by Matthew Marcus
As others reported, it was a good night at Lake Sonoma, with a good-size crowd. It wasn't as warm as it has been, but it wasn't too cold, even pre-dawn. No dew formed anywhere. The seeing varied from very good to mediocre.
Among the assembled were Robert Leyland, Dick Flasck, Dave Silva and a couple more Daves. One of these brought a new 5" GOTO he was trying out. He was interested in seeing the difference between 5", 8" and more, with an eye to an upgrade path. Unfortunately, I don't remember his last name, but I think it begins with L. I'll refer to him as DL for now as he influenced some of my choices of object to go for. He was also the second-to-last out, outlasted only by me.
Of course, we started with Venus, which was showing a pretty crescent. DL had a finder chart for Comet Hoenig, which at the time was conveniently between Mizar and Alioth, so it was easy to find. This comet showed a hint of a tail. The coma seemed to be shorter along the tail direction than crosswise. I didn't see an obvious central condensation or pseudonucleus. Shortly thereafter, an Iridium flare came up. I was able to turn around at the shouts of "What's that!?" in time to see it. I hadn't looked up predictions, but it could have been nothing else. DL also went for Neptune and Uranus using the GOTO and wanted confirmation that he had them. He did, and got a lesson in why certain objects are called 'planetary' nebulae. That little scope was doing quite well.
As mentioned in other reports, Dick shared views of quasars with redshifts up to 3 (~13e9 years old, depending on assumptions). Amazing to think that with such relatively simple equipment, one could see across much of the visible universe. Those photons traveled for billions of years before bouncing off Dick's mirrors and smacking into my retina. Quasars aren't visual spectacles, but they sure make you think.
Now to start some serious deep-sky work. I started out with Andromeda, following Robert's lead. I first got 404, which Robert hadn't remembered being as easy as it was. It looks like a lens flare induced by the brightness of nearby beta-And, but it's not.
Most of the objects in Andromeda which I hadn't already gotten are galaxies of magnitude >=12. I got one of these, 80, a small round fuzzy of a sort I'd be seeing a lot of this time out. There's another galaxy in the field, 83, but I couldn't see it.
I noticed that Hercules was starting to set and I hadn't gotten many of the objects therein, so I switched away from Andromeda, which was still low in the E. In the faint-fuzzy parade:
| 6146 | A round disk with a bright core |
|---|---|
| 6173 | Another round blob |
| 6186 | I show this as a diffuse elliptical blob |
| DoDz 6 | One of those OCs for which you have to take someone's word that it isn't just Milky Way. I drew the stars and an elliptical outline within which there seemed to be a somewhat larger density of faint stars. |
| 6239 | An edge-on galaxy with enough stars in the field to make a nice frame. |
Of course, I didn't neglect to go after M13, M92 and 6207. DL's scope did pretty well on M13. By this time, the Double Cluster was fairly well up so I looked at it. I spotted M33 naked-eye, which I thought was only possible from a much darker site.
Next, I went over to Pegasus to revisit some favorites. 7331 looked pretty good, like a mini-M31, so I looked S of it and saw Stefan's Quintet as three distinct blobs. The actual galaxies form an equilateral triangle with two small galaxies occupying one point, and a small galaxy off to one side. I didn't spot the 'outlier', and the two neighboring ones blended together. Now for some more logging:
| 7457 | An elliptical fuzzy, placed at a Y-junction between three chains of stars, like a bird's nest in the crook of a tree branch. |
|---|---|
| 7154 | A round fuzzy with a star quite close. I bet that causes some false alarms for SN hunters. |
| 7177 | Ditto on all points. The star is embedded in the halo. |
| 7163/4+7165 | 7163 and 7164 didn't resolve as separate, so what I saw was a small streak (7163/4) next to a small round blob to its E (or is it W? - let's not start that again!) |
| 7469 | A faint, low-SB object I have down as a 'Maybe'. I drew a dotted ellipse where I think I saw something and put a ? next to it. |
| Peg I group | This is one of my favorite galaxy clusters. Like a mini version of Downtown Virgo, you can go from galaxy to galaxy. I spotted 7619, 7626, 7611, 7631 and 7617 (?), using the finder photo in NSOG to navigate and identify. There are stars sprinkled in among the galaxies, which makes for a pleasant visual effect. |
Now, DL was trying out the 'tour' feature of his scope. It suggested 253. I hadn't realized it, but Sculptor was at the meridian. 253 is one of the more spectacular objects. If the other guys hadn't left (the wusses!), I'd have begged a view in a big scope. As it was, it's a wow object in my 8". You could definitely see detail. I'd really like to put some aperture on it down South somewhere. I also revisited 55 and 134. Keeping to Sculptor, I then logged 289, a largeish, pretty bright elliptical fuzzy. I didn't draw a pronounced core. If it were higher in the sky, I'm sure it would be better known to us N-hemisphere people. Another obscure Sculptor object is Blanco 1, a loose OC spanning a couple of degrees. It's probably naked-eye in the right latitudes. I logged it using the Ranger as it wouldn't fit in the FOV of the C8. Then it was back to blobs as I logged 254, another galaxy.
By this time, Taurus was up and so DL and I went for M1 and saw it nicely. I then did 1514, a largish round PN with an unusually bright central star. Unfiltered, it looked like an RN around that star. With the O3 filter, the central star was still pretty bright, but I could see the disk. It was annular, with bright regions on opposite sides. I suspect it would look like M97 with more aperture. I also looked at 1746, an OC in Taurus.
I then showed DL a few more Messiers, such as the three in Auriga. By that time, M42 was up, so we spent time on it. The seeing was too poor to get more than 4 in the Trapezium. At that point, DL packed up and left, making me the last out, as is often the case.
I continued, getting 1003 (galaxy in Per) and M76. I then 'ate my dessert' by looking at the Big Planets. Saturn showed reasonable contrast in the belts, and Cassini was obvious. The crepe ring was easy. However, the seeing didn't allow me to see the Enke whateveritis. Still, it's always great to see Saturn again, especially after an absence. Jupiter showed some hints of bands, and a moon just coming out from behind or in front of the planet.
Having finished 'dessert', it was time to 'clear the table' and leave, with dawn stretching its rosy fingers across 101 on the way home.