Lake Sonoma 9-3-08

Greg LaFlamme

I met with Steve Gottlieb and Bob Douglas, the man with two first names:) at Fitch Mountain Eddy's restaurant in Healdsburg for a pre-observing dinner. Great burger by the way, I'll be going back again. I brought my 12.5 grab and go instead of the 15", knowing it would be a short night. I had to shuffle my Thursday morning jobs around a bit to provide more time for sleep recovery and I wanted to make sure I was home by 3:00 at the latest.

The night started off surprisingly steady. Steve mentioned Venus, Mercury and Mars being above the horizon after sunset so I carried the little 12.5" ultralight up to a higher point in the parking lot and we took in all three planets, scraping them off the tree-tops while kneeling in the dirt. Mars and Mercury could be seen naked eye but only in short bursts and only if you averted vision was in the right place at the right time. Macho-astronomy, just the way I like it! Jupiter was very detailed in my 12.5" @318x showing two dark storm tops in the N. equatorial belt and festoons in both belts! AS if to add to the fun, there was a greenish-tan color covering the S. 1/3rd of the gassy-giant. Both Steve and Bob took a look. Soon after spying through my scope, Steve pointed his 18" light-hog at the frightened planet and detail was astounding! Flat killed my planet killer:-/ The big Zambuto strikes again! I woulda got away with it to if it wasn't for that meddling Starmaster... errrrr

With a bountiful spiral structure overhead, the squirrel reported 21.21 early on then progressed to 21.31 around 10 or so. 21.41 was had in the West so this was a perty darn good night although not as zodiacal as other visits I've had to Lone rock. While Bob imaged through his 18" Starmaster, we set up our charts and log sheets. I barely got into my lists before Steve was pulling in the faint and mysterious. First off was a little planetary almost in the same field as Jupiter. PPA J1855-2328, another MASH survey object (I'm getting to like those). I liked the view best unfiltered @450X. I shouldn't have even brought a scope along, just a chair, red light and my attention because next up was PHR J1911-1546 (the numbers don't mean too much to me either) these objects are so fresh that the I.D.s ( I think) are simply their respective positions. Anyway, my log says 2.5' soft dim oval, elongated 2/1 NNW-SSE and according to Steve, we are among the first people to see it visually!!

I logged 26 objects last night and 5 of them were provided by Steve including a fantastic view of NGC 7510, a small OC near Sharpless 2-157 a large HII region. I'd never seen Sh 2 157 before and in my modest scope with a 26 Nagler and OIII filter, it was a beautiful site! It showed as a huge dim but mottled oval with some annularity. Most impressive was the 1/2 degree long arc of light along the outer ? edge of the giant nebula. Kinda reminded me of the "dragons head" portion of the Veil. What a great area near M 52! NGC 7538 is another great nearby OC.. Wait, did I just say "great OC"? guess I did.

Ethos report:

I got to try out and spend time with Steve's 8mm Ethos and that was a real treat. My 12.5" has a focal RATIO of 5 and the darn thing was pretty sharp right to the edges without a Parracor. The extra usable f.o.v is much welcomed and provides a porthole into space! Eye relief was perfect for me and after folding back the eye-cup, I was right at home with it. No kidney beanning whatsoever. I use my 7 and 9mm Naglers almost exclusively and am very fond of the entire type 6 line for both their contrast and corrective nature. I was hoping that the 8mm Ethos could replace them both so I was eager to spend a 1/2 hour putting Steve's eyepiece through its paces. I slewed to the Deer lick group, hoping to use the faint member as a litmus test. With averted vision and little effort, the 8mm reeled it in. Steve even confirmed the find and seemed surprised at the edge sharpness it provided without a Parracor. I inserted my 9mm Nagler and the flea was gone! Replacing the 9mm with the 8mm brought it back again,,,Hmmm. I dropped in my 7mm and the flea was even easier to see than with the 8mm Ethos. So, after multiple tests with all three eyepieces it is this observers opinion that the increase in magnification and/or reduction in exit pupil was the key to seeing NGC 7336, not because the Ethos is superior in general. Having said that, I'll look to Astromart for a used one down the road because it is an outstanding eyepiece and handled the corners well.

Every scope seems to take to one specific eyepiece a bit warmer than others. In my 15", its the 7/9 Nag combo but in the 12.5" its the Tak LE 5. @ 318x, it provided the most detail in each of the dim dso's I observed ( I'm all in "Alvin" mode now:-). It beat out the barlowed 11 Nagler @ 289X but that may have been the magnification talking rather than the 10+ elements in the way... Again, hmmm.. Glad I kept that Tak, its a leftover from my APO days. A fast drive home was ruined by a "detour" through downtown San Rafael. The city is working on the freeway in the wee hours, killing my hopes of getting to bed on time. I think I hit the sheets around 3:30,, close enough..

Until the next new one! Galxies to do, nebula to see:-)

GML