by Peter McKone
In addition to deep sky objects, amateur astronomers also frequently observe wildlife. Hardly a night goes by that you don't see at least one deer on your way down the mountain. I almost hit a suicidal one last night at Fremont Peak. There was also a rabbit in the road a little farther along. Last Wednesday I had to swerve to avoid a pair of fighting raccoons in the middle of Page Mill Road in Palo Alto. And who has gone to Montebello without hearing the Coyotes? Still, I wasn't prepared for what we observed last night at Fremont Peak. Two LARGE wild boars were strolling around the parking lot, showing no interest at all in us humans. I'm guessing they each weighed three to four hundred pounds. There was some joking about a barbecue, but I didn't see anyone chasing these large animals with much enthusiasm! This may be a common site for Fremont Peak regulars, but it was a real treat for me.
What about the sky? It was fairly dark, due to haze over Salinas, although I never saw dew on my scope. I intended to camp out in the observatory if the wind didn't let up, but I never got there. High winds turned into gentle breezes as the sun set. Chilly temperatures detracted from an otherwise pleasant night. Forty degrees, even at one am, is not acceptable in June. Shingletown won't be like this, will it?
I spent a lot of time tracking down Pluto, which is currently in the same field of view as a mag 6.9 star about 3.5 degrees above Sabik in Ophiuchus. There is a mag 13.5 star 38 arc seconds away, and it appears that the 6.9 star has a much closer companion whose magnitude I would guess to be about 10, that doesn't show up in The Sky's database. It was closer than Polaris' double, but not as close as the Double Double's companions. Someone with a bigger scope or better catalogs could verify this. There is also a mag 14 star near Pluto, that helps with orientation. I'll have to look again next month to find out if I really saw it.
I like planetary nebulae, and the Box Nebula is only a couple degrees to the left of Pluto, so I couldn't leave the area without taking a look. Disappointing. At 135x in my 15" Discovery, it looked like a tiny open cluster. Nothing like the Blue Snowball or Ghost of Jupiter, which is how God intended planetary nebulae to look! I switched to M57 to compensate for time spent on the Box. I always hope to get a glimpse of the central star, but I've only seen it once, and last night was not the night. I also took a quick look at the Owl nebula to remind me how big these objects can get. As usual, no eyes. Since I was in the vicinity, I spent some time looking at M51 and its companion. The spiral structure was obvious, again justifying the upgrade to a 15" scope. By now Cygnus was well above the horizon, and I have been trying to find a use for the Orion Ultrablock filter I bought last December, so I aimed for the Veil. The filter must have been designed with this nebula in mind. It was easy to follow the bright strands all around the swan's left wing. This filter doesn't help much with planetaries, but it makes the Veil look like a florescent light! Not wishing to be the last person to leave the parking lot, I packed up at 1:30 and left.