reluctantly I tear down the scope ... of course it clears (for a short while) as soon as I've taken the scope apart. It is about 4:?? AM
The next morning I arose late, cleaned up, broke camp and was packed up and on the road by 2PM.