by Richard Crisp
After a brief visual session on the West Side of the bay at the Millbrae Ayres' outpost, I returned to the Castro Valley Development Center to give the recently overhauled C14 a test run. Surprisingly the beast was collimated well enough that I didn't find the need to change anything. This surprised me as the corrector plate had been taken off during the overhaul (really a general cleaning and flocking of the inside of the OTA).
I had a great time working visually with the 155AP at MB a couple of nights ago so I decided that I'd try a visual-only evening for a change. I had a great time. Maybe eyepieces are useful for something besides finder scopes and eyepiece projection after all!
My best sky is to the north as it avoids the light dome of the bay area. It is nearly as dark to the north here as MB is dark to the south and that is pretty good for a suburban backyard. So after the usual obligatory views of Saturn and Jupiter and an unsuccessful attempt at VIEWING the horsehead through an H-beta and then an OIII filter, I swung the mighty c14 off to the north, starting first in Cassiopeia, or "OC Land" as James Turley likes to call it. That's a great name because there were lots of open clusters there.
I started a bound log book and even made a couple of sketches. I should get a pencil because the ball point pen was pretty stiff in the 35 degree weather. Nonetheless I sketched M103, a really nice OC. I found that the longer I looked at it, the more stars I could see. Using averted vision helped even more. Once the sketch was completed, I moved on to visually
I then moved to Camelopardalis where I first stopped at M97 for a look through two filters, DeepSky, OIII and clear. The OIII and the Deep Sky filter (Lumicon) improved the contrast somewhat, but I took the filters off because I wanted to chase galaxies in that constellation. In all cases I was using the 31MM Nagler T5 with the CM1400, which made for a pleasing level of magnification (126x) with a wide field of view (39mm circle). In fact the field of view is a circle that will just hold the field of view of the ST7E's imaging chip when used with the 0.75x Telecompressor (f/5.25) on the AP155EDF that Phil Chambers mentioned had received first light through an eyepiece on Fri at MB ridge.
The galaxies I observed in Cam were IC342, NGC2336, NGC2403 and NGC4151. NGC4151 is a face on galaxy, and looks like that will be a good imaging target. NGC2336 looks to be perhaps the best imaging target due to the wispy arm that is separated from the rest of this nice face-on spiral galaxy. I think the clumps in NGC2403 may also make for an interesting imaging target as well. There are so many fine tiny galaxies in Cam that will make great imaging targets!
After working Cam, I moved on to Draco where I observed NGC4125, NGC5907 and NGC6543, a planetary nebula. I could see the bright core quite easily in NGC4125 and a companion star nearby. NGC5907, another "cigar" galaxy showed up as a wide line. And NGC6543 basically looked like a faint blob. A serious attempt at imaging the latter through emission line filters may reveal an interesting object, but I will save that for another day.
Moving next to Ursa Major, I observed M81 and M82, enjoying the central region of M82 tremendously. M81 is one of my favorites, having imaged it several times in the past. I think it is really interesting knowing that it is of the core of known for having more supernovae than any other galaxy (or at least that is what I think I remember having read). I then observed NGC2841, NGC2976 and NGC3079 which I sketched. NGC3079 is another cigar shaped galaxy, but maybe is better described as a baguette with its hump in the middle. I definitely want to image this one on another night. The one that got me excited about imaging, in UMa was NGC2841. It sort of reminds me of M63 in that it has a lot of mottled detail. Of course I couldn't see that detail visually, but it is duly noted for a potential imaging target. NGC2976 is also similar in shape to '2841 and may also make for a good target. I noted it as "interesting" when recorded its observation in my log book.
Before wrapping things up in Canes Venatici, I took a quick look at M48 in Hydra. This is a huge open cluster with lots of stars. I was getting cold so I chose to not sketch it (the open clusters are pretty easy to sketch and I like that feature when using a ball point pen in the dark when it is near freezing).
Swinging over to Canes Venatici, I logged M51 (always a beauty) , NGC4111 and NGC4214. NGC4111 had a nice cigar like shape reminiscent of M82 (observed earlier) but without the central rift looking feature. NGC4214 is a face on galaxy that appeared as a blob, but it may also be a good imaging target for the future.
When I began my survey the temperature was 42degrees F and was 70% relative humidity. By the time I quit at 1:30am (shivering cold), It was 33 degrees F and 98% RH. Yet despite this high humidity, there was no fog over me. When I returned home from the quick session on the other side of the bay, it was about 9:30 and there was a ton of fog just down the street from me. But apparently the fog seems to roll in all round me and tends to bypass me under these conditions for which I am thankful. I've seen this on other days, notably Tuesday night last week. That was the night that brought in the heavy fog that killed the morning commute on the 9th if I remember correctly. It is very strange that under these conditions I can drive 500 yards away and see tons of fog, so thick that it is difficult to drive, but in my backyard at the CVDC, it can be crystal clear. Go figure. And from what I read about the weather at the peak, I think I made a lucky choice that happened to be the lowest effort one too.
Bottom line for last night was it was cold and wet but quite rewarding to spend time with an eyepiece and a notepad. It was a lot quicker to set up too, not having to fuss with cables, tables, laptops and sometimes uncooperative ccd cameras. I think I will sandwich a few visual-only nights into my observing regimen in the future if for no other purpose, to better acquaint myself with potential objects for imaging and to get more familiar with what is in the various constellations and where those constellations reside in the sky.