by Peter Natscher
The 45 mi. drive to Fremont Peak from Monterey, California at 3:30 pm was one filled with good anticipation while noting how blue and clear the sky was that afternoon. I was anticipating a much better night of observing after being clouded and fogged out during my last few attempts in the last month. The weather during winter time is fickle and one has to get out at that day's good weather notice to get in the observation time. Going to Fremont Peak is still my favored observation spot because of its mature park setting and closeness to my home in Monterey.
I arrived at the Coulter Row area at Fremont Peak by 4:30 pm on Saturday, Jan. 12 already finding three of my TAC friends setting up equipment and eating pizza. By sunset, at 5:15 pm, another eight arrived quickly setting up gear to get their observing going. In addition, The Fremont Peak Observatory Association (FPOA) nearby was having a large attendance of families with children with one of their monthly astronomy programs. This created intermittant car headlight problems after dark with cars passing by us below at Coulter Row until 10 pm.spreading headlight beams on our scopes every 5-10 minutes at times. After 10 pmarrived and the crowd had gone home, the sky darkened better and the temperature lowered to the 40's along with rising humidity (90%). This offered us the best seeing of the evening. By 11:30 pm, I called it quits for the night because of the rising humidity and impending dew about to covering my scope, eyepieces, and atlases. During my 5 hrs. of observing, I was able to observe, log, and carefully illustrate my first 12 "Herschel 400" objects and carefully observe many other interesting wintertime Messier, NGC, and PK objects.
| Time | Saturday, Jan. 12, 2002. |
|---|---|
| Location | Fremont Peak State Park, California |
| Telescope | 20" Starmaster Dob f/ 4.25 |
| Seeing | Clear with scattered thin cirrus, slight breeze from the east. Gradual temp. drop throughout evening, from 54 deg. to 38 deg. |
| Visibility | mag. 6.5, varied stillness from sub-arc sec. to 2 arc sec. |
NGC 0157, Cetus, 00 hr 34 min, -08 deg 23 min; mag. 10.4, 3.5' x 2.4'; Galaxy (SAB), face-on spiral showing some arm detail from right center with a notch cutting inward at one end. Three field stars lying within galaxy in 20" and 19mm Panoptic (113x).
NGC 0185, Cassiopeia, 00 hr 38 min, +48 deg 20 min; mag. 9.2, 8.0' x 7.0'; Galaxy (E3) eliptical oval shape with bright center evenly fading toward edges. A few superimposed stars on the galaxy with 31mm Nagler (70x).
NGC 0205 (M 110), Andromeda, 00 hr 40 min, +41 deg 41 min; mag 8.1, 22' x 11'; Galaxy (E5) eliptical oval shape lying next to infamous M 31 Galaxy. Some superimposed stars lying in its glow which fades towards edges. 31mm Nagler (70x).
NGC 0040 (PK120+9.1), Cepheus, 00 hr 13 min, +72 deg, 31 min; mag 10.4, 74 sec.; Planetary nebula, nice blue-gray colored glow showing a shell and internal detailed structure. Central star (mag. 11.5) obvious. Planetary blinks with eye movement.
NGC 0129, Cassiopeia, 00 hr 30 min, +60 deg 13 min; mag. 6.5, 12'; Open cluster, large with a loose irregular array of many even mag. stars and with 5 brighter ones dominating. 31mm Nagler (70x).
NGC 0136, Cassiopeia, 00 hr 31 min, +61 deg 31 min; 1.5'; Open cluster, small compact with a sprinkle of stars and 3 brighter stars. 12m Nagler (180x).
NGC 0210, Cetus, 00 hr 40 min, -13 deg 52 min; mag 10.9, 5' x 3'; Galaxy (SAB) elongated spiral with condensed center and arms showing at opposite ends. 19mm Panoptic (113x).
NGC 0225, Cassiopeia, 00 hr 43 min, +61 deg 46 min; mag. 7.0, 15'; Open cluster, irregular shape with approx. 30 white stars, some brighter. 31mm Nagler (70x).
NGC 0246 (PK118-74.1), Cetus, 00 hr 47 min, -11 deg 52 min; mag. 8.0, 245'; Planetary, very large and not visible at low elevation in light polluted skies. required O-III to see well at 70x with 31mm Nagler. A few superimposed stars and darkening towards center and on S. side.
NGC 0278, Cassiopeia, 00 hr 52 min, +47 deg 32 min; mag. 10.8, 2' x 2'; Galaxy (SAB) elongated spiral with bright central area and many neighboring field stars. 9mm Nagler (240x).
NGC 0381, Cassiopeia, 01 hr 08 min, +61 deg 35 min; mag. 9.3, 7'; Open cluster, small and loosely arrayed with 40 evenly bright stars. 12mm Nagler (180x).
NGC 2359, "The Duck Nebula", Canis Major, 7 hr 18 min -13 deg 12 min; A nice irregular bright nebula needing no UHC filter to see with 20" scope and 19 mm Panoptic. Nebula is in a inverted irregular "L" shape like a duck's head. The nebula is overlayed with stars and there's an orange star to the S.E. A bright nebula showingsome dark matter detail; the nebula is also reminescent of a tear-drop shape.
M 46 (NGC 2437), Puppis, 7 hr 42 min, -14 deg 45 min; A well-known wintertime open cluster following and east of dazzeling Sirius. This cluster is full of a hundred similar magnitude stars that fill the 31 mm Nagler eyepiece on the 20" Dob. It looks like a loose globular cluster. The planetary nebula NGC 2438 sits in front of this cluster with its own central star. A real nice 3-D view using the bino-viewer and a pair of 19 mm Panoptics (180x).
M 50, Monoceros, 7 hr 3min, -8 deg 15 min; A spectacular full F.O.V. open cluster with the 31 mm Nagler (70x). White-colored bright stars forming a "V" shape similar to the "Wild Duck" cluster only larger and less dense.
PK217.1+14.7, 7 hr 06 min -03 deg 05 min; mag 13.6, 19 ", Planetary nebula, blue-green with oblong shape. Two ends are brighter than middle. 7.5mm Tak LE at 287x. Just outside the FOV lies M+0-20-6, a faint mag 14 galaxy 15' S.
NGC 2261 (Hubble's Variable Nebula) Monoceros, 6 hr 39 min, +8 deg 48 min; Bright nebula. Easy fan-shaped nebula with 31mm Nagler (70x)/9mm Nagler (240x). Looks like a shortened comet with a star at its apex at the S. end. Nebula extends out to 3.5' from apex.
M 42, The Trapezium, Orion, 5 hr 35 min, -5 deg 27 min; Famous bright nebula with mottled and detailed blue-green angular central portion of this grandest nebula visible to the northern hemispher. Central portion has the four A,B,C,D stars of the Trapezium. In addition to the E and F stars, the 20" Dob shows three additional faint stars lying outside the foursome between 10-30 arc sec. of the Trapezium. Using a bino-viewer with 19mm Panoptics (180x) offers a big screen effect.
M 35, Gemini, 6 hr 09 min, +24 deg 21 min; Large open cluster filling the FOV of 31mm Nagler (70x). No end to amount of stars (bright to threshold mag) seen with the 20". NGC 2158 is 30' to S.W., a small detached open cluster, looks like a loose globular cluster with low power. Shows no central condensation with mag 12 to threshold stars in irregular shape using higher power, 9mm Nagler (240x).
J320 (PK190.3-17.7) Orion, 5 hr 05 min, +10 deg 42 min, mag 11.9, 26 sec.; Planetary nebula, elongated, egg shaped, blue. Tiny, without that surrounding glow, looks like a double star at low power. Lies next to two other equally bright mag 11.9 stars at 200x. Requires 400x to see its shape. O-III and UHC filters help with detail.
NGC 2362, Canis Major, 7 hr 18 min -24 deg 57 min; Large compact open cluster, circular ball-shaped similar to a loose globular cluster without central condensation. Shows a much brighter blue-white blazing star at its center surrounded by many other white stars, like a grand firework. 31mm Nagler (70x)
NGC 2346 (PK215+3.1), Monoceros, 7 hr 09 min, -00 deg 48 min; mag 11.6, 52 sec.; Planetary nebula classic blue color and circular shape with mag 11.4 central star. Low power (70x) shows circular shape, but high power (431x) and O-III and UHC filters reveal some structure tending towards an outward direction at 180 deg. from eachother.