A Queen’s Jewels and Fire in the SkyObserving Report 10/21/01:
Location: Greasy Ridge (Lawrence Co, Ohio) Weather: temps fell from 70 to about 50ish clouds to the north/northwest, later in the evening scattered low level stuff drifted in from the West. High altitude moisture, relatively bone dry on the ground Narrative: Jeff had posted r.e. going out. I's missed the obsession owners "gathering" so I was hot to go out. The highlight of the drive out was also hot - a smoldering forest fire on the way. We set up and jeff began to image the moon with the SBIG STV thru the AP 5". Ahh, the moon, I'd forgotten about it. A group in a pickup did two drive bys. I offered them views of the moon. This satisfied their curiosity and they left. I scrapped the planned Hickson search (darned moon) and decided to check out open clusters in Casseopia. I'd had the 20" out in the driveway with our company this weekend and the open cluster M11 was the highlight so I thought that I'd stick with Open Clusters. I began with NGC 7789 a mag 6.7 OC. This filled the center of the FOV of the 22N. view was pleasing in the 12 as well. NGC 7790 and 7788 fit in the FOV of the 22 Nagler. So I broke out the 12. 7790 is mag 8.5 and elongated. it looked denser in the left of the field and more sparse to the right. View in the 9 was prefered to the 12 which in turn was prefered to the 22. 7788 consisted of about 15 dim stars surrounded by 7 brighter ones - 4 of those arranged as a box. View in the 9 was preferred to the 12. IC 129 is a mag 6.5 OC with a "wedge" shape. It "points" to a mag 5,0 star. Preferred less power with this, I favored the 12N over the 9. NGC 225 is a large mag 7.0 OC. This consists of bright stars of uniform magnitude. Viewed with 22N. Would prefer 31N but my truss poles are too long to focus. NGC 457 is another big OC. It is near Phi Casseopia so it was easy to find with the telrad. There is a red star in this group. The OC is mag 6.4. Viewed with 22N because of its size. NCG 436. I started at 457 and followed the "long axis" of the cluster as an arrow and moved (away from phi cass) in that direction about on to 1.5 EP fields to find 436. 3 bright stars in a line mark the south end of this mag 8.8 cluster. Smaller then 457. Preferred view in 12N to that in the 22. NGC 559 is a mag 9.5 cluster. Faint and compact. Found with the 22N and viewed in the 12. In the 12 it looks like 2 parallel curving chains of stars (can curves be parallel?). Ngc 637 is a mag 8.7 cluster. The brighter stars are curved and look like a scorpion with its tail raised and ready to strike (ok its getting late). Viewed with 12. NGC 663 is a large, rich, mag 7.1 OC. Viewed with the 22N. Now you must understand that Jeff had converted the STV from imager to guide scope and was trying to photograph. But he could not bring the STV into focus. (lens was at the wrong end of the tube - directions were backwards?) Anyway periodically he'd sing out for assistance and I'd go visit and was always of no help. The moon had set and the sky was dark. Jeff called out for me to come over again. This is a rough transcript:
Jeff: Rodger could you come over I had seen the northern lights once before. Now i can say that i have SEEN the northern lights. WOW! The base was green; the upper 50-80% was red (it varied). Horizontal extent was about 60(+) degrees. Vertical extent varried from 10-50 degrees. When the red vanished there were green and greenish white vertical columns which rose up into the sky like search lights. The red light came and went and varied in intensity. The green light was more or less always present but varied in location, extent and intensity. Amazing. I've never seen such a display in Southern Ohio. The event lasted for about 10- 15 min. For the first 5 Jeff and I stared - slack jawed. I tried looking with the 20" and 80mm but was disappointed. Jeff tried to shoot a few photos with a tripod mounted camera. I just stood and watched. Amazing. After this it was hard to go back to viewing. I kept stopping to see if it would happen again. I visited M57, pretty. Then M56, looks like M13 in a C8 (ok, that’s Ed Ting's line). Preferred 12N to 22 for both. NGC 6826 the "blinking planetary" doesn't blink with the 20" That effect is better in a 10" scope. I tried to get back to my observing program. Clouds began to roll in. I found it hard not to stare at the northern sky ... waiting. NGC 7139 is a mag 13.3 PN in Cehpeus. This is dim. I regionalized with the telrad, found it with a 22N outfitted with an OIII filter. I observed with a 12N and a UHC filter. It is dim but seems to have some elongation with averted vision. This was the challenge object (for me) of the evening. The Dumbbell was much brighter. In the 12N with UHC it looks like 2 spheres with a surrounding ellipical ring. Ah, Saturn. It was past bed time so I ended the evening with Saturn (my “fav” solar system object). I preferred the views in the 9N over the 7 (too much magnification for the atmosphere) or 12. The 5" AP through up respectable (ok very very nice - though dimmer) views at 200x. This was a night of steady skys for around here. We tore down and headed home invigorated by the celestial fireworks. Dark Skys Rule.
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