by Richard Crisp
I'm reassured to hear that Rich and his 7.1" AP found Mars featureless, I was worried that maybe there was something wrong with the Celestron :-)
I looked at M51 when I was up there on Sat night and I could actually see the connecting lane between it and its neighbor, NGC5195. This was the first time I've been able to see the lane optically. I was using 232x and 329x (17 and 12mm Naglers with the 3950mm CM1400)
I also looked at M92, M13, and M22. The globulars looked better than I've ever seen them. I was using 232x and 329x.
M57 was great at 329x and was the first time I could see any interior stars. I had to use averted vision, but with the Ring directly overhead and the steady seeing conditions, I was able to see the central star.
I also looked at M16 and M8 and M20. at 180x, and 232x (22mm and 17mm naglers). Using the OIII filter from Lumicon, the dark lanes were clearly visible in M20.
After seeing the dark lanes in M20 I wanted to check out Barnard 50 and Barnard 55, but they were behind the hill :-(. That's one good thing about Montebello, you can in theory see them from there.
M27 and M57 were very nice at 329x, the OIII filter improved the contrast for the nebulosity.
A couple of fellows dropped by and suggested some other planetaries that we examined, all with NGC names, but in my haste, I managed to not reliably remember any of the numbers. I must pay better attention next time.
Around sundown some folks mentioned that there would be an Iridium flare visible and apparently it was observed but not by me. The downside of bringing out the big scope for me is the time it takes to unload/unpack/setup/align/teardown/pack/load. Seems I am always busy with one of those steps when the interesting events occur.
Quite a number of non-astronomers showed up from time to time, mostly to watch for meteors. Unfortunately a lot of them initially arrived at the lot by car, headlights etc on. Since the lot was full, they then would have to go through the turnaround by backing up and working it around the circle trick, which lengthened the time that the lights were on. Once parked, the meteor watchers were pleasantly surprised to see all of the telescopes set up. Many of them came by and stopped to talk and to look. Although most were either a bit shy to engage in much of a conversation, two or three were quite curious and asked good questions and seemed to comprehend the basics of physics. That was very nice to be able to see first hand.
Even though this non-astronomer traffic brings headlights from the unknowing, it is nice to be able to get the interest of the young people once they get parked as sometimes a few kind words and clear non-condescending answers to elementary questions can create the beginnings of a life-long interest. I certainly had a few experiences like that in my youth, so it feels good to carry on the practice.
There was an amazingly diverse range of equipment out there, from a howitzer-sized 8" D&G refractor to all kinds of Dobs big and small, to highly evolved CNC machined prototype Newts to the usual assortment of SCTs and the ever so nice Tak and AP refractors. There were mostly eyepiece astronomers out but at least two folks were using CCD equipment (Ray Gralak and Phil Terzian). I had the beginnings of an interesting conversation with Ray about readout time from CCD cameras and how it can be improved, but that will have to be finished at a less busy time. Ray's new CNC machined prototype Newt (really awesome looking too, Ray) was getting first light with the full complement of CCD gear (ST10E, CFW8(?), AO7 and Temp Compensated Focuser), and was drawing large crowds. Very impressive collection of top-end imaging gear that Ray was using. I guess I now know where I could spend a quick $10K or so if I only had it....
When the moon finally got above the trees around 1am, most began the teardown. Unfortunately I had my head down doing my teardown when the two best meteors of the night streaked by. The very bright one that has been widely reported really looked like a lightning flash to me when I was looking down packing my gear. I immediately looked up to see a trail that must have been between 15 to 30 degrees across the sky! I've only seen a small number of meteors in my time and that was the brightest one I've ever almost seen.
By 1:45am I began my drive back to San Jose. It was a really great night and I am really happy that I went through the trouble of bringing out the big scope. Last night was clearly an "Aperture Night" where those big apertures were put to good use with the great seeing conditions.