by Bruce Anderson
In the 1970’s when I was a teenager, we used to go camping quite often, and one of our “routine” destinations was to spend a week during the summer at a wooded resort bordering the Stuart Fork of the Trinity River, situated at the eastern entrance and gateway to the Trinity Alps Wilderness. The term ‘resort’ might be somewhat misleading- it’s a collection of 30-some wooden “housekeeping” cabins that were built in 1924 along the Stuart Fork River that drains into what is now Trinity Lake. The land was first inhabited by the Wintus, an Indian tribe, and in the 1800’s the site was taken over by placer miners. The area then evolved into a cattle ranch, until it was sold and converted into a ‘resort’- mainly to attract big game hunters and fisherman. Prior to the building of the Lewiston Dam in 1961, the river was full of migrating steelhead and salmon, sometimes weighing as much as 5 to 7 pounds each. It’s a special place, and I have many fond memories of sleeping out on the cabin’s deck, or ‘veranda’, listening to the sounds of the river making it’s course downstream, while amidst the warmth of my sleeping bag.
There’s a cabin there for almost every county in California (with names like Santa Barbara, Sutter, Butte, Lassen, Humboldt, Madera, and Fresno) and the resort has been through storms, floods, landslides, and fires but is still going strong more than 75 years later. There’s a restaurant, general store (with ping/pong, pool tables, pinball, and ice cream), stable, and a whole host of outdoor activities to help whittle away the summer hours…..not to mention the river itself. One of the main attractions is the ‘swimming hole’, the area below the car bridge that spans the river, and the former spawning beds of huge ocean-going denizens. This year I introduced my five-year-old to the wonders of fly fishing- we landed two 14” rainbow trout with my 1936 model bamboo fly rod (#12 Royal Wulff fly, for those keeping score) which of course made a nice centerpiece to a late summer nights grill……..
This was our third year together as a family at the resort, and our first time being there in September. I asked the owner to provide us with a cabin that would show as much of the night sky as possible. On our first night, the 16th, I was too tired to set up my scope, and instead settled for chasing star clusters and bright DSO’s around the northern celestial pole with my 7x50’s, between intermittent cloud cover, from the comfort of my sleeping bag…….
The following day, the sky was a consistent azure blue, with no hint of the haze from the forest fires that had burned to within 12 miles from the resort two weeks earlier. I set up my 12.5” Starmaster in the volleyball court across from our cabin as dusk approached, and watched with anticipation as the beacons of the summer sky began to fade into view……the atmosphere, even at 2,000 feet, was rock steady. The Milky Way was not only visible from horizon to horizon, but was a finely woven tapestry of fabric, full of knots and swirls. The nearest large town, Redding, was over an hour away, and any light pollution from the small towns of Weaverville or Trinity Center, both at least 30 miles away, was nonexistent. During the week, the temperature never fell below a comfortable 60 degrees, and the humidity never climbed over 50 percent.
I spent well over an hour, closer to two, on the Veil Nebula. It was magnificent, breathtaking, and any other adjectives that you’d care to throw at it…….I had viewed it many times before with my previous “big gun’, a homemade 8” dob, but with the Starmaster and the excellent observing conditions, it seemed like a completely new object. I was able to make out all three main sections of the Veil- NGC 6960, 6992, and 6995- and when I began to match my view with that in the photographs on pp. 800-809 in Burnham’s, I couldn’t believe how much detail I was seeing in the gaseous arcs, that have been floating through space for almost 40,000 years. Bracketing 52 Cygni was NGC6960, which was by far the brightest, the southernmost end of which seemed to split into two arcs, while the northernmost tip faded into diffuse nebulosity. NGC6995 was easily the most breathtaking, and was also the most “cirrus”- especially the southern segment. The body of the nebula was ribbed with varying transparencies, replete with subtle ridges, peaks and valleys. Many field stars gave the appearance of being embedded in the tenuous wisps of nebulosity, giving the observer the impression of a star-studded galactic arm, sweeping through space…….
Because of the excellent transparency, I decided that it was a perfect night for a “nebula hunt”. M27 was so bright and detailed, it looked like a completely different object- the familiar “dumbell” shape had almost disappeared. I also visited the Crescent, the Bubble, the Cocoon, as well as several planetaries in and around Cygnus. Fabulous! Star-hopping south of Gamma Cygni, in search of NGC6888, I ran into a bright, very dark crimson red carbon star, just northeast of the nebula. Very bright and very striking, I’m going to have to go back and try to identify that one……spent the remaining hours hunting distant gaseous entities just above the Teapot, which was hovering just above the southern ridge.
Each following morning I found myself sipping coffee, planning the next evenings celestial exploits, buried under a scattered collection of books, starmaps, and atlases. And each evening, the weather cooperated beautifully. Setting up in the volleyball court on the third night, I detected a change in my scope’s collimation as I was moving it from zenith to the horizon, which I hadn’t noticed before. Subtle, but it was there. Checked the tightness on all of the trusses, and still couldn’t lick the problem. I suppose it could be all of the extra items that I’ve added to the upper cage- I’m sure the weight of the dew heater, controller, 8x50 finder, etc. all adds up.
It was another sterling night of observing, and I spent considerable time chasing galaxies in Pisces and Pegasus……much later I turned my attention to Saturn, which had risen about 20 degrees over the hills to the east. Just as I began to focus the ringed orb in the 9mm Nagler, I heard two loud bangs on the trash dumpster about 70 feet down the trail from the volleyball court. My first thought was “what is someone doing taking out their garbage at this hour?” Then I thought “that’s funny, I don’t see a flashlight…….” Oh! Straining against the darkness, I could just barely make out the bears lumpy outline as it moved away from me, across the road, through the trees, and continued down the hill towards the river. I couldn’t tell if the bear noticed me or not, but I sure didn’t stick around to find out.
During the day several of my fellow ‘campers’ had become quite curious about the large “cannon” that I kept set up outside our cabin- every so often you’d hear a group stop outside, asking each other “what is that thing?” The next evening I relented and held a small, impromptu star party in the volleyball court at dusk for the curious……it was a blast hearing all of the exclamations when they got their first view of M13, the Ring, the Veil, and Andromeda. Fun stuff! Lots of great questions, not all of which I knew the answer to. After spending several nights out under the canopy of the Milky Way, observing the late summer splendors in the serenity and solitude of the Trinity Alps Wilderness, I immediately made plans for a return trip next June. Stay tuned for “Galaxies over Trinity”. I can hardly wait!