LSA Weekend

or
Fun with Rays Photo

by Phil Chambers


I am not usually organized enough to write an observing report but:

Someone posted the Lat and Long for LSA so I set my GPS on the dash and "sure enough" the published numbers were within a couple of hundred yards. (this was before they shut off the dithering.) LSA turns out to be 126 mi from my house straight line and 150mi by road. It took almost exactly 2 1/2 hours to drive it. (Incidentally, my Suburban averaged 14mpg for the entire trip including idling along the lakeshore on Sat).

Ray Gralak took that GO DEEP picture and posted it with everything marked. With a tool like that in hand I decided to see what my C11 (and I) could do with it on the first night.

At LSA, print in hand, C11 at attention (with perhaps the best random polar alignment I have seen - i.e. I didnt put much effort into it but had to adjust the Lat adj so I did sight on Polaris), I dove into the area. Yes, I cheated to find the field with the NGCMax looking for M84.

With M84, M86 and NGC4388 in the field of view (reversed to the photo, of course), I started hunting with a .63 RC on the C11 and a 30mm ultima plossl for about 59X and slightly over 1 deg fov. I occasionally switched to a 17mm plossl for 104X. The 30mm and the RC are not a good combo. Nice wide field of view but only the central 50% or so is free from aberrations. Stars around the edges look like the gravitational lens effect on galaxies.

NGC 4387 was relatively easy at m13 in the center of the triangle.
NGC 4402 at 12.84 was also easy with direct vision. As was
NGC 4413 at 12.99
IC 3303 at 14.74

It turns out there is not much on that photo between mag 13 and 16 and I dont think my C11 (at least I) can get to 16. The sky in the vicinity did show a lot of mottling indicating objects just outside visibility.

I spent a fair amount of time looking at IC3303 at m14.74 and believe it was winking in and out with averted vision. I asked someone to look and they said they saw it also. I suspect that it is brighter than the published mag because the next night I was having lots of trouble getting over mag 14 and the seeing was better the second night.

I also had the N5 at LSA so I fired it up and went to M 84. With the 3 primary galaxies in the fov, I believe I saw NGC 4387 at mag 13. However, the next day I mentioned this to Mark and he doubted it as there is a star very close to the position. I was going to confirm it the second night but the evening was so good I never turned the N5 on. I am not claiming that one in the N5. The view was surprisingly bright in the little 5 inch. I could see a lot of mottling in the area from "somethings" beyond what was visible.

The second night was very dark and the seeing much steadier. On Fri the stars twinkled considerably but on Sat the light show was pretty much nonexistant.

During the day Mark W gave me an area to try around NGC4874. So that was one of the few organized things I did on Sat. The later hours, 1:30 to 3:30am were spent just scanning the Milky Way. I havent seen it like that since the late 50s in the Sacramento Valley. Ran into several named clusters including the Wild Duck which stood out like a sore thumb.

The area around 4874 was interesting as there were several galaxies that were on the limit of the C11.

Here are the ones I identified in the immediate vicinity just below star SAO 82595 m7.2. Magnitudes are from The Sky.

NGC4874 m11.9
NGC4889 m12.9
NGC4883 m14.3 (very difficult with averted vision)
NGC4906 m14.2 (much easier than 4883)
NGC4921 m12.1

Not being a confirmed (or experienced) galaxy hunter, at this point my eyes were watering and I went back to brighter objects like M104 which was a gorgeous sight with a definite dust lane.

Due to necessity, I did learn more about The Sky during this endevour. I used the DSCs to find the field and then just The Sky to identify the various galaxies.

All in all, LSA was a very pleasant experience. It was the best time of year in the foothills. Warm but not hot and green grass everywhere. As others have said, the overflow lot is off the beaten path some. I think there were only about 3 cars the entire weekend that meandered through the area. Mid summer would be a different story Im afraid, but there is some spring left..

I was surprised at the lack of bugs and mosquitos (although contrary to other reports there were a few (but very few)) and also surprised at the lack of wildlife (other than astronomers). Didnt see a deer or coyote or ... in the area. A few buzzards and some birds. It looked like snake country to me but didnt see any of those either.

Nice Place !!