Messier Starhop Practice on Monday Night

by Jane Houston Jones

We knew the weather would wash out the rest of the weeknight dark-location observing opportunities, so we made a run for the lake again Monday night, March 4, 2002.

We arrived before sunset. For those of you who have never been to Lake Sonoma it is 70 miles from central San Rafael, 68 miles if you take the scenic Dry Creek Road past Healdsburg rather than driving on to the Canyon Road turnoff past Geyserville. You are on Highway 101 all the way to either Dry Creek Road in Healdsburg or Canyon Road past Geyserville. These well maintained roads meander past dozens of wineries, and through acres of grapevines, all sporting young shoots grafted onto the ancient knotty vines. It is worth the drive to Lake Sonoma just to see the heart of the Sonoma wine growing area. It is an easy 8 miles from Highway 101 to the observing sites, and these good paved roads are wide and not twisty, and easy to manouver on the way home, too. Teere are plenty of all night diners on the way home, a couple Denny's. a couple IHOPs and even Pete's Henny Penny on North Petaluma Road, the first Petaluma exit when approaching from the north. It's across from a Dennys, and I recommend it if you don't like chain restaurants.

We had plenty of time to set up and enjoy a picnic supper while watching the low rolling coastal hills darken in twilight.

Our first target was again comet Ikeya-Zhang. It was east to spot, by starting at Mars, and following a chain of stars in Pisces down toward the horizon. From Mars to alpha, then nu, then mu, then xi and epsilon, and when you get to delta Pisces, you've gone to far. It's mag 5.5 right now, and near epsilon Pisces, at least it was last night. Anyway, the chain of stars made an easy starhop, two thirds the distance from Mars to horizon. The comet was way more impressive Sunday night, mostly due to the approaching bad weather which brough alot of high clouds. On the positive side this made for incredible steadiness on the planets later.

For those considering Lake Sonoma for a Messier Marathon, you'll find two great lots to choose from. If it does rain this week or next, the upper Lone Rock Flat lot may be too muddy and therefore not open. I'm sure the LS regulars will check out the situation and post for you all. The Lower Grey Pine Flat is also good and I noticed a porta potty there on Sunday, which wasn't there the last time I used the lot, a few weeks ago. It is about a third the size of the bigger lot and is about 400 feet lower in elevation, which can be an issue if there is fog in the valleys. There are campgrounds near park HQ by the dam and at other locations in the park for those of you who opt for a camping trip.

We set up in a different spot last night at Lone Rock Flat. There is plenty of room near the entrance, but it is lower and I don't think Marathoners will be able to see M77 and M74 from there. The middle of the lot is higher and flatter, and the very back (which I like, even though you see the oncoming traffic if you happen to be looking at the road, which isn't likely.) dips down some and is not as flat. But it has the benefit of picnic tables, privacy and a great meadow walk below, great for little kids.

We opted for middle ground last night about halfway from the entrance, and from there we could not see oncoming traffic, only the very few cars coming down from the upper dead-end of Rockpile Road. Those coming for the first time would definitely want to arrive early to see where you'd like to set up. There'll be less than a dozen cars driving by on any given night, so it is not a big deal anyway.

We started our starhop practice at 7:30 p.m. It was dark enough to see the comet so it was dark enough to see M77 in Cetus. Lake Sonoma has great Messier horizons, by the way. Sonoma astronomers have been using this location for marathons and meteor showers over 20 years, probably longer, but they have and use other locations too. We used Don Machholz's booklet and his observing order and did not need another other reference for a starhop though the Messiers.

M77, NGC 1068 in Cetus m8.9 oval elongated nne/ssw

M74, NGC 628 in Picses, m9.5 face-on elliptical, looks like a glob in small 'scopes

M33, NGC598 in Triangulum, m6.2, face-on spiral

M31, NGC224 in Andromeda, m4.5, spiral

M32, NGC221 in Andromeda, m8.6, elliptical

M110, NGC205 in Andromeda, m8.7, elliptical

We were delighted to see all 5 of the first objects here. We'll be in W Texas/ S NM and S TX during Messier week.

M52, NGC7654 in Cassiopeia, m 7.6 open cluster with a distinctive bright yellow mag 8.2 star to help you verify this one amoung all the many Cass clusters

M103, NGC 581 in Cassiopeia, m7.0, a wedge shaped open cluster

M76, NGC650-1 in Perseus, m9.6, planetary nebula with ne/sw connected nodules

M34, NGC1039 in Perseus, m6.3 open cluster with a nice double, chains and clumps

M45, Mel22 in Taurus, m2.0, The Pleiades, what more can I say?

M79, NGC1904 in Lepus, 8.1 globular cluster with a real nice little chain of stars

M42, NGC 1976 in Orion, m4.3, the great one - emission and reflection nebula

M43, NGC 1982 in Orion, m8.3, emission and reflection nebula bordered by dark lane

M78, NGC2068 in Orion, m8.4, emission and reflection nebula, fan shaped surrounding hazy eyes, one of the reasons to do a Messier survey from time to time. Other nebs in the same field if you look.

M1, NGC 1952 in Taurus, m8.7, supernova remnant aka the Crab Nebula

M35, NGC 2168 in Gemini, m4.8, great open cluster, see the small tight cluster NGC2158 SW

M37, NGC2090 in Auriga, m6.2 open cluster w/150 stars

M36, NGC 1960 in Auriga, m5.8 open cluster w/40 starse

M38, NGC 1912 in Auriga, m6.0 open cluster w100 stars, with OC NGC 1907 neaby appearing like a mini double cluster

M41, NGC2287 in Canis Major, m5.8 open cluster

M93, NGC 2447 in Puppis, m5.8 open cluster, wedge shaped

M46, NGC2422 in Puppis, m5.6 bright scattered open cluster

M47, NGC 2437 in Puppis, m6.7, magnificent faint cluster with just the coolest planetary nebula NGC 2438 which appears to be imbedded but is a foreground object. This object is reason alone to revist the Messiers.

M50, NGC 2323 in Monoceros, m7.1 open cluster

M48, NGC 2548 in Hydra, m6.2, open cluster, one of the questionable Messier objects, as the corrdinates do not match Messier's original position.

M44, NGC 2632 in Cancer, m3.3, the beehive cluster

M67, NGC 2682 in Cancer, m7.6 is one of the most ancient star clusters at 5 billion years old. M67 does not lie in the plane of our solar system but has traveled out to the dust and gas poor fringes of the disk.

It was now 8:30 p.m. and we had observed 28 Messiers in one hour. We had also gone back and tried M77 and M74 twice and could still see them. WE had to take a cloud break now, because most of Leo was obscured by cloud.

M95, NGC 3351 in Leo, m9.5 is part of the Leo 1 Cloud. M95 is an elongated circle.

M96, NGC3368 in Leo, m9.1 is also part of the Leo 1 Cloud. M96 is brighter and larger appearing than M95, and is 40' distant. If you have two objects in your eyepiece and the f.o.v. is less than 50 degrees, then you have not found M95 and 96. Keep trying. There are lots of galaxies in Leo. The next three are also part of the Leo 1 Cloud.

M105, NGC3379 in Leo, m9.1 - in the same field of view as NGC3384 and 3389. M105 is the spherical galaxy, and 3384 is lenticular in shape, and 3389 is a loose spiral. Both are smaller than M105.

M65, NGC 3623 in Leo, m 8.9 is elongated n/s

M66, NGC 3627 in Leo, M8.6 is a spiral and the brightest of the trio and is also elongated n/s.

These two Messiers do all fit in one eyepiece view, with NGC 3628, alas, not a Messier . It is a larger and fainter edge on spiral elongated e/w, so it is easy to tell which two are the Messiers, the two elongated n/s.

It was now a little after 9:00 p.m.and clouds were passing and obscuring Ursa Major, our next target with 6 Messiers. We had seen every one of the first 33 Messiers in an hour and a half with one cloud and cashew break. We observed them all in both of our telescopes, and for charts, just used Don Machholz's book. We referred to the NSOG for drawings and sketches of the objects when we were in doubt.

Before we left, we aimed the f/4.8 14.5 inch reflector at Jupiter, using our 6mm Zeiss Abbe Ortho for a high power view. While the night for Messiers was over, the steadiness of the seeing was perfect for planets. We left Lake Sonoma at a little before 10:00 p.m. and were home by 11:15 p.m.

Messier Tips: Bring photos of the Messiers. Alot of people actually bring the Sky Publishing Messier Chart, or sacrifice one by cutting up the squares. Then you'll have a deck of Messier trading cards. For a group, it might be a good idea for someone to bring the poster for people to refer to during the night. Those photos are great as they are in black and white, not colorized and over processed, and look somewhat like the objects in the eyepiece. Howard Pennington's book has sketches of all the Messiers, and that is also a good reference. NSOG has them all too, I am sure, but you'd have to switch between the bulky Volume 1 and Volume two (like for M48). It is important to know what the objects look like, because in some cases, you'll have to identify the right galaxy among many in the eyefield.

When I was starting out I practiced the Virgo/Coma Messiers dozens of times, using the great Mastering the Virgo Cluster article by Alan MacRobert, published in S&T May 1994. I sketched every one of them to make sure I knew which was which in this crowded area. I also used Robert Garfinkles Starhopping book, which has dozens of great starhopping projects, and then made up my own Virgo starhop, combining what I liked best from both. It is in the TAC archives here. /reports/98.05.05.html. Even if you don't star hop, these sources will provide fodder for many happy observing or even imaging sessions.

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