Date: Saturday, September 11/12, 2004
Time: 20:30 11 September 2004 - 02:00 12 September (PDT)
(12 Sept. 2004 3:30 - 9:00 UT)
Location: Henry Coe State Park; Gilroy, CA
Telescope: Orion XT10 Dobsonian
Eyepieces: 25 mm (50x), 12.5 mm (100x), 2x Barlow
Arrived at Henry Coe State Park at 20:00, a bit later than I wanted to be.
Planned to meet up with observing buddy from work, Bill Parkhurst. Since
I was running late, I expected Bill to have beat me to the overflow lot, but
it was me who made it there first. When I arrived there were already five
or six groups set up along the eastern edge of the lot. Bill arrived
shortly after I did and we set up our scopes, both Orion XT10 Dobs, next to
Craig Colvin. Craig already had his homemade 18” truss-tube Dob set up.
During dusk and the first couple of hours of darkness, there was a cool
breeze blowing acoss the lot from the west. There was also some thin,
cirrus-type cloudiness in the northwest after sunset. During the evening
there would be several small bands of thin clouds that moved through in a
general northwestern to southeastern track. Bill, Craig, and I chatted for
awhile waiting for astronomical twilight to kick in. About 20:40 the
evening’s observing commenced. Limiting visual magnitude, as estimated by
using Bill’s pocket map of Ursa Minor, was 5.6.
Objects Observed:
M11 (“Wild Duck Cluster”) - OC, mag. 5.8; Sct
I had observed M11 the night before from my driveway in San Jose. I used
M11 as a starting point to hop down to M26, which I also observed the
previous night.
M26 - OC, mag. 8.0; Sct
This open cluster was unimpressive from my driveway, so I wanted to see what
it looked like from darker skies. Less light pollution did not do much as
far as improving my first impression of this open cluster.
M72 - GC, mag. 9.3; Aqr
This globular was a “did not find” from home the night before. In the
darker skies of Henry Coe, I was able to see this faint globular cluster.
The “Night Sky Observer’s Guide” says that the components of the globular
are magnitude 15. This obviously contributed to the poor showing for this
object.
M73 - OC, mag. 9.0; Aqr
I thought this was a “did not find” from home previously since it was so
sparse. As with M72, I decided to check the view from darker skies. The
definition of “open cluster” is a real stretch for this object. It’s
nothing more than a grouping of three or four faint stars around 11th
magnitude. I guess compared to M40, a pair of 9th magnitude stars, this
Messier object is easier to regard as a “cluster”.
NGC 7009 (“Saturn Nebula”) - PN, mag. 8.3; Aqr
This planetary has the characteristic blue-green color to it. Bill had told
me that it was hard to detect and oval shape when he observed it from his
house previously. From a darker site and with higher magnification (12.5 mm
Plossl with 2X Barlow; 200x), the elongated, oval shape of this planetary
nebula was clearly visible.
As I was hunting the previous three objects which Bill had seen recently, he
was on a mission to find the North American Nebula (NGC 7000). We had
talked to Craig Colvin about his viewing experience with this elusive
object. Craig was generous enough to lend Bill an O-III filter and his 35mm
Panoptic eyepiece to use for the hunt. We were unsuccessful hunting down
the nebula with Bill's scope.
M30 - GC, mag. 7.3; Cap
Another good object that was bagged. Attractive globular cluster which
was a nice find after some of the previous unimpressive objects.
NGC 6543 (“Cat’s Eye Nebula”) - PN, mag. 8.8; Dra
Craig called Bill and I over to take a look at the Cat’s Eye through his 18”
Dob. The view was great at a bit more than 400x. You could make out the
disk of the planetary nebula as well as an obvious star at the core.
Inspired by the view in the big Dob, Bill and I went back to our XT10s to
track down the Cat’s Eye on our own. We were able to find it without too
much trouble. At low power (50x) in my 25mm Plossl it had a very obvious
blue-green color. Higher magnification improved the view very slightly, but
the view though a 10” Dob was nothing compared to the view Craig offered us
with his 18” scope.
Around 23:50 PT, after looking at the Cat’s Eye Nebula, I stumbled upon a
blinking geosynchronous (?) satellite. Where’s Dan Wright when you need
him? The satellite was flashing, sometimes bright and sometimes faint,
while remaining centered in the FOV with no tracking used on the telescope.
Craig consulted his laptop and determined that we were pointing at a star
field containing the star 36 Draconis. Both Craig and Bill were able to
point their scopes to the object and view it as well. After studying the
satellite for close to 30 minutes, we noticed some movement since it
wouldn’t stay centered in the FOV as it had earlier. There was some
speculation by Bill that we could be looking at some American or Russian spy
or communications satellite in a Molniya orbit.
[NOTE: Subsequent E-mail correspondence with someone on the “starrynights”
Yahoo Group determined that we were seeing a Russian communications
satellite, MOLNIYA 3-43, launched in 1992.]
M31 (“Andromeda Galaxy”) - GX, mag. 4.4; And
The “Mother of all Galaxies” was visible naked eye and an easy find along
with its companion galaxies. I kept the view low power (25mm Plossl at
50x).
M32 - GX, mag. 8.0; And
Very bright and conspicuous companion to M31. Round shape and easy to see.
M110 - GX, mag. 8.8; And
A fainter, and a bit harder to find companion to M31 since it does not pop
right out at you. Nice view though with 25mm eyepiece.
M74 - GX, mag. 9.4; Psc
A ‘faint fuzzy” in an easy-to-find field, just southeast of mag 3.6 Eta
Piscium. This object is a face-on spiral galaxy, but no structure could be
seen at 50x magnification.
M33 (“Pinwheel Galaxy”) - GX, mag. 5.7; Tri
This galaxy wasn’t too hard to locate. It is in the same Finder field as
the 3.6 magnitude star Alph Trianguli. No detail seen at low power using
both the 25mm Plossl (50x) and the 12.5mm Plossl (100x) eyepieces.
NGC 6819 (“Fox Head Cluster”) - OC, mag. 7.3; Cyg
A nice object that was fairly easy to find using a Telrad to judge where to
point the scope as a starting point. This open cluster gets its name from
the two V-shaped ears that jut out from one end of the star cluster.
Closest analogy is something like the Napster logo.
NGC 6960 (“Veil Nebula”) - SNR, Cyg
Once again Craig’s borrowed O-III filter came in handy on this one. Bill
tracked it down and followed the wispy remnants on two sides of the broken
bubble of material from an exploded star that comprises this nebula. I just
got to mooch the view in his scope on this one since there was only Craig’s
borrowed filter for one of us to use.
NGC 6826 (“Blinking Planetary”) - PN, mag. 8.9; Cyg
Another target hunted down and bagged by Bill. I just got to mooch views
again. The alternated use of averted and direct vision causes this
planetary to “blink” in and out of the field. Cool object.
NGC 457 (“ET Cluster”) - OC, mag. 6.4; Cas
Always a favorite that I like to visit. The orientation on Cassiopeia in
the Autumn and Winter make the “ET” figure appear right side up in the Dob's
reveresed FOV. Magnitude 4.93 Phi Cas is easily found in the same Finder
field of view as 2.65 magnitude Delta Cas. This is always a big hit at
public star parties. First shown to me by Mark Wagner at Houge Park a
couple of years ago.
M45 (Pleiades) - OC, mag. 1.2; Tau
No comment needed here. Possibly the most well known open star cluster in
the sky. It’s rising in the eastern sky near Midnight serves notice that
the star patterns of Winter are about to push their way up into the sky.
Sometime after Midnight the wind kicked up a bit. I ended up with three
layers of clothes to keep warm - a wind breaker, then sweat shirt over that,
and finally a jacket.
M75 - GC, mag. 8.5; Sgr
Watch out. Bill was on another mission. He was bound and determined to
track down this globular cluster even though Sagittarius was sinking into
the SW horizon. It would have been better to hunt this one down earlier in
the evening when Sgr was higher up in the sky. It took awhile, but Bill
bagged it and I mooched another view. Turned out to be a nice globular
cluster. A bit faint because of its low elevation at the time.
M37 - OC, mag. 5.6; Aur
While Bill was struggling in the SW with the fading Summer constellation of
Sagittarius, I took advantage of the rising Winter patterns in the NE. I
decided to go for some easier stuff as it was well after Midnight and I was
getting a bit tired. M37 is one of the objects that gives a “good name” to
the often maligned class of “open clusters”. This is a nice, rich
collection of stars worthy of the “oohs and ahhs” it generates at public
star parties.
M36 - OC, mag. 6.0; Aur
Not as rich a cluster as its neighboring open cluster to the south. M36 is a
“middle of the road” asthetically pleasing open cluster. It’s better to
look at this object before looking at M37 instead of the other way around.
It can act as the “appetizer” for the “main couse” view of M37. Bill was at
the brink of finally finding M75, so he didn’t have much interest in
stopping to see an unimpressive open cluster. I told him the view of M36
was much better than M26 at the start of the evening, which is an
understatement. Bill just ignored me and continued his quest for M75 which
was about to pay off.
M76 (“Little Dumbbell Nebula”) - PN, mag. 10.1; Per
This was a pretty easy field to hunt down this faint fuzzy. The planetary
nebula apeared as a faint smudge in the eyepiece. It was easier to see if
you jiggled the scope a bit.
M1 (“Crab Nebula”) - SNR, mag. 6.0; Tau
Not too hard to find, north of Zeta Tauri. A faint, gray smudge that was
obvious when jiggling the scope a bit.
NGC 1647 - OC, mag. 8.6; Tau
Easy to find by hopping west of Aldebaran. This open cluster is a loose
collection of about 50 stars. It was an OK view through the 25mm Plossl to
end the evening.
The time was now 0200 and there was a wider band of clouds headed our way
from the west. We had a winding, 20 minute drive down the hill to get back
on Hwy 101 North so we packed up and called it a night. Craig wasn’t too
far behind us. I was home, unpacked, and in bed by 0330 after a productive
night. If only my daughter didn’t have to be at a soccer game by 8:30, I
could have had more than four hours of sleep.
Received on Mon Sep 13 20:16:26 2004