Monitor Pass Monday nite

by George Malyj

Sheldon Berkowitz and I went up to Monitor Pass Monday for an all-night viewing session. Gorgeous transparency from dusk till dawn, not a cloud nor a contrail in the sky, and the air very dry (no dew nor frost on equipment or tent). Seeing was average due primarily to local turbulence caused by occasional 2-4 mph breezes, but overall a great night because of the close to mag 7 skies at zenith. There was only a minimal light dome to the north (Minden-Gardnerville-Carson City-Reno all in a line), but all other horizons superb. Equipment was 18" home-built dob with Pegasus primary and secondary, and Sheldon's 8" LX200 (which aided location of faint fuzzies residing in unfamiliar star-poor areas of the sky). Eyepieces used were 31mm Nagler (71x), 22mm Panoptic (100x), 12mm Nagler (183x), 8mm Radian (275x), and the 22mm Powermated to 500x (intermittent sighting of M57's central star, with the variable seeing not allowing it to hold for longer than a second or so). All eyepieces were used with a Paracorr.

Enjoyed kicking up to higher powers to study the mottling at the heart of NGC 253 and two dark lanes in M31, plus my most distinct views ever of Stephan's Quintet and several other faint galaxies, filamentous detail and dark lanes in the Flame Nebula (placing Zeta Ori just outside the field of view), M1 structure, M20 (irregular contours in the Trifid's dark lanes), high-power structure in the Eskimo planetary nebula, etc. The southerly NGC 55-247-300 crossing the meridian were still too low in the sky to pick up the kind of detail observed in NGC 253, but the contrasty skies allowed use of higher powers to darken the background further and reveal a greater extent for these galaxies than I'd seen before (they're huge!). With the 31 Nagler/O-III, the back-side full degree circle of nebulosity in M42 enclosing it's own "lagoon" was quite a spectacular sight. M16 appeared less an eagle than it did a toadstool (the head being the stem and the wings being the over-matured cap of the mushroom), and the Swan trailed a large extent of fainter nebulosity both behind (the "feathers") and below the primary brighter structure. Spent several minutes transecting the >3-degree circle encompassed by the Veil Nebula to enjoy the multiple strands and filaments not normally visible from lower altitudes/light pollution-impacted skies. As if to herald the morning, an extremely bright white (perhaps mag -7), extremely fast fireball/bolide appeared about 5:00 a.m. streaking from NW to east, leaving about a 20-degree length trail that persisted for several seconds.

Temps that dropped to the mid-20s (my bottled water froze solid during the night) were the only detraction Monday night -- glad we brought lots of winter gear. As we were packing up, a fellow who had garnered a deer tag in this year's lottery drove up to say hello. He was scoping out the area for the start of deer season on the 28th. Suggested that there will be "crazies" in the Monitor Pass areas closest to State Route 89, so he himself was going to hike further into the backcountry. Hmmm... I don't know how long deer season lasts, but between that and even cooler temps pending, I think best to wait till next June or July for a return trip to Monitor Pass.