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Sunday night, Bruce Jensen and I decided to bag Lake Sonoma and take our chances with Premont Freak, due to Dave Silva's report of smoke in the air at Lake Sonoma on Saturday night. I don't know how conditions were at the Lake, but we had a great night at the Freak.
Bruce and I arrived separately but within minutes of each other at just after
6:00p. Much to our amazement, the lot was nearly empty. Bob Cz. was there,
setting up his beast, and there was one other car parked in the lot.
Furthermore, it was quite warm but not hot or uncomfortable. A few other
TACos arrived later including Bill and Kal, as well as a few other
"non-aligned" astronomers Because I was there primarily for astrophotography but also for visual
observing, I had a lot of equipment to set up. This took awhile but the
company was pleasant and the weather and views pleasant. I slipped a long
sleeve turtleneck over my tee shirt around 2am, but actually had to take it
off later because I was getting warm. It was a very enjoyable, pleasant
evening, with good company and plenty of fun for everyone!
The highlights of my observational evening were seeing Uranus and Neptune for
the first time, through both Kal Krishnan's and Bob C's scopes. Thanks, that
was a thrill. The seeing wavered between moderate and excellent, with
frequent moments of outstanding clarity. Jupiter was also a thrill, with a
great shadow transit as well as crystal clear views of the Spot Formerly
Known as The Great Red (credit Jay with that moniker!). In fact, the best
views of it all night were through Kal's 8" LX200 - that's a fine set of
optics, Kal!
Bruce showed me a plethora of interesting objects in his 18" Starmaster,
which I'm sure he'll write up in his own observing report. I didn't do much
visual work. I started with some open NGC clusters in Cass but honestly found
them boring (am I getting jaded?). I did manage to point out IC1396 as a
naked eye object (at least, the central cluster is) to Bruce, Bob and others.
Later, around 10pm, I found a couple of pretty dim galaxies, including IC10,
which is mag 12.2 but spread out over a 6.3 x 5.1 area; and UGC1068, which is
mag 13.6 and 1.7 x 1.1 in size, thereby qualifying as the dimmest object I've
yet found in my dob. IC10 had a discernible oval shape to it, while UGC1068
was a barely detectable smudge.
I had an amazingly productive evening with the photography. I took 30 minute
prime focus exposures through my Genesis (500mm f/5) of the NA/Pelican
nebulae, IC 1396, M31, M33, Perseus Double Cluster, Pleiades (how would the
ancient Greeks have pronounced THAT?), and the IC410 vicinity in southern
Auriga. That's a lot of exposures for one evening!
I also took some wide angle piggyback shots with my 50mm lens. I was
experimenting with a diffusion filter made from aluminum window screening. My
hope was to emulate the lovely diffusion that Akira Fujii and others get,
which increases the size and color of brighter stars, enhancing
constellations. Unfortunately, I can't detect any difference between my
diffused and undiffused photos! I'll have to try some other diffusion
materials - any suggestions? Vaseline?
I ran into some gremlins but they are getting fewer and fewer, and I'm
getting better at recognizing them while on site, rather than at the lab. For
instance, my first exposure of the evening was of the NA/Pelican nebulae, and
when I released the shutter after 30 minutes, nothing happened. I immediately
realized that the shutter speed was set to 1/1000. Also, when I moved from my
second shot - IC1396, a large circular emission nebula in southern Cepheus -
to my third shot, I saw that the camera was out of focus. And finally,
despite apparent tracking accuracy shown on my autoguider, I found that
stopping an exposure and restarting by using my camera's multi-exposure
feature is risky. Either the scope moved or the film moved.
I'll be posting some of Sunday's photos later tonight (or tomorrow night, if
I get tired). Check 'em out at:
http://members.home.com/psterngold