by Jim Everitt
It was Saturday afternoon and the sky was about as clear as it gets, a sky we pilots call CAVU - clear air (above) visibility unrestricted. Rachel and I packed the 15" Obsession and peripheral equipment into the bed of my trusty Toyota and headed out of Gilroy a little after 4:00. The drive out was very pleasant, light traffic green hills, and Pacheco Creek was full due to the rainfall earlier in the week.
When we pulled in to the parking lot at Dino, there were a few people there setting up. More arrived over the next half hour, and by the time the sun set I estimate there were about a dozen. Rachel spent some time searching the banks of the lake for some rocks and minerals while it was still light. She spent most of the night in the truck with her Gameboy. She's not much for cold weather observing.
I mounted and aligned the Telrad as twilight was fading using the moon as a point of reference and felt that the seeing was pretty good so early on. Unfortunately seeing would deteriorate somewhat as the evening wore on. Transparency was excelent and dewing, for me, was not a problem. It did get a bit damp later, the Telrad dewed up very slightly but it was still functional. Phil kindly let me have a pair of gloves with the fingertips cut out, and with the pants, shirts and jacket I brought I was quite comfortable all evening.
I started observing some bright clusters before it was fully dark, the Double Cluster, M38, NGC1907, as well as being able to split Rigel quite easily at low power, I was using a 22mm Nagler which gives me about 77x. I also took some quick looks at Jupiter and Saturn with the 7mm Nagler, giving me about 240x. These objects give me a good indicator of seeing conditions, which at the time were pretty good, say, 3/5.
The first new (to me) object of the night, Jones 1, a planetary nebula in Pegasus, fairly small open circle with two brighter reigons 120 to 140 degrees apart. I used a 19mm Panoptic with an O III filter. It was pointed out to me by Bruce, who would lead me to several other interesting objects during the night. IC417 in Auriga, appeared as very faint almost wedge shaped wispy splotches in an open cluster (Stock 8?) using the above eyepiece/filter combo. IC410 was a much more rewarding view, a nebula surrounding NGC1893, an open cluster. IC 405 was evident showing some wispy detail, enough to see how it has the name, the "Flaming Star" nebula. M42 in Orion always blows me away, and this night was no exception with its beautiful wisps, twists and clumps. Six stars in the Trapezium at low power using the 22mm Nagler. The Flame Nebula, NGC2024 showed the best detail I've seen so far in the new scope, very well defined edges and dark lanes. From there I hopped to the alluring and somewhat ellusive Horsehead. I was able to trace IC434 out from 50 Orionis and after a moment of concentration was able to make out a definite horsehead shape from B33.
I was again inspired by Bruce as he mentioned the Fornax 1 galaxy cluster. I consulted a chart in the Night Sky, and pointed the scope to the west of a triangle of three stars. At first only three galaxies could be seen in the field of view, two of them were fairly faint. With a little scanning through the eyepiece a large group of surprizingly bright galaxies came into view. In one view using the 22mm I was able to identify NGC's; 1396, 1404, 1387, 1379, 1381, 1382, 1375, 1374, 1380, and 1373. With a little scanning, NGC's; 1389, 1427a, 1380a, 1386, and 1365. I could make out some of the barred spiral detail in NGC1365. All this with my truck blocking about half of the light. A few other faint fuzzy nothings were detected in this area that I did not identify. A future project.
I decided to spend some time observing objects, listed in The Night Sky, in Ursa Major. This is about as close as I get to an observing list or program. I began with M81 and M82, two familiar galaxies. Boosting the power with the 7mm Nagler after locating with the 22mm, I was rewarded with a strong hint of spiraling in M81, and prominent mottling in M82. I then started hunting with the 22mm and easily located NGC3077 which barely fit in the same FOV as the above Messiers, and a few degrees North (?) IC2574. another highlight came in the form of NGC 3027 a faint, fairly large galaxy not listed in The Night Sky while I was hopping from galaxies NGC2985 over to a pair NGC's 3065 & 3066. I knocked off the galaxies listed in finder charts 62-3 & 62-4, about a dozen.
Leo was getting far enough above the horizon for some galaxy hunting. I started with NGC2903 which showed very prominently with some mottling detail. Utilizing the finder charts in the Night Sky, I logged some 36 NGC galaxies in a fairly short time. Among these, a group of four galaxies that fit nicely in the FOV, Hickson 44, were on a list of galaxy groups that I pulled from Steve Gottlieb's website. The familiar Messiers in Leo were also observed; M65 & M66 hinting at some mottling detail and the bar in M95.
I might have done an all nighter but for the fact that even with the gloves, the damp cold was too much for an injured finger. I decided to pack it in a bit before minight, reluctantly leaving a beautiful, dark sky. I did manage to log about 120 objects during the evening, 100 or so first observations, in 5+ hours of observing in clear sky and with good company.