by Marsha Robinson
I have throughly enjoyed the diaries of SSP attendees...especially Dan Wright! I say "ditto!"
I didn't arrive until Thursday so I could enjoy a birthday breakfast with my daughters. My first intro to Shingletown was the swimming hole and I mustered up the gumption to try the Tarzan rope...first time ever. I gracefully swung out and gracefully dropped into the water (not!). The water was cold, but with my back burning up, it didn't take me long to submerge myself. It was wonderful!!! I stayed in as long as I could and my lowered body temp kept me comfortable until the sun set out at the airport. Temps dropped a lot without the sun!
Thursday night the clouds were a pain, but I've been perfecting my sucker-hole observation techniques (SHOT) and thus I kept myself quite busy. Then at 23:00+/- the heavens opened up and it was gang busters until 1:00+/-!! My plan was to observe mainly in Bootes and Hercules. Finished with the Herschel 800 (H-I & H-II), I am onto the Herschel 2500. I had finished the 2500 for the July constellations last year, so I went back to June to catch Boo and Her. Below are my list of 46 objects I saw during the four nights. (I figured I was nailing 2.5 objects per hour.) Most (if not all) were Mag 14's. I spent a lot of time averting up, down, and sideways to catch a glimpse of most of them. Hard!!
Friday night was good, Saturday night was better, and Sunday night was...it was enough to take your breath away. Better than any Lassen night I've ever seen. Friday I saw dawn arrive and Saturday I stopped right before dawn (4:00). But Sunday night there was no way I was going to retire early. I was determined to finished Hercules and soak up every last photon that the dream-sky could give me. As everyone else retired, I found myself the lone observer on the runway. I will never forget the tranquility and silence of those hours under the most awesome sky. Looking up, I felt like I was the only one on Earth and the stars were my only friends. I guess you'd have to be there to understand...but then, I imagine many of you have been there before, too.
In Hercules, I liked NGC 6500 & 6501. They appeared to be identical galaxies (separated at birth?). In my 14.5 Dob (Starmaster/fl=1584) with a 12 mm Nagler, they appeared to be a glowy haze. I wondered why they didn't appear to be having a gravity match. They seemed to be content being so close. Close? Maybe not so close. But if M51's galaxies are battling, why wouldn't these two?
Most of the galaxies were described as faint, ultra faint, way dim, tiny faint smudge, and small phantom. But NGC 6158 was brighter than most. It was stellar-looking, but enough of a haze around it to distinguish it from other stars. Another was NGC 6301, described as a tiny, fuzzy, stellar galaxy. NGC 6154 got the "Ultra Faint" award until I got to NGC 6195. This one gave me cause to doubt whether I saw it or not. What I did see (I think!) was a thin veil of nebula. Has anyone else gotten a better glimpse of this one?
I didn't come close to finishing Bootes, but I really had fun with the hunt--I think I like that the best! Notables in Bootes were the following: NGC 5416--to me it looked like a tiny flying saucer. NGC 5293 made me wonder about what I saw. I described this one as, "Faint mist; seems rather large; no discerned shape." I wondered whether the galaxies, that appear like a brush stroke, really do have a distinct shape. Is it really round...or at least oval? Do I just need a 36" scope to give many of these so-called shapeless galaxies, a normal galaxy shape? I know with NGC 5249, it too looked like a square brush stroke. However, when I averted my eyes I saw an extended galaxy. Most galaxies, like NGC 5239, were impossible to look at straight on. This one was fairly large, but if you looked right at it, it totally disappeared...totally (high school dialect).
I can honestly say, I have never ever had so much fun on an observing trip as I did at SSP. Planting myself daily at the swimming hole was like being in Hawaii...only better! It made you forget that a heat wave was going on and it made me forget my job! Yea! Doing a crossword puzzle with Paul Sterngold was a highlight, too! Mixing with the locals was as if we had known each other for a long time and that we all had previously planned to meet at the swimming hole. The teenagers, with their super energy and strength, put on a very entertaining show splashing down off the ropes. But still, Paul S. outshined them all with his fancy dives off the rope. Paul is 19 years at heart. And Dan Wright, was it you that kept swinging off the rope waving HI MOM while Brad F. took pictures? I think Mimi swung on the rope more than anyone else and deserves an award. Mark swung once and deserves...
Every evening was a gala event where astro-buddies could spend happy times laughing and talking. The best was Saturday night. Nothing like the smell of BBQ and home-made pies! Lots of happy people!
As I walked the runway picking up trash on Monday, I suddenly stopped and realized that I had been walking under the sun for 15 minutes and didn't feel hot at all! Whoa! No sweat? If this day could have been the start of the star party, people would have realized that Shingletown is not Death Valley. What a freak weather system at the very time of our star party!
I loved seeing all the people I haven't seen in a long time: Brad F., Bud W., Robert S., and more. I loved seeing the people I often observe with: Rich N., Richard N., Dean, Mark, Jim B., Bob C., Jeff C. I missed seeing the ones that didn't make it up: Michelle Stone, Rashad, Paul L., Jaime, Peter N., Albert H. And lastly, I didn't mind that #898 won "my" 7mm Nagler. It couldn't have gone to a better person! (sniff, sniff) ;-/
Thanks to all of the folks in Shingletown. Everyone of the waitresses, store clerks, organizers were so courteous, happy, and they all made me feel at home in their town. MOST OF ALL, THANKS TO JIM AND MAGS AND HER PARENTS, ALTHEA AND GEORGE. TWO THUMBS UP!!!!! You worked so hard and persevered through so much political and bureaucratic b.s. to make this happen. I thank you from the bottom of my heart that you did!!! This was the best!!