Sedona, AZ 1/10-13/02

by Albert Highe

Denny W., sometime resident of Morgan Hill, graciously invited me down to visit him in the dark skies of Sedona, AZ. A friend of mine, Isaac, and I drove down Thursday. When we arrived around midnight, we found Denny observing from his driveway.

Denny is a lucky man!!!

Sedona is one of those rare communities where there are no streetlights, ordinances require shielded lighting, and porch lights are illegal. The view from Denny's driveway rivals the best dark skies I've ever seen. It was so dark that the constellation Orion was difficult to make out due to the density of now-visible stars. We observed from Denny's driveway for a while. But because we were tired from the long drive, we didn't stay at the eyepiece too long.

Isaac and I each took our 12.5" f/5 ultralight dobs

Friday, 1/11/02

Although the skies from Denny's driveway are great, occasional passing headlights are annoying. So, we drove five minutes from Denny's house and set up in a vista point parking lot. Following Dino tradition, we barbecued sausages on a portable grill.

The temperature during the day was high 60's to low 70's. However, by 730PM, the temperature had dropped to 49°F with a relative humidity of 32%. The lowest temperature I recorded while observing was 40°F. %RH always stayed in the low 30's. Needless to say, transparency was excellent. The sky was wonderfully dark. However, seeing didn't allow magnification much above 200X, typical of this time of year.

Highlights

I logged approximately 40 new objects and many old favorites. Here are some highlights.

I started with NGC253 (mag 7.1, 25.0'X5.0') in Sculptor.

This is a wonderful bright, large, edge-on galaxy. Views from the Bay Area are usually marginal. It was very well placed from Sedona. Views in my 14mm looked like photographs. The galaxy spanned my entire f.o.v. I could see dust lanes meandering through its bright, elongated central region.

Fornax System (8.3, 62.5'X46.8')

This galaxy is only represented by a large circle and "Fornax System" in SA2000. It's a dwarf galaxy in our Local Group. Because it is so large, it has a very low surface brightness. I don't think I would be able to see it from the Bay Area. It was quite a difficult object from Sedona. I could eventually trace its outline with averted vision while scanning the telescope around its location.

NGC1049

This is one of those extragalactic globular clusters visible with small scopes. It resides within the Fornax dwarf galaxy. I could identify it using The Sky software. It is not that difficult to see, but it doesn't look much like a globular. It looks like a fuzzy star.

The cluster of galaxies in Fornax.

A number of people have already reported observations of this southern group. I suspected I would get a much better view from AZ than I normally would in the Bay Area. I spent about 1-1/2 hours on this area. First I simply scanned the area using my 14mm Radian. I then went back and carefully drew the locations of each and made brief notes about their appearances. I don't know if these are all part of the same galaxy cluster. They all lie within about 2° of each other. The Sky indicates other galaxies in this area that I should have been able to see. This area of the sky rotating into a light dome, and generally poorer seeing to the south, interfered. I also logged several other galaxies a couple of degrees west of this region. Does anyone have a list of galaxies in this cluster?

The pair of galaxies NGC1531 (13.2, 1.4'X0.9') and NGC1532 (10.7, 12.5'X3.3 ').

NGC1532 is a nice large edge-on with a bright core. NGC1531 lies just outside the perimeter of NGC1532 and is almost exactly aligned with its core.

M42 The Orion Nebula.

This region of the sky was unquestionably the darkest and most transparent. We all agreed that M42 was the best object of the night. I had never seen it better. Contrast and detail were beyond description. In addition, the Flame or Christmas Tree Nebula was as distinct without a filter as I have ever seen it - with or without a filter. The could just detect the Horsehead Nebula without a filter.

Saturday, 1/12/02

The sky was wonderfully clear during the day. During late afternoon, high, thin clouds appeared and were quickly followed by much thicker ones. The sunset was spectacular. Only in Hawaii have I seen such intense reds. Interestingly, we had a 360° sunset. The angle of the sun and the location of the clouds created a ring of fire along the horizon in every direction. The effect lasted approximately 10 minutes. Thereafter, only the west was brilliantly illuminated. We shared the view with about a dozen of the local amateur astronomers. We all decided to bail after about an hour of waiting.

Sunday, 1/13/02

Isaac and I extended our stay to Sunday night. The clear skies returned and the conditions were similar to Friday night. The temperature dropped to the low 40's with the %RH in the low 30's.

I logged approximately 20 new objects and spent more time observing old favorites.

Highlights

SA2000 lists another dwarf galaxy in our local group, the Sculptor System, lying 20° west of the Fornax System. It is slighter dimmer and smaller (8.8, 40.0'X30.8'). By the time it was dark enough to observe, its location was already encroaching on the light dome to the south. Like the Fornax System, it has a very low surface brightness. I could eventually detect it with averted vision (averted imagination?) while scanning the telescope around its location.

M31 was clearly an extended object without visual aid. Its bright core was easy with direct vision and I followed its halo out a couple of degrees. Nearby, the open cluster NGC752 was an easy naked eye object. Even M33 could be seen with averted vision. In the telescope, spiral structure in M33 was easy to see, along with a number of the stellar associations within it. The only better view I remember of M33 was last winter at LSA.

Facing a long drive home the next day, we packed up by midnight. It certainly was tough to call it quits on luxurious dark skies and head back to the Bay Area.

Many thanks to Denny for being such a wonderful host.

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