by Bob Czerwinski
With clear skies overhead, and fog blanketing the coast to the west, I arrived at the SW parking lot of Fremont Peak State Park about 7:00pm, joining up with Peter Natscher. Peter had arrived shortly before I did, and already had his 20" Starmaster set up. I proceeded to set up my 18" Starmaster, and we soon had the place to ourselves. Just before sunset, two of the rangers stopped by to greet us, asking if we'd mind filling out a couple of Park survey sheets. We both did so, with the rangers pleased, but a bit surprised, to see some astro-folk in the SW Lot on a Thursday night. Going forward, it appears there will be a ranger on-site most of the time now, a very positive sign for Fremont Peak. As is now becoming habit, upon their departure from the SW Lot, the rangers dummy-locked the gate leading up to our venue, something I've always appreciated.
With the waxing-crescent Moon approaching First Quarter, we knew we'd be stuck with a relatively bright sky until close to midnight, but that didn't stop us from moving along with our observing programs. The seeing started off excellent, extremely steady, and remained so for the entire night. Sub-arcsecond seeing, in fact. It was just amazing to watch Peter Natscher really crank up the magnification on his 20". I believe he was running upwards of 860x when I took a look through the barlowed-eyepiece at his split of 72 Pegasi. (Yep, there's a lot to be said for a driven-Dob!) According to my thermometer/hygrometer, the nighttime temperature remained in the mid-70's for most of the night, with the humidity in the range of 23-31%. When I departed the Peak at 5:20am, the temperature was 71-degrees with the humidity at 24%. Couldn’t have asked for a nicer night ... save for that &^%$$ Moon! <g>
As the sky darkened, Peter noted just how nice La Luna was looking through his 20" 'scope. (Well, he still had plenty of time to dark-adapt. <g>) As I was observing a waning-crescent Venus, Peter called out that he was splitting Antares. After a look through Peter's 'scope - yep, that little green companion was clearly there, all right - I went back to try the same with my 18". Yep, there it was, clear as day. I've never been able to split Antares from the Peak; Alpha Scorpii is usually just dancing low in the south. This night was a clear exception, with Antares easily split at 250x (9mm Nagler w/ Paracorr), and looking even better at 470x (4.8mm Nagler w/ Paracorr). Last night I used my 9mm-, 7mm- and 4.8mm-Nagler eyepieces more than I had any other night. Later in the evening, following Peter's lead, I took a look at M57 in my 18" at 470x, and was rewarded with a coming-and-going, averted-vision view of the central star, a first for me with an 18" 'scope.
As has been my routine as of late, as soon as it was dark enough I made a beeline for Comet Hoenig. This baby is still moving pretty quickly across the sky, now about 5-degrees south of Alioth (Epsilon Ursae Majoris). It's been fun to track. Not a spectacular item by any means, but you can sure see how Messier et al. got their kicks from chasing comets. ;)
Even with the Moon around, the first official item on my list was Supernova 2002er in ... uh, what galaxy is this thing in? Unfortunately for me, although I'd brought along the accompanying finder image, I'd forgotten to bring along David Kingsley's e-mail ... and couldn't recall which galaxy to hunt down! Oh, well. I've certainly forgotten to bring along more important things from time to time ... like eyepieces and truss tubes. <g>
I did, however, bring the info for hunting down Pease 1, hoping to follow in the footsteps left by Mark Wagner last weekend. I, too, used the finder charts found at http://www.blackskies.com/peasefc.htm, and also agree that Chart 2 is key to finding this item. Working at 470x, I spent an hour on the hunt, hampered by my usual severely-watering-eyes and a non-driven Dob mount. <g> Under steady skies, it wasn't long before I believed I had located the planetary nebula, but spent quite a bit of time with both OIII- and UHC-filters confirming the siting. Yes, with the excellent seeing we had last night, at moderately high magnification Pease 1 did have that gray-softness to it, clearly a non-stellar object. Without the finder charts, however, I don't think I could have located this item. I certainly applaud Mark for having identified this thing under less than optimal seeing conditions last weekend, too. That was quite an accomplishment.
After a successful Pease 1 hunt (thanks for the encouragement, Mark), I continued my hunt for H2500 galaxies in Pisces. I've been working on this constellation for quite a while now, taking advantage of the time made available by my <*ahem*> temporary unemployment situation. <g> Quite a few galaxies are clumped together in Pisces, so I'm often working multiple-galaxy fields. I've run into one item, however, that, after multiple attempts with different 'scopes and eyepieces, I just haven't been able to find. Maybe some of you folk can assist me here. I just can't locate NGC 296. Both TheSky and Uranometria 2000 show it being very close to UGC 566 & 567, about 3-arcmins SW of them, and less than 10-arcmins NE of NGC 295. N295 sits right on the edge of a 10th mag star, making it a relatively easy find and allowing me to properly identify the field, but I still can't locate N296. Do TheSky and Uranometria 2000 have this thing properly positioned? Do I just need a darker sky? Higher magnification? Uh, ... better eyes? <g>
Up until last night I was also having trouble locating NGC 459. I spent quite a few nights on this one as well, but was finally rewarded with a towel-over-the-head averted-vision siting. I had to wait for the Moon to set, and I definitely couldn't have spotted this galaxy under less than ideal seeing conditions. Getting to the field always takes me a while, star-hopping out about 4-degrees from Eta Piscium. Once again, I used TheSky to direct me to the locale, and this time a couple of 14th-magnitude stars pointed to an extremely faint patch of light, very small, just visible with averted vision. This baby was tough! Has anybody spotted this thing in a 'scope with less than a 17- or 18-inch mirror? Yep, encouraged by this siting, I went back to NGC 296's field, but no amount of coaxing could bring this thing to light.
Since I was in hunt-mode, I didn't really take a look at those magnificent eye-candy items ... with one exception. I finished up the long night with M33 in Triangulum. Under ideal skies, I don't think there's much in the heavens that can beat the sight of the Pinwheel Galaxy in a large 'scope. A real feast for the eyes. At about 4:30am, and still within 20-degrees of the meridian, M33's emission knots and H-II regions were just blazing away. I spent about 20-minutes at the eyepiece, just wandering around the galaxy. This was a wonderful way to end the night.
I certainly wish more of you could have joined Peter and me at the Peak for an exceptional evening. I headed down San Juan Canyon Road about 5:20am ... just in time to catch the initial traffic-rush heading for the Silicon Valley. Ah, reality! <g>