by Peter McKone
Two of my cabin mates were planning to stay an extra night at CalStar, and after reading the reports from Sunday night at Shingletown, this seemed like a good idea. People's plans can change, but the cabin was already paid for, and the weather was still good, and on Sunday evening I set up my 15' Discovery and waited for the sun to go down. It was strange to be alone in the field where over 100 telescopes had been set up just one night earlier. It wasn't long before I started hearing some spooky noises. At first I attributed them to deer, which are everywhere.
Then I heard a whinny, which seemed strange since I hadn't seen any horses. Next came a lot of grunting and some fighting, and I realized that I was in the company of a bunch of wild pigs gathered around one of the dumpsters, presumably interested in day-old tri-tip! Who knew that pigs could whinny? I had visions of being chased by one of those 1000 pound propane tanks with feet, which I've actually seen at Fremont Peak. I started my car, turned on the lights, and drove them away. There were five ordinary size pigs, not too scary, and they trotted away when they saw the car.
What about objects in the sky? Here are some highlights (and lowlights).
Caldwell 44 (aka. NGC7479). This galaxy just south of the square of Pegasus has an interesting shape in pictures. I probably should look at it again with this in mind. Instead I tried to find the #13 Palomar Globular, half a degree to the northeast. I never saw it.
IC 289. This mag 12 planetary nebula just outside of the boundary of Camelopardalis looks like a 1-minute-old puff of smoke that has mostly dissipated. I identified it without a filter, and had trouble finding it again after I screwed a filter into the eyepiece. A good challenge in dark skies, but as I said in an earlier email, not one of the top 100 non-Messier objects.
NGC 7354. For some reason, this nice planetary which is listed in TheSky at mag 13, was easier than IC 289 above. I guess mag 13 really is brighter than mag 12 when the object is smaller.
NGC 6440 and 6445. This globular and planetary nebula are less than half a degree apart, and only two degrees southwest of M23 in Sagittarius. At first I thought that the mag 13 planetary was another globular. Again, it was brighter than I expected.
NGC1275 (Perseus A). I saw a parallelogram of four dim galaxies. There were some other faint smudges. I cannot claim to have seen the 100+ galaxies in this cluster that a certain other member of our group was able to observe!
NGC 6723. Albert suggested this big bright mag 7 globular south of Sagittarius. If Messier had observed from a tall mountain, I'm sure it be on his list!
Stephan's Quadruple. I won't lie. I only saw four galaxies. It was late. I'll try again.
NGC 6940. A big bright open cluster near the Veil. I saw an elongated group of stars that appeared to be in the foreground of a 3-D view. Very pretty.
NGC 1514. I mention this big mag 10 planetary because I didn't find it at first. There are two naked-eye stars at the southern end of Perseus that point to the field of view, so it should be easy. The central star is SO bright that I didn't see the nebula. That's a big switch for anyone who has spent time studying M57! You don't expect to need a filter to see a mag 10 planetary, but in this case, it made all the difference.
Caldwell 4 (aka. NGC 7023) in Cepheus. With an Ultrablock filter, this appeared as a star with a glowing circle around it. It's what you expect to see when dew starts to form on your eyepiece. To add to the confusion, there is another star in the vicinity that exhibits similar behavior, which I had previously incorrectly identified as the target object. I could not see the bigger nebula that shows up in pictures. I hope Moore didn't select this object just based on the picture! I suggest looking at the nearby nebula NGC 7129 instead.
Caldwell 19 (IC5146) in Cygnus. Some people persist in calling this the Cocoon Nebula. I failed to find this object previously, but was successful this time. It appeared as a dim nebula between two stars. Not easy to hop to. There is a mag 4 star a little more than 2 degrees to the northwest, but no easy asterism in the actual field of view. As with NGC 7023 above, this is a tough target for an amateur with modest equipment in not-really-dark skies. Complain, complain.
Caldwell 42 (NGC 7006). A distant globular near the nose of the Dolphin. I was preparing to look at this object on the previous night when Bob Jardine got me interested in the NoSeeUm dwarf galaxy C51 (IC 1613). By the time we finished with that object, Delphinius was in the tree tops, and I couldn't find 7006. How embarrassing! I started to wonder how small or dim it might actually be. On Sunday night I found a dim patch of light that could possibly be the globular I was looking for. I went back to the chart to confirm the field of view. When I returned to the eyepiece, the real NGC 7006 had drifted into view! It is NOT small and not particularly dim. Just a little farther away from the Dolphin than I had expected.
Caldwell 47 (NGC 6934). A nice ordinary mag 9 globular, south of the Dolphin's tail. This is my idea of a good target for a second-year amateur.
Caldwell 11. (The Bubble Nebula). I've had trouble finding this famous nebula previously, but it's so beautiful in the Hubble picture that I keep trying. Using M52 as a guide, I panned 3/4 of a degree to the southwest, and found an asymmetric nebula surrounding a star. Another tough target for a backyard amateur without expensive equipment.
NGC 7789. This big bright open cluster near beta Cass (Caph) rivals the nearby M52. Here is a target that belongs on any post-Messier list.