Fremont Peak Sunday night

by Rob Hawley

Clouds were wafting past the peak when I arrived Sunday about 6:30 PM. Jeff Crilly had just arrived also. With the wind and intermittent clouds it looked like it like it was going to be a short night. But by the time I returned from paying the park fees the sky had cleared and the wind died down.

The skies were a deep blue signifying dry air, but the clouds decided to take one last shot at us. About 9 PM clouds filled the valley south of the peak. By 9:30 the tops had risen so that we were about 10 feet into the cloud. After a few moments the clouds retreated. This was repeated a few times and then the clouds retreated for the rest of the night.

Thanks to the weather I had not had an opportunity to really test my new Plettstone scope against the targets I was interested in – faint galaxy groups. Sunday proved to be the night where the optics and stable view afforded by the clock drive proved their mettle.

My goal was a series of Hickson groups listed in a target list furnished with SkyMap Pro. The scope proved it was up to the challenge. As others have predicted I am now spending time actually looking at objects

Object        Magnify       Notes     
9P Tempel     136x   very dim and indistinct in thin fog 

UGC 7190      136x   averted vision more observable when scope moving in thin fog



Trio 37       136x   
NGC 5985      136x  definite ns elongation with ew width easy 

NGC 5982      136x  easy no definite shape 

NGC 5981      136x not obvious at first not quite inverted vision very thin




Hickson 61    136x   
NGC 4175      136x small but medium brightness no definite shape in thin fog 

NGC 4173      136x wide and long se nw dim averted vision in thin fog 

NGC 4169      136x concentrated really bright first object in group seen no def shape in thin fog 



Hickson 58    136x   

NGC 3825      191x distinct  10mm radium

NGC 3825      136x dim  
NGC 3822      191x easy has size maybe not circular  
NGC 3819      191x not distinct  
NGC 3817      136x dim not distinct no shape 



Hickson 79     136x def challenging first discovered moving field when you stare at it with averted vision you can start to split 6027  
NGC 6027E      136x see hick 79  
NGC 6027A      136x see hick 79  

Then I moved on to some Planetaries

NGC 7076       136x dim even with o3 filter  

NGC 6742       136x still pretty dim with o3 

NGC 6742       136x weakly vis without filter

I also did some assorted eye candy. In all it was a good night

Posted on sf-bay-tac May 31, 2005 12:19:03 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 20, 2005 14:12:52 PT