This last week the skies have been a bit doubtful, Tues and Wed I tried observing from my home in Novato, with limited results. So I was looking forward to this weekend, and a chance at a darker site, perhaps further from the haze and city lights.
I arrived at Lake Sonoma about 4pm, and caught the Sun with a JMB Solar filter on my NexStar5. There were 2 pairs of sunspots easily visible, none large enough to see "naked" eye. While napping the first of several other astro-folk arrived. Matt Marcus, who also cranked up a view of the Sun with his Ranger.
By 7:30 we had 6 further join us. A goodly assortment of telescopes were unveiled ranging from 5" to 17.5", and including two C11s which were setup next to each other.
By 9:30 is was getting dark enough for initial views, some high altitude horsetail clouds made an appearance, but the sky was darkening nicely.
It was good to socialize with the regulars, and the first timers to the site. Michael (?) of SCAS had his 10" Meade Dob, and several of us chatted about eyepieces with him, as his base eyepieces are the Meade MA series. Eric La Franchie had brought his daughter, and her best friend, a pair of precocious 10 year olds. All evening we had a ready audience for bright objects, and were rewarded with unique descriptions. The most memorable was M81/82 as "the baseball bat and ball".
We also had a M65/66/NGC 3628 relay, viewing in 6 telescopes, with different eyepieces. Noteably good views from Duane Frybarger's C5 and Colin Collins C11.
Dick Flasck wowed people with fantastic views of M13 and nearby galaxy NGC 6207 in his 17.5". The galaxy showed well in my 8" also, and I could make out both the core and a field star just off center from the core. This was one of those times when I realised how little I knew about the sky, as Matt explained what a "keystone" was, and the center of Hercules became a little more interesting to me.
Dick was working some fainter galaxies in Coma/Virgo but graciously took time to show the kids [both young and old :-)] some really nice views, including M51, M57, the Coccoon Galaxy, and M81/82 during the evening.
On to the, albeit brief, report:
| Observer | Robert Leyland |
|---|---|
| Date | 19 May 2001 |
| Time | 2130-0130 PDT (UT -7, or 0430-0830 20 May 2001 UT) |
| Location | Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~1100 (Lone Rock Flat) |
| Weather | 15°C Temp 60% Humidity |
| Seeing | LM ~6, transparency 7/10, perhaps Bortle 4. |
| Equipment | 8" F6 Dob, Telrad + 7x50 finder scope, Pentax XL EPs |
Continuing to chase galaxies in LEO, before it gets too late in the year, I started where I'd left off last month at the M105 group. Tonight all three galaxies are visible, and very nice, the dimmest member of the group (NGC 3389) showed well.
So conditions seemed pretty good, much better than earlier in the week. As a test I checked Algieba, and split it at 55x, so the air was steady, even if a little hazy.
Returning to galaxies, I realised that I hadn't logged M95 and M96 on this pass through Leo. Both showed very well, with good oval shapes, and hints of arms.
Working down the bright Ms brought me to NGC 3433, right next to a triangle of stars with 53 Leo as the brightest. 3433 is very faint at 55x, needing averted vision to spot. By bumping the power up to 70x, and pushing 53 Leo a little further away gave a better view.
Back to M65/M66 and their brother NGC 3628 which were their usual excellent selves, nice oval shapes with interesting structure. The dust lane in 3628 was clear, even though the galaxy is much dimmer.
Next up was Galaxy NGC 3593, the "other brother" of the M65/66 pair. It is on the other side of a line of three field stars from M65. A nicely defined oval shape with a faint core brightening. Easy to find near the fainter, closer pair of stars in the line of three.
Moving N to 70 Leo (upsilon?) finds Galaxy NGC 3596, a nice, slightly oblate oval shape, but I had the get 70 Leo out of the FOV to really see it. At 70x it looked very nice, with a diffuse core, and a spot adjacent fuzziness, that wasn't on my charts, most probably a very faint star.
Reversing course to the other side of the M65/66 group I star-hopped to NGC 3666 by way of 78 Leo (iota). This galaxy has a really nice sharp oval shape; it looked edge on to me. At 55x it needed averted vision to spot, at 70x it was visible with direct vision, but needed averted vision to bring out the shape, with the best view at 110x which pushed the nearby bright star out of view.
Hopping past 78 Leo, to NGC 3705 which was nice and bright at 55x, and easy to see as the fourth point in a quad grouped with three stars. It showed a nice oval shape, with a well defined core. Sky Atlass 2000 shows another galaxy (NGC 3692) in the same FOV which I couldn't find.
Late in the evening Scorpio and Mars had risen, but not really enough to give good views of the planet. We also had our first (binocular) view of the Lagoon nebula in Sag.
It was a very pleasant time, the temperature stayed steady, and I wore shorts the entire time, without realising it, until it was time to go home.