Observing Report 5/18-19/01

Cone Peak

I had heard rumors of a dark sky site with high altitude and great seeing. This past weekend, I was lucky to be included in an excursion, led by Jeff B., to an observing site near Cone Peak. On Friday afternoon, James T., Jon R., Jeff B. and I rendezvoused just outside King City. Jon, James, and I followed our guide up into the mountains of Los Padres National Forest. Don 't ask me how we got there. The trip from King City took approximately 1-1/2 hours and requires a first-class guide to get there without getting lost. The last 5-8 miles are on a dusty dirt road along a ridge that provides spectacular, if not sometimes scary, views. I found myself fighting the balance between staying far enough back from the vehicle in front of me to allow the dust to settle and staying close enough not to miss a critical turn.

Eventually, we emerged from the tree- and rock-lined road into a large clearing along a ridge. The view from the ridge alone is worth the trip. >From an altitude of approximately 3300 feet, the site overlooks the Pacific. Off to the left, and oh so far down, we could see waves breaking on a beach. To the right we could just make out HWY 1 as a thin line cut into the curves of the rugged California coast, heading toward Big Sur. Straight ahead, the Pacific stretched uninterrupted as far as the eye could see. However, for most of our stay, the ocean couldn't be seen. A thick blanket of undulating fog, extending to the horizon, simulated cloud tops, creating an illusion of being much higher than we were.

The observing area is the largest "level" accessible clearing for miles. The approximately level (gentle slope) area can hold at most about a dozen scopes and vehicles. At this time of year, it has some patches of bare, rocky soil along the edge of the ridge where vehicles have driven. Moving away from the ridgeline, the area is covered with 1-foot tall dry grass. Some shade can be found approximately 75 yards away, down a fairly steep hill, on either side. The choice shaded camping spot was already occupied.

The price one pays for such remoteness is that there are no services. It is at least a three-hour trip to the store and back. The terrain is dry and rugged. As long as one remembers to bring all the necessary telescope equipment and essential food and water, the distance isn't a problem. The greatest difficulty is using the bathroom. To get out of sight, it's a good length walk down the steep hillside into the trees. I found these trips to be the greatest drawback.

Out in this remote wilderness, we were surprised to find, along with the campers, other astronomers already setting up in the prime observing spot. There were three or four in this group. In addition to an Orion 120mm refractor, they were setting up a 25" reflector. Who would have guessed that in such a remote area we would have two 25" scopes (Jon's being the other)?

Friday May 18

Sunset was a treat. As the Sun began to pass below the horizon, it was split into two images, one a partial, just below the main image. It was an odd phenomenon that many of us had not noticed before. Before the Sun had completely set, for a while the Sun appeared to have even more than two images. The non-TAC astronomers were committing blasphemy - looking at the Sun with binoculars! They suggested we do the same. Heeding the many warnings about doing permanent damage to my eyes, I had never done it before. However, the intensity of the Sun is much attenuated by passing through so much of our atmosphere when it is so low. Looking at the dim, red Sun was comfortable in binoculars and left no after-image, so it appeared to be safe. The Sun and its doppel-ganger spread ever thinner. The rounded top portion of the Sun pinched off from the main image and then turned green - the green flash! Yes, we all saw it and it was the first experience of the green flash for many of us. The Sun's image then became two thin pancakes that persisted for some time. As the stack of red pancakes grew thinner and thinner, the ends began to break off and dissipate until the last thin slice of sun finally faded into gray sky. We TACos had never studied a Sunset so intently. It was one of the highlights of the trip.

By 9PM the temperature had dropped to the low 60's with a relative humidity in the high 40's. Both stayed there the entire night. It was sweatshirt and light glove weather. We had little to no wind. What little wind we had blew offshore and was warm. Very pleasant observing conditions. The sky was very dark and seeing was average.

The nearby campers had a bright light, but Jeff approached this gun-toting campsite cautiously and asked them to turn the light out. They were very responsive and, at Jeff's invitation, later came up for a view through our scopes. A group of campers a little farther away also came up for an impromptu star party. Everyone enjoyed the views of some well-placed bright Messier objects.

Our non-TAC observing companions were loud by TAC standards, but very entertaining.

During the night, we had a number of cars drive by on the nearby dirt road. A couple of them also came up the hill towards us, head lights ablazin'. Considering our remoteness and the narrow dirt road to get there, it surprised us that so many cars showed up after dark. Even more surprising were the ravers who started partying with music thumping at 4 in the morning! I didn't experience them myself. Jeff and James informed me of the disturbance the next morning. Thankfully I was using what I now believe to be an essential piece of star party equipment - my earplugs.

Equipment: 12.5" f/5 ultralight
14mm Radian and 9mm Nagler eyepieces

I continued my Sky Atlas 2000 observing program, finding approximately 40 new objects on page 13. Below are a few highlights of the night.

In Virgo, I observed a nice trio of small oval galaxies that lie along a line approximately 1 eyepiece field (14mm) apart. NGC4838 (mag 12.7, 1.7' X1.5'), NGC4855 (12.3, 1.7X1.3), NGC4897 (11.8, 2.3X2.2). It's quite easy to hop back and forth among these galaxies while at the main eyepiece and compare their differences of brightness, size, and orientation.

Up in the NE corner of Corvus I found a delightful pair of galaxies: NGC4782 (11.7, 1.8X1.7) and NGC4783 (11.5, 1.8X1.7). These galaxies are nearly face-on, less than an arcminute apart, and almost identical. The outer haloes are interacting. Through the eyepiece, the mental image that struck me was of two sunny-side up fried eggs. The nuclei are round, small, and bright, reminding me of the yolks, and the dimmer, but distinct, circular haloes are joined together, looking as if the white part of the eggs had coalesced in the frying pan. I studied this gem for a while at 113X and 176X and called others over to have a look. James then found it in his 8" SCT. Although it was dimmer than in my 12.5", all the features were still visible. I've added this object to my permanent "highlights" list and noted it in my atlas.

As a bonus, there were also two other faint galaxies in the same f.o.v. I had to look them up in Uranometria to identify them as NGC4792 (15.2, 0.7X0.3) and NGC4794 (13.7, 1.5X0.7). I could see them pretty well using averted vision, especially at 176X.

Approximately 1.5 degrees away in Virgo is NGC4700 (11.9, 2.8X0.6) that appeared to by nearly edge on.

And since one of my favorite galaxy groups, NGC4742, 4760, 4781, and 4790, was only another 1.5 degree away, I took another tour of this area. These galaxies fit within a 1 square degree patch of sky, along with a few other fainter galaxies that I observed with averted vision: NGC4784 (14.2, 1.2X0.3), NGC4766 (14.5, 0.7X0.2), and NGC4757 (14.3, 0.9X0.2).

At approximately 1PM, I stopped the serious work and, as usual, finished up the night looking at some eye candy in Sagittarius (the Triffid, Lagoon, and Swan Nebulae), the Ring Nebula, M13, and the Dumbbell Nebula. You all know what these look like, so I'll spare the details. However, the views of these objects were among the best I've ever seen. I especially spent a lot of time studying the variations of intensity and shading across the Dumbbell.

Saturday May 19

HOT during the day. Jon left early that morning and the three of us kept to what little shade we could find, thankful for the faint cool breeze. It was a loooong day, waiting for it to get dark. Our fellow astronomers made the long drive to LSA to waterski. They returned with a couple of new folks just before Sunset. Jamie D. also joined us for the night. It was a warmer night than Friday. The temperature dropped to about 66 F by 9PM, but then climbed back up to 69 F with an RH of 40% as a stronger offshore breeze developed. It was enough wind to briskly turn the pages of my atlas and blow my observing notes off the table if they weren't weighted down well. At 2:30AM I was in my shirtsleeves.

Equipment: 12.5" f/5 ultralight
14mm Pentax XL (instead of the Radian) and 9mm Nagler eyepieces

I continued my Sky Atlas 2000 observing program, finding approximately 50 new objects, including finishing up all the remaining objects on page 13. I also took advantage of our more southern viewing location and worked page 21 down to about -45 degrees. Below are a few highlights of the night.

NGC 3923 (9.6, 6.9X4.8) in Hydra. Too bad this galaxy isn't placed higher in the sky. It is quite bright and displays a very nice bright elongated core that looks like a long bar. I also can see detail in the halo. The bright core is surrounded by a faint halo that appears to have two slightly brighter wisps on either side - hints of spiral arms?

Centaurus A - NGC5128. I had only observed this galaxy through binoculars from Hawaii before. In the telescope the broad dark dust lane was clearly visible, separating the galaxy into two bright portions of unequal size.

Omega Centauri - NGC 5139. The granddaddy of all globular clusters. This is the best view I have ever had of it. Although it was still quite low, I could make out lots of individual stars amidst this extremely dense ball at 176X. One of the best uses of the 9mm wide field Nagler.

NGC5170 (11.3, 7.8X1.1) in Virgo. Appears to be edge-on with nice bright central bulge. Reminded me of NGC4565. Following NGC5170, nearby NGC5247 (10.1, 5.2X3.2) was a nice contrast. It is nearly face-on with a large, nearly circular halo with a small nucleus slightly brighter than the halo.

A line of galaxies NGC4902 (10.9, 2.5X2.2), NGC4899 (11.9, 1.9X1.2), NGC4897 (11.8, 2.3X2.2). The three fall in a line at nearly identical RA and are approximately ½ degree apart. At the one end near NGC4902, the brightest, are also fainter galaxies NGC4924 (12.7, 1.5X1.4) and NGC4887 (13.7, 0.9X0.5), and the brighter galaxy NGC4856 (10.5, 3.1X0.9). NGC4887 is noticeably smaller.

Approximately 3 degrees north is NGC4933. SA2000 lists this as one galaxy. It appears mottled and irregular to me. When I looked it up in Uranometria, it listed this as a trio of galaxies NGC4933A (11.7, 1.3X0.9), NGC4933B (12.6, 0.7X0.5), and NGC4933C (17.5, 0.6X0.4). I'm sure I didn't see the C component. What I saw as an irregular shape must have been the interacting A and B galaxies. I'll have to return to study these objects again with higher power.

I turned in around 2:30AM, feeling very tired, but satiated by dark skies.