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by Jane Houston
Some of us have been quiet because, you know, it's a new moon, and we, um, were looking at that other stuff. But on this past Friday and Saturday night I had great nights at Fremont Peak State Park in Central California using both the 30 inch Challenger Telescope and through my own 12.5 and 17.5 LITEBOX reflector travelscopes.
Friday night, June 11, some of us had some dessert. We took some time to study an orange ball of partially melted Mars sherbet, a half scoop of Venus, a gorgeous muddy pie ancient inland sea transformed into a California valley on planet Earth. (Jay Freeman and 14 inch Harvey showed the cold and tiny speck of Pluto, too) Bill Arnett's new superb mirror, which he ground himself, was offering us some incredible sights. Akkana' Peck's new binoviewer was garnering oohh's and aahh's, but I couldn't make the two images merge. But everyone else reported awesome views. It wasn't the best of planet nights, so all 6 of us looked at that other stuff. I had a great couple hours both nights looking at the knotty bits of the Veil Nebula through my new OIII filter, purchased at RTMC for $50.00.
Saturday night at the same observing site during the public program at the observatory, after a slide show for about 25 campers and wandering astronomers, we added an icy cone shaped Comet Lee, and the supernova in M88 to our feast before a temporary sucker hole laden observing hour interrupted our Planetfest. The short attention span or sleepy or easily discouraged left in droves, but heck, astronomical twilight was not even over! We waved and smirked as the cars drove away. BCNU, I thought to myself to each car..
A leisurely walk through the three telescope fields yielded 20 telescopes at one location, and another 20, including one of the RTMC winning reflectors, which we dubbed the Banjo scope down at Riverside a few weekends ago. We had 6 scopes set up at the observatory, from the mighty 30 inch Challenger to a small but lovely Questar. The RTMC winner was set up near what we call Coulter Row. Coulter Pines, with their massive (and dangerous) cones, are what inspired Jim Braginton to name his company Coulter Telescopes. These majestic pine trees also grow near Ilylwild, California, his home before he died of a broken heart. I was glad for the planet break, because I got to see old friends and meet some new ones during the walk around Fremont Peak with my red flashlight and accompanied by Ed Erbeck, Jr. known to you all ATMs as Crazy Ed. On our way back to the observatory, we spotted SETI Scientist Dr. Peter Jenniskens with a camcorder filming sporadic meteors thru a 9 inch diffraction grating. Dr. Peter has many of us Fremont Peak regulars assist him during Meteor Showers. We are planning our second Leonid program now, and are finishing the data reduction from last October's non-storm. Last year I was part of a team at Mercey Hot Springs doing counting and plotting of the Leonids. This year I might get to join the airborne crew.
Looks through many scopes showed us that the former sucker holes had made way for a glorious Milky Way overhead. That same RTMC winner, accompanied by his lady love, who he met at RTMC, just days before, was showing her the Swan Nebula through his scope. Now that is a beautiful and romantic sight. Don't you agree? They both had stars in their eyes.
Who can resist observing at the mecca of California astronomy, Fremont Peak? Not this wanderer from Oregon! Speaking of wanderers, the clouds blew away and a few of us tackled Uranus and Neptune - for me, the first time this year. Hiding near the smily face of Capricornus we easily found Neptune and had some difficulty finding Uranus. It's ususally the other way 'round! Before I called it a night at 4:30 AM I spotted Jupiter. I wasn't trying to make a planet project on the weekend, tho.
Tonight, June 17, as Venus and Luna dance a slow tango on the ecliptic plane, I am preparing myself to observe all 9 planets from Glacier Point at Yosemite this Friday through Monday. That, plus some sidewalk astronomy celebrating the first quarter moon outside the historic hotel we'll call home for three nights. I hope I can spot all 9 planets, but even if I don't, I know I'll have a great time wandering and wallowing in the shallow sky. I might even peek at that other stuff, too!
Mercury? I forgot to begin my report with Mercury! Saturday night, we had some kids watching the sky after the slide show, and before it was dark for the first sighting of the planets. One young girl was on the Mercury watch, and her sister on the Mars watch. It made it more fun for them when they were the first to spot the planets visually. Then off for a peek at all three, Mercury, Venus and Mars thru the many telescopes in and out of the observatory before heading back to their campsite.