by Robert Leyland
| Observer | Robert Leyland |
|---|---|
| Date | 22 Sep 2001 |
| Time | 2145-0200 PDT (UT -7, or 0445-0800 23 Sep 2001 UT) |
| Location | Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~1400 (Lone Rock Flat) |
| Weather | 17°C-14°C Temp 50-62% Humidity, zero wind |
| Seeing | LM 6+, transparency 9/10 after the clouds cleared |
| Equipment | 8" F6 Discovery Dob, +Telrad, Pentax XL EPs |
After much e-mail traffic, a phone call or two, and some serious moaning, I was resigned to staying home Saturday night, with the moon setting late, and a really nasty cloud layer over Novato. I checked on-line at some satellite images, and it showed Lake Sonoma clouded over at 4pm.
Around 6:30-7pm, it started to clear in Novato. I went on-line, and the fading light snapshot of Cloverdale, showed clear skies. On the off chance that it might be ok, I packed the 8" only, since if it was bad, it wouldn't take long to pack up :-)
It was iffy early, but cleared later in the evening. A few clouds obscured to moon somewhat, and by the time the moon set, most of the clouds seemed to have gone.
Bottom line, we had a really good night, and as my son told me the next morning "Pessimists always get pleasant surprises".
Scott S was there with his C14, and he was routinely taking it up to 450x on objects all over the sky, and we got some really good views of Saturn. Clearly visible in both the 14, and Dave Staples 8" were, the Encke division, and the crepe ring, as well as a lovely brown band on the planet itself. Oh, yeah the Cassini division, and a few moons too :-)
It was SCT night at the lake, with two C8s and a C14 out numbering my lonely Dob. Karin (?) a friend of the Mahons, was there too, mooching views and providing good "wows" as she contemplates which telescope she will get. I think I convinced her to go with small Dob, as she had some fun pushing mine around!
Since this was a spur of the moment trip, I was short of a good target list, and there was this big lunar searchlight that was cutting into our views early, I decided to go after a few Messiers that I had missed over the last couple of years.
First up was M40 in Ursa Major, it's an easy double star near Megrez in the big dipper, definitely a "first quarter" object. I didn't notice any nebulosity, which agrees with M. Messier :-)
A little more challenging is M71 in Sagitta, a really nice little globular cluster. It seemed very deep, in that it took magnification well with resolvable stars even at quite high power. I just went here, when Matt was talking about trying to find Harvard 20, an open cluster nearby. A few seconds later, they are both in the same FOV. H-20 is an easy open cluster with about 30 stars 2 bright, 2 middling and a mess of fainter pinpoints. Panning between M71 and H-20 is a study in contrasting clusters.
Next up was M74 in Pisces. This is often one of the first M's to hunt down during a Messier marathon, and I can now see why this is such a challenge at twilight. it is a nice oval galaxy with very soft edges. Hard to spot n the finder (7x50), but easy at 65x.
For some reason I have neglected the "70s", and next up was M71 in Aquarius. It is a nice little cluster with an adjacent pair of stars. These look to me to be ideal for focussing, and guiding, but I don't often see it on CCD target lists. It also takes magnification well; at 120x and 170x,stars still resolve well.
Now M73 on the other hand, is a serious let down. It's just 4 stars in a Y pattern about 1.5° from M72. Perhaps I am missing something, but this isn't one of the finer Messier objects.
M2 though, is simply awesome. I am surprised that I haven't looked at this one before, it's a beautiful globular cluster, easy to see in the finder, as a small fuzzy ball (it's not nearly as big as M13), and it really shows up well at 100+ magnification. I went up to 230x (5.2mm Pentax), and was still getting good details popping out. I am looking forward to the oft rumoured Pentax 3mm, for nights like tonight.
It's off to Perseus for M76, the little dumbbell nebula. It is very nicely shaped like an hour-glass egg timer. An OIII filter brought out a little more bumpiness in the nebula.
That rounded out my missing Messiers for the night. I got a quick view of a very low in the sky M1, and spent the remainder of the evening on the planets.
I have about 4 left, all in spring constellations. After which I'll do them all again with the big iron :-) (ok, maybe I'll skip 40 and 73)
I packed up around 1:45, and as I drove home Orion was lying across the sky, slumbering until Winter and Spring. Fog covered the low lying areas, which perhaps contributed to the good seeing at the Lake. In places it was quite heavy, and I needed to use fog lamps for safety.