What a Great Anniversary!

I awoke Saturday morning to a bright sky and warm temps. It was a beautiful day! After breakfast I got together with Garry and soon Bob joined us and we talked about our observations the night before. We also discussed the unfortunate shooting incident at the lower camp ground on Thursday and people parked near him that wanted to play "chicken" with his scope Thursday night. Hopefully when the gates go up, some of these problems will go away.

I laid around the rest of the day going over my star charts and reading Burnhams trying to get ready for the coming evening. Every time I pick up a volume of the Celestial Handbook I can’t be help thinking about tragedy of Burnham’s death. To think that an observer as talented and skilled as he, would die homeless on the streets of San Diego is beyond understanding! Having just recently purchased this three volume set I realize now that these should have been the first books that I, as a beginning astronomer, should own. But better late than never.

As afternoon turn to early evening I strolled over to the Fremont Peak Observatory where the 30" scope was undergoing some upgrades, several new focusers were installed.

Jane Houston was setting up her scopes near the 30 incher as was Rich with his 7" APO refractor. We laughed and talked and generally had a good time. I told Rich about how good the Planets were the night before. His eyes rolled back in anticipation.

I had a great view of the Sun through a scope equipped with a H-Alpha filter, there were Prominences all around the disk three of them were exceptional. I had with me, the ETX and a white light solar filter that I setup near the picnic tables, after getting the Sun in view I was rewarded with a large number of sunspots. Very interesting structure to them, very large.

The Star B Q attracted a large number of people and a large amount of food was on display, that is until the large number of people dive into all of the great looking dishes.

The way it is supposed to work is that you bring a food dish to share with the gathered masses, and the meat and drinks are provided. I had made a really good potato salad for the affair, it must have been good because by the time I got my burger and hot dog and went to the bowl to get some, it was in was empty! Jane made a big batch of her famous "Dobsonian" cookies.

I was surprised at how many of these folks I never see observing at the Peak the rest of the year!

As evening approached, I made my way back to my scope to get ready for the celestial wonders that nightfall would bring. I had been away from camp about 2 ½ hours, and when I had left there were just a few more scope in the area than there was the night before.

Upon my return from the picnic, there were scopes everywhere! Cars and trucks battling for space, it was a madhouse! I was certainly glad I had staked out my spot well in advance of this crush.

Again a crowd gathered on the ridge to watch the Sunset and to see if there would be a green flash. I had my binoculars on this occasion, and as the Sun faded out of view, I did notice two small green illuminations slightly offset and separated by perhaps 20 sec. of Arc. No one else saw anything, I was the only one with binos.

As darkness started to fall I looked up from my charts to see that family from Texas! They had come back up the mountain for another look at what turned out be very good skies.

I was truly shocked when they walk up and presented me with a gift! They had picked up a T-shirt for me as a way of thanking me for what they described as, "the most wonderful views of the night sky they had ever seen." As they moved off to look at some of the other scope that had sprouted up during the early evening, I was left with a warm feeling inside knowing that I had turned a whole family on the wonders of the night.

Because of the large number of scopes gathered around I was not overwhelmed by request from strangers, so I was able to get at least some of the program I had planned completed.

I started in the constellation Scutum NGC 6683, M 11, M 26, NGC 6664 and NGC 6704 a rich open cluster. This is a very interesting cluster in that the stars within it seem to form a concentric pattern, the deeper you go in the dimmer the stars, until you reach the center where you are greeted by a bright star. Looking at this object for a while give one the impression of falling down a hole or tunnel with a bright light at the end, very nice.

IC 4665 in Ophiuchus is a bright OC mag. 4.0 very spread out, also in Ophiuchus M10 , M12 a nice pair of globulars that resolved very nicely. I could also detect a lot of granularity in M14.

NGC 6954 and 7006 in Delphinus also showed lots of granularity, and then I stumbled across a faint 12th mag. Galaxy IC 5006 I Aquila, I think this is the faintest object I have yet seen in the 8" since I have been coming to the Peak.

In Aquarius M2 was lovely and M72 seemed more faint than it should, I had seen some granularity in this object in the past but for some reason, not tonight. I also search in vain for the Saturn Nebulae, I thought this should be an easy target in my scope, but no luck.

Time seemed to pass quickly for Jupiter was now high in the sky. The transparency and seeing conditions were very good, and Big Old Jove did not disappoint! Of course after one look at this bright creature, any hope of seeing faint fuzzies is out the window! But the view was so impressive I did not care!

Most of my Jupiter observations were done at 242x, a barlowed 12mm WA eyepiece. I was able to go as high 378x, with a barlowed 7.5mm EP. The detail was absolutely fantastic! The Great "Pink" Spot was clearly visible, I was able to watch it during the entire transit of Jupiter’s disk! Many festoons were observed as well as large barges on either side of the GRS. I was able to count 9 bands. The southern zone was the most interesting. One of Jupiter’s moons, I think it was Callisto, grazed the southern pole of Jupiter. This was a remarkable sight. I alerted all within ear shot of what I was seeing and had one observer tell me that, what I was seeing was a background star! I could plainly see that what I was looking at was the disk of a moon, so I invited him over from his 13" scope and gave him a view through a REAL telescope. After looking through my 8" he went back to his scope saying that his scope must be out of collumation!

On to Saturn.

By the time I finished with Jupiter, Saturn was well placed for viewing, after letting a few newcomers that a look, I settled down for some serious viewing myself.

Using the same EP Barlow combination Saturn revealed 3 bands across the disk, but it was the rings that grabbed me! Cassini looked like a one lane Black Top! And for the first time I was able to see the C Ring! At first I thought it was just my imagination, but after many minutes at the eyepiece I was convinced of what I was seeing. So I invited another observer to confirm my observation, which he did. This was truly a wonderful night, one that I will remember for along time.

It was now 3:30 am, and I started yawning, but then remembered that I had promised Orion the night before that I would stay out and play tonight. Orion was still below the trees, so I grabbed my binoculars and roamed the star clouds in the Milky Way. I caught a view of the Vail and the North American Nebulae, many Open Clusters. Binocular views of the heavens are great, but I always have trouble holding them steady, so now I am thinking of making some type of mount for them.

By the time I put down the Binos, Orion was well above the trees, and it was still dark! The first target of course was M42! With the 26mm EP and the UHC filter M42 was magnificent, even without the filter it was magnificent! I switched to the 32mm EP to get as wide a view as I could and the detail was mind blowing. The Nebulae took on the appearance of a Bat, with the Trapezium as the head and outstretched wings on either side. In the "wings" dark streaks were seen and gave the impression of veins, the view seemed almost 3D like, truly awesome.

I then went to high power. With a 10mm eyepiece I was able to see six stars in the Trapezium! Absolutely, six stars, I had been able to see 5 star there back in February using averted vision, but this was 6 stars directly! I played around in Orion a little while longer splitting close double stars, there are some really nice ones in Orion, I ended the night trying for the Horsehead without luck, so I covered my toys and headed for the tent saying thanks to Orion as I went.

As I lay in my sleeping bag with Orion still beckoning, I fell asleep thinking, "Damn, this was a great anniversary!"