Observing Report 10/21/06 Fremont Peak

by Jay Critchfield

After dropping the kids off with grandma for the night we headed out for Freemont Peak about 3:30pm. Traffic moved along at a good pace and we arrived in San Juan Batista 50 minutes later. By 4:45 we were at the FPOA area. The day was warm with clear skies and no sign of anything weather forming. We walked up to the iron ranger to pay our way for the night. The park bristled with hikers and campers. A few scopes were setting up at Coulter but no scopes were at the south west lot yet. Cars were continuing to arrive and it looked as though the Peak was going to be busy tonight.

Back at Ranger Row we had a nice dinner while enjoying the late afternoon as we waited for darkness. A few scopes were already set up on the pads near the observatory. Ron Dammonn and another observer came by to investigate who we were. We had just sent in our membership to the FPOA earlier in the week and somewhere in the process communication had broken down. Ron gave us a mild grilling and made sure we knew the proper procedure for notifying them of our intent.

Jamie Dillon showed up sometime after 5pm and Peter Natscher arrived a little later. We setup near the bathrooms by the fence. Jane with the 8" sct and me with the 12.5" f/6 ultra-light dob.

It turned out to be a magnificent night all around. The temps stayed in the low 60s all night with little humidity. Even at 4am I was very comfortable in a light sweatshirt. The observatory was very busy and it seemed like there was an endless stream of people moving to and from. Being setup where we were many people stopped to talk and mooch some views. At one point I was over talking to Jamie when I noticed a group of people helping themselves to my scope. Yikes! No harm done but it was a bit unsettling.

The sky started out good with a slight haze to the south on the horizon but it only got better with each passing hour. Everything looked great in the eyepiece. By 11pm the observatory had settled down and we got down to some serious observing. Tonight I started my Messier list.

Items logged: 12.5" f/6 ultra-light dob, 22mm, 17mm, 13mm & 8mm Lanthums

M13 Her Large, extremely bright core, round in shape. An amazing fireball of light radiating starts from its core.

M92 Her A very nice globular cluster. Not nearly as tight as M13 but with a respectable central knot of stars. Another GC that gives the sensation of motion. Like chasing a bright light though a show shower.

M57 Lyr Condition were good, edges of nebula were well resolved, bright, also viewed at 112x and 147x. Well defined ring of smoke with a hint of nebulosity. Good surface brightness. (I forgot to look for the central star. Grrrr).

M56 Lyr Small globular cluster, not as bright as others, lacks tight central core, averted vision helped to bring out more detail. . Visible in the 9x50 finder as a small knot of stars. Note the bright star off to one side.

M27 Vul A favorite, looks more like an apple core, bright tonight, good definition, also viewed at 147x

M29 Cyg A small open cluster. The handful of bright central stars makes an interesting asterism. Visible in the 9x50 finder as a small knot of stars.

M71 Sge Medium concentration of stars. Faint, unresolved core, almost lost in the Milky Way, also viewed at 112x

M2 Aqr Nice medium sized snowball of stars, dense core, not quite round. Looks like a fuzzy star in the 9x50 finder.

M30 Cap Medium size, pretty bright central core, somewhat irregular in shape, gives the sensation of stars spilling out, also viewed at 112x

M72 Aqr Another small globular cluster with a loose concentration of starts toward the center. Not very bright, adverted vision helped resolve more stars.

M73 Aqr I found it, Small asterism, not what I would consider a cluster, not sure how it was mistaken for a nebula, 4 prominent stars with 3 of them being brighter than the 4th. 2's a crowd, 3's a party, 4's a cluster? also viewed at 112x

M39 Cyg Dropped my bloody pen and now it won't write grrrrrr, about 14 prominent stars surrounded by about as many more, no concentration of stars. Easily seen in the 9x50 finder.

M74 Psc Dim, visible core, round in shape, I'd guess around 11' to 12' in size, able to resolve some arm structure with adverted vision

M77 Cet Appeared small, not quite round, bright with bright central core

M33 Tri Very nice, very large face on galaxy. Elliptical in shape. Bright core with two distinct arms though the overall surface brightness was low. There is an interesting line of stars radiating from the central core but not within the visible arms.

M31 And Naked eye monster galaxy. Very impressive in the 9x50 finder. First shown to me on 10/16/06 by Albert Highe in his 10" travel scope w/24mm Panoptic

M32 And Small (as compared to M31) elliptical galaxy that would be impressive on its own but over shadowed by M31. Still very bright despite its companion. Reminds me of a pilot fish accompanying a large shark in the open sea.

M110 And Bright though featureless elongated galaxy except for the bright central area. Larger than M32. More magnification might reveal more detail.

M42 Ori This is my favorite object. We were totally blown away the first time we saw M42 this last winter in the 8" SCT. Tonight is even more exceptional in the 12.5" dob with almost perfect conditions. Boiling clouds of green/grey gas and dark fissures were easily distinguished. While photos of M42 are impressive the view through the eyepiece is so much more personal and rewarding. The shear size of this object is almost unreal. The intensity and detail were so strong tonight I never thought to try a filter. The outer arms seemed to stretch forever finally curling back toward each other until they almost touched. The trapezium cluster shown brilliantly casting a wonderful glow amongst the surrounding veils of gas. Jamie Dillon shared with me this is one of the youngest clusters with new stars still forming. I had easily resolved 4 stars but Jamie told me there were 6 which he showed me in his 11" dob. I'm not sure what the magnification was. The two upper stars appeared as close doubles. I swear there was a fainter object between the two lower stars but I did not explore it any further tonight. (After some research what I saw was a dark area between the stars. The light from the adjacent stars reflected on the surrounding gases creating an illusion of a faint circular object).

M43 Ori A wonderful extension of M42. Most notable is the intense dark lane separating it from M42 contrasted by the luminescence of the bright star towards the center.

M45 Tau Nice view through the 9x50 finder, some visible nebulosity at 87x

M34 Per Very large loose cluster, 50 plus stars. Most notable items are what appears to be pairs of stars. Not sure if any of these are considered doubles.

M76 Per Pretty much a small dim smudge of light though it was just visible in the 9x50 finder if you knew where to look. Uniform in brightness with a hint of the dumbbell shape at 87x. Adverted vision seemed to enhance the lobes. More defined at 147x.

M37 Aur Large open cluster but dense. Hundreds of stars that appeared to be of equal magnitude. One unusually reddish star in the very center of the cluster.

M36 Aur Smaller than M37 and M38 though the stars appeared to be brighter, maybe due the apparent size.

M38 Aur Large open cluster though not as dense as M37. A reddish star in the middle of the cluster though not as bright as the one in M37. M1 Tau Faint nebula with an oval shape. Well defined shape but no structure at 87x. Brighter toward the center with fading out to the edges. At 149x and an OIII filter there may have been a hint of structure with adverted vision but I can't be certain. Not sure if more magnification would have helped.

M35 Gem Huge open cluster, Naked eye, looked good in the 9x50 finder. The large variation in magnitude of the stars gives the sensation the stars are exploding out towards you.

M44 Cnc A wonderful open cluster. Caught this one naked eye as it rose in the east. Doubles?

M52 Cas Nice open cluster with a tight grouping of stars. Many faint stars with 1 bright star that stands out from the rest. Easily visible in the 9x50 finder. There are several dark areas void of starts to the south of the bright star. There appeared to be a smaller cluster nearby. M103 Cas Small open cluster. Five prominent stars form a triangle with faint stars intermixed. One of the central stars appears orange-ish in color. After placing the Telrad in the approximate area of M103 I immediately saw a large cluster of stars in the finder. Assuming it was M103 I began to nudge the crosshairs toward it when I noticed a smaller cluster to the north and then another small cluster to the south. These were not the chart I had printed. A quick look at my Pocket Atlas confirmed there were not only 3 but 4 clusters in the same area. I was surprised to see that the larger cluster was not M103 but ngc663. How on earth did M103 get into Messier's catalogue with 663 so close by? (After a little research, Messier had included M103 along with M101 & M102, based on a report by Pierre Mechian, without actually observing them himself before publication!)

M108 UMa Relatively small in size, bright across the center core with faded edges. A hint of a structure through center with some dark areas. Not quite edge on

M97 UMa Near M108. Distinct bright round nebula. At 87x there was jus a hint of darkening in the middle with adverted vision. At 147x the dark central area was more prominent but I didn't see the "owl". I'll try a filter next time with more magnification.

M109 UMa Faint, just rising, obscured by valley lights. Will revisit another time.

M81 UMa Quite large, very bright surface, elongated galaxy with a bright central core fading out to the edges. Unable to make out any structure.

M82 UMa Large, cigar shaped galaxy with bright surface. Bright mottling along the entire central area with fading to the edges. There is a slight dark area through the middle, almost as if there was a small gap between 2 halves.

M50 Mon Nice large open cluster with many bright stars. Rich field of stars to one side of the cluster.

M46 Pup Very large impressive cluster with hundreds stars of varying magnitude scattered more or less evenly across the area. The highlight being the "mini-me" of M57, NGC 2438, very cool!

M47 Pup Similar in sized to M46 with about half as many stars. A dozen or so brighter stars spread over the area with a small grouping toward the center.

Jane crawled into the back of the truck around 2 or so. Peter was the first to leave, around 2 or 2:30am I think. Jamie followed around 3:30am. I logged my last object for the night a little after 4am. Sirius was standing proud above the horizon, rock steady in the early morning sky. I swung the dob around for a quick look before turning in. It was so intense I could barely look at it but there was not a hint of a shimmer that could be seen. By 4:30am my feet had had enough. Off to catch a few ZZs