by Jamie Dillon
At least there were 3 of us who took the hobby of observational astronomy seriously last night. Rashad, Jay and I were holding the fort from the SW lot at Fremont's Peak last night. Along with great company, two sights made the trip well worthwhile.
When I got out of the van at the main parking lot and walked up to the SW lot to check out the situation, I caught my breath. The Milky Way overhead was dazzling, and esp over in Cassiopeia and Perseus the transparency was no kidding around 6.5. Stars for days, the darkest sky I've seen since Lassen.
It was around 8:45, Rashad was working with Blondie his 12.5 premium Dobs, Jay was playing with binocs and muttering about the high cirrus blowing in from the West. Harvey the C-14 wasn't having any.
While it lasted, I set up Felix quickly enough and homed in on NGC 1023, that big complex galaxy off Algol in Perseus we'd been studying from Coe last month. Burnham's mentions a satellite galaxy there, so the search was on. We all found a nonstellar spot just south of the nucleus, some 6' or so away. (Checking back home, turns out the satellite is a "faint tuft...on E tip"). Not the same location. Keep looking. But oh that galaxy, with a complex core full of dust lanes, big arms spreading out at least 8' across the field. Seeing was excellent, 5/5, for the moment, and 1023 held up at 420x with the 6mm Barlowed. That little splotch was definite. Still best at 210x and even more alluring in Blondie.
Does that litte guy show on The Sky or anywhere?
That cirrus blew in, Jay bailed, and Rashad waited to see if his magnificent sacrifice would pay off. It didn't and we had said goodbye to Randy and rolled by 11. When I got home, the sky overhead in town was bright and starry, around 4.5, just as when I'd left, for a nice ironic coda. A great evening though, all those stars, blew a tough week out the door.
(Felix is a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, a 6mm Radian and a TV 2x Barlow.)
Thanks for the company, you two.