by James Turley
| Date | Wednesday, October 18, 2000, 1815 - 0100 PDT (UT -7:00) |
|---|---|
| Location | Montebello Ridge, CA 37.328ºN, 122.1966ºW UTM Zone 10, N 4131357, E 571177 +37º 19' 40.8" -122º 11' 47.76" Elevation 2300 feet http://www.topozone.com/map.asp?lat=37.328&lon=-122.1966&s=50&size=s |
| Equipment | VX114ED (4.5") 600mm f/5.26 Refractor, GP-DX Mount, SkySensor 2000-PC ROM 2.0, Sony VAIO PC-505 Notebook, TheSky V5.09. |
| New Toy | Garmin eTrek "Summit" GPS, with Elevation and GPS Compass, REI Cupertino. |
| Goals | Catch some DSO's before the Moon Rise. Check out New Toy. |
| Seeing Conditions | 48.2% waning moon. High clouds at 6PM, thinning and disappearing by 9PM. High altitude moisture evidenced by glare from light beams cast by navigation lights of approaching aircraft. |
| Weather | 7PM 59 degrees, 57%, 12 midnight 57 deg, 63%. No Dew threat all evening. |
Decided to take Skyline North (State Highway 35) up from Saratoga Village (Highway 9 West). Bad choice. Gravel trucks creeping up the mountain. At Skyline, for 5 miles north, tarred loose gravel. Slow going, and dangerous to the finish of new cars.
Arrived 1815 to see Archer, local Boulder resident. Ed Greenberg, first time Montebello, pulls in with XT8. Dave and Jay arrive soon after.
Decided to do an accurate polar alignment with my DX. Using the Polar Finder, mostly for Ed's benefit, since he wanted to see how much trouble it was to set up an Eq rig :-)
Also, wanted to have excuse to check out the New Toy. The eTrex acquired 4 satellites quickly, announcing 13 foot accuracy. I set preferences to display True North on read out. Map navigators tend to use Grid North, or Magnetic north as as default. Interesting that it presented the correct magnetic deviation (15 W) correctly. Elevation displays as 2284. However, manual states that altimeter will give better result if the correct Barometric pressure is "seeded" into the set up. Next time. Impressions: this is a sweet little toy. Very compact, size almost identical to Nokia cell phones. Water "proof", with rubberized surfaces, and o-rings. Has PC interface to download 3D Waypoints. Designed for climbers, the elevation profile of your trip can be displayed. Nice "Sight an Go" feature to shoot your bearings like a gun sight. Big letter readouts. Long/Lat can be displayed in decimal or digress/seconds. That's nice, since my SS2K likes degrees/seconds.
OK..found North. Put away the Summit.
A quiet evening. . Seeing is hazy, seems wet. Typical glare to the North. O'Meara, Messier Objects, and NSOG are my companions tonight.
Start with:
4.5" NGC 7252, Aqu. Helix Nebula. Using 22mm Nag T4, then 12mm T4. Orion Ultrablock Narrow band. Hazy 3D Donut,floating above a star field. No resolution of central stars, even with averted vision. But Central area is darker.
4.5" M2, Aqu. Glob. I love this one almost as much as M15. Star chains spewing out from the bright center.
4.5" M72, Aqu. Glob. No resolution. Faint. Small.
On to more Globs...
4.5":M22 Sag. O'Meara quotes Tolkien: "It was as if a globe had been filled with moonlight and hung before them in a net woven of the glint of frosty stars". Hope the see the planetary someday in in this one (GJJC-1) but not with 4.5".
4.5":M15 Peg. Great Pegasus Cluster. Looks almost exactly like M2 (Aqu) to me. Near Epsilon Pegasi, a nice coppery colored star. Didn't really expect to see Peace 1 planetary here. (See S&T, this month). No resolution of individuals at 110x. Pump up to 240x, still a glob.
Seeing Jay search for Old Light next to me, and being in Pegasus already, I decided to work on Stephan's Quintet.
4.5": NGC 7320 Peg. Stephan's Quintet. OK...I never expect to see 5 from my scope. Hoping for 2. 7320 is very dim, a dot, edge on, but large in a rich starry field. Nag 22mm T4. Give up on the other 4. Was hoping for a Duet, but got a Solo. Never forget my first view of the 5 at LSA through Steve Sargent's JMI 12.5".
4.5" NGC 7331 Peg. Easy to find. Bright. Near 7320. Stay here for 15 minutes.
Planets up. Saturn boiling, poor. Jupiter boiling, poor. No GRS. Dave's Zambuto scope has nice view of Jupiter using my 2.3mm Vixen Lanthanum.
Moon appears, Jay packs up. Archer and Ed and Dave, too. I'm last. Close gate at 0048.
Marine layer cuts in as usual at Foothill park (1014.2 foot elevation according to the Summit).
A nice quiet evening at Montebello, of solitary study of the heavens.