I was invited to observe at a private observatory in Fiddletown, California on the weekend of September 19. The drive was fairly easy and I met friends at a Supermarket near the observatory. The final 20 miles was through beautiful foothill country. The observing area was large enough for about a dozen scopes, and the horizons were excellent. Seeing that evening was very steady and transparent, and darker than Fremont Peak, even on a 'good' night. The view of Saturn through Ray Cash's 17.5" dob with aperture mask was quite stunning.

I have been working on the Herschel 400 list with my 10.1" Coulter dob. I used 16.8 and 10.5 Megavista eyepieces, a telrad, and Lumicon DSC's. I used the DSC's less than half the time for acquiring the target objects. I had been having problems with the DSC's since our Lassen trip, but recently discovered I had made an error in the alignment process. In order for the DSC's to work accurately, you need to have the tube orthagonal (square) with the rocker box. I had only leveled the rocker box in one axis before attaching a "stop" for the tube. I needed to level the box in two axis before leveling the tube and attaching the stop. I figured this out a week or so ago, made the correctins, and enjoyed very accurate digital setting circles. I had warps (errors) of between 0 and .3 all night.

The Herschel 400 list is very attainable for scopes in the 10.1" range, although a few of the objects can be quite challenging. Ask Marsha Robinson about her quest for open clusters in Cygnus. :-) Marsha has made incredible strides with her star hopping skills and has amazing dedication in finding her targets.

If you have a mid-sized scope, you might enjoy the short comments I made on each object I observed.

Ah. One other item worth noting was 'first light' for Mark Wagner's 'new' scope. What a beauty! I'll let him tell you all about it. :-)

Richard

Fiddletown Observing list - September 19, 1998

NGC5198
Round galaxy with bright core.Other ID: UGC8499
Magnitude:12.8
Size (mins) 2.1 x 1.8
(DSC) Fairly faint, best in higher power eyepiece. Very near M51!

NGC 6834
Open cluster dense.
Constellation Cyg
Magnitude: 7.8
Size (mins) 5.0
Nice cluster, small, somewhat arrow shaped. 5 brighter stars in a chain with a faint dense group above them.

NGC 6882
Open cluster.
Constellation Vul
Magnitude: 8.1
Size (mins) 18.0
Wide, sparse group. One very bright star in field.

NGC 6866
Open cluster bright scattered.
Constellation Cyg
Magnitude: 7.6
Size (mins) 7.0
Very nice! Lots of chains of stars. Spellbinding.

Blinking Planetary
NGC 6826
Planetary nebula disc with central star.
Constellation Cyg
Magnitude:10.0
Size (mins) 2.3
An old favorite. What fun.

NGC 6823
Open cluster with nebulosity.
Constellation Vul
Magnitude: 7.1
Size (mins) 12.0
Cute, nothing special.

NGC7727
Round galaxy with bright core.Other ID: MCG-2-60-8
Magnitude:11.5
Size (mins) 4.6 x 3.5
Big, bright and round. Near a bright star. Pretty.

NGC7723
Round galaxy with bright core.Other ID: MCG-2-60-5
Magnitude:11.9
Size (mins) 3.4 x 2.3
Not as bright as 7723.

NGC7606
Elongated galaxy.Other ID: MCG-2-59-12
Magnitude:11.6
Size (mins) 5.3 x 2.1
Easy star hop. Slightly elongated.

NGC7600
Round galaxy.Other ID: MCG-1-59-19
Magnitude:12.9
Size (mins) 2.5 x 1.1
Tough! Dim, small and round.

Saturn Nebula
NGC 7009
Planetary nebula irregular.
Constellation Aqr
Magnitude: 8.0
Size (mins) 1.7
Interesting. Ansae faintly visible.

NGC7177
Elongated galaxy with bright core.Other ID: UGC11872
Magnitude:12.0
Size (mins) 3.1 x 2.0
Next to faint chain of four stars. Fairly bright.

NGC7217
Round galaxy with bright core.Other ID: UGC11914
Magnitude:11.1
Size (mins) 3.9 x 3.3
Very big and bright. Easy star hop.

NGC7331
Very elongated galaxy, dusty, bright core.Other ID: UGC12113
Magnitude:10.3
Size (mins) 10.6 x 3.8
Cool. Very big and bright. Re-visit this one!

NGC7339
Edge on galaxy.Other ID: UGC12122
Magnitude:13.1
Size (mins) 3.0 x 0.7
In the same field with 7332. Dim.

NGC7332
Edge on galaxy with bright core.Other ID: UGC12115
Magnitude:12.1
Size (mins) 4.0 x 1.1
Long, thin, needlelike. With NGC 7339.

NGC7479
Barred spiral galaxy structure.Other ID: UGC12343
Magnitude:11.5
Size (mins) 4.2 x 3.2
Large and bright. Very pretty. Bright star at edge of galaxy.

NGC7448
Elongated galaxy brightest in group.Other ID: UGC12294
Magnitude:12.1
Size (mins) 2.7 x 1.2
Another fine galaxy for a 10 inch scope. Another galaxy in the field?

NGC 7044
Open cluster rich.
Constellation Cyg
Magnitude:11.0
Faint, fuzzy, pretty!

NGC7606
Elongated galaxy.Other ID: MCG-2-59-12
Magnitude:11.6
Size (mins) 5.3 x 2.1
Another very easy star hop.