by Albert Highe
For those of you who didn't make it down to LSA and hoped you didn't miss anything, the weather was COLD. It got below freezing both nights. 27 degrees Fahrenheit the last time I looked. Relative humidity was fairly high. Dew heaters were necessary for most scopes. After the temperature dropped below freezing, ice formed on tables and cars. We had a small group on Friday night - Peter Santangeli, Jim Turley, Mark Wagner, Marsha Robinson, and Bob Czerwinski (now affectionately known as two-dob Bob). Peter disappeared sometime late Friday or early Saturday. (I saw your post, Peter, and am glad you found good skies at Coe).On Saturday, we were joined by Jamie and Liam Dillon, Nilesh Shah, Jim Bartolini, and Steve Sergeant.
For those of you who hoped your fellow TACo's had a good time, the skies were very dark. During the day the temperature reached 70 degrees, the sky was almost perfectly clear, and some high thin clouds appeared late afternoon. Most of the clouds dissipated after sunset. Occasionally, some would drift through during the night, but would quickly clear up. For those who prepared, the cold and dew weren't much of a factor. The dew Friday night was worse than Saturday. With my ultra-exposed optics, I had to borrow Jim Turley's little 12V hair dryer to clear my secondary and eyepiece about every 30 minutes beginning at 8:30PM At this time the temperature was approximately 35 degrees and the RH about 86%. I had to clear the primary and finder 2-3 times that night. The seeing was better earlier, but degraded a bit later in the evening. The transparency was average, but I managed to hunt down a lot of faint fuzzies in Cetus and Eridanus. I haven't made the final count yet, but I bagged about 40 new objects that night. I would have found more, but I spent a lot of time searching (in vain) for two galaxies that were mis-plotted in the first edition of Sky Atlas 2000 - NGC 1090 and NGC 1087. I later learned that their positions are correct in the second edition. One of the highlights of that evening was a string of four galaxies in Cetus spanning approximately two degrees: NGC 584, 596, 615, and 636. They were relatively easy in my 12.5" f/5, having magnitudes between 10.5 and 11.5. There are also two other, fainter galaxies nearby, NGC 586 and 600, at mag 13.2 and 12.4, respectively.
We had less dew on Saturday. I had to clear the secondary and eyepiece about once an hour and the primary and finder were never a problem. Some high thin clouds moved in around 8:00PM, interrupting the hunt for faint fuzzies. However, seeing was still pretty good. I think everyone used the opportunity to watch the transit of Ganymede and its shadow on Jupiter. Everyone could easily see the moon paired alongside its shadow. Way cool. Fortunately, just as Ganymede and its shadow ended transit around 8:30PM, the sky improved dramatically. All the clouds disappeared and transparency improved to very good. The hunt for faint fuzzies became noticeably easier and more detail was apparent. I found, and recorded descriptions of, approximately another 40 objects. Two highlights from Saturday were two unexpectedly bright planetary nebulas: NGC 1535 in Eridanus and IC 418 in Lepus. NGC 1535 is approximately magnitude 9 and has an apparent diameter of 18''. It appeared unusual to me. It looked similar to an unresolved globular cluster. It seemed to be brightest in the center and have a very faint outer ring. Most planetaries I've seen have more uniform brightness or appear as rings. IC 418 is approximately magnitude 10 - 11, has an apparent diameter of 12'', and has a fairly bright 10th magnitude central star. At 100X I couldn't be sure the glow I saw was from the planetary or haze caused by dewed optics. At 250X it became a great object. If I focused on the bright central star, I could only see a faint glow around the star. However, when I averted my eye, the star seemed to explode into a large bright ball. A great effect. Another highlight was "discovering" three closely-spaced galaxies while starhopping along the Eridanus/Taurus border. None are plotted in my Sky Atlas 2000. Two are fairly bright, of almost equal brightness, and very close together. They turned out to be NGC 1587 and 1589 at mag 11.7 and 11.8, respectively. They are separated by less than 0.2 degree. I could also see a faint companion to NGC 1587. It turned out to be NGC 1588 at mag 12.9 and less than 2 arc minutes away.
By Midnight we had already gotten six hours of observing in. The temperature was 27 degrees and the sky was dry, steady, and very dark. However, we had to be careful to avoid moisture from our breath condensing on our cold eyepieces. At this point till almost 1 AM, I just enjoyed some of the brighter favorites. M81 and M82 were amazing after spending hours looking at very dim objects. In particular, the dust lanes in M82 were very easy to see. M46 was stunning. Its superimposed planetary nebula, NGC 2438, was a bright diffuse beacon amidst the pinpoints of light. By 1 PM, about half called it a night. A few stayed up till 2-3 AM to enjoy the very good skies.
I can't speak for anyone else, but I had a great time and am glad I made the trip.