by Robert Leyland
I left Novato in plenty of time, but a nasty bit of traffic in Santa Rosa delayed my arrival until 6:30pm, by which time it was pretty dark.
Setting up a new equatorial platform in the dark, under my 17" telescope occupied a good portion of the evening. Luckily for me David Silva was there too, and he was a great help, as I struggled to level, align and tune the platform. I'd set it up once at home, but the first time out in the dark was an entirely different thing. The loose gravel slopes far more than my nice level deck, and quick access to odds and ends around the house make it a tad easier to manage an unfamiliar bit of gear.
Nevertheless I persevered, and got a bit of observing done too!
| Observer | Robert Leyland |
|---|---|
| Date | 4 Nov 2002 |
| Time | 1830-0300 PST (UT -8, or 0030-1000 5 Sep 2002 UT) |
| Location | Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~1400 (Lone Rock Flat) |
| Weather | 10°C Temp, 50-60% Humidity |
| Seeing | LM 5.5, transparency 6/10, steadiness 7/10 |
| Moon | new moon |
| Equipment | 17.5" F5 Dob, 7x50 binoculars, Pentax XL EPs |
Initially I spent a goodly amount of time viewing (and adjusting tracking) on M13 and M57, always worth the treat, before moving on to my program.
The sky was not nearly as nice as two days earlier, neither the transparency, not the steadiness, as thin cirrus, and an approaching storm-front took a lot out of the viewing conditions. The galaxy/OC pair of 6939/6946 were scarcely better today in the 17, than before in the 8"
David Silva stayed until 11pm, but since this might be the last chance to get some observing done for a while I stuck it out. Plus I had my new toy to try out.
CEPHEUS
I started at Delta CEP, the cosmologists best friend, a fixed period/brightness candle, currently near maximum, and a pretty double star to boot. I hopped approximately 40' from Delta to Krueger 60, one of the entries in Gliese's Catalog of Nearby Stars; a moderately close, faint, double star easily split at 100x.
Reprising the view in the 8" of NGC 7023, the reflection nebula is much more apparent in the 17", and obviously stronger to the North of the mag 7 star. It shows numerous dark incursions and the nebulosity 3/4 surrounds the star in averted vision.
Cepheus seems to have quite a few combination objects, as my next object NGC 7129 attests. A combination open cluster and reflection nebula. A small cluster of stars with a diffuse glow around 3 of them The glow is out of proportion to the brightness of the stars, presumably it envelops them. Well worth checking out again.
Nearby to 7129 is the open cluster NGC 7142, a faint grouping of 50+ starts approx 15'x15' and dispersed in a pattern that reminds me of a bulldog (viewed 3/4 front), with the brighter stars forming the legs and head tilted quizically to one side.
NGC 7139, PN is large and circular, but faint, with indistinct edges. A very faint star on the SE side, and "ear" shaped groupings of stars around it. An OIII filter at 160x (14mm Pentax XL) show this PN to best advantage.
More planetaries, NGC 7076 is very faint and perhaps 1/2 the diameter of 7139, easily found by Delta CEP. Visible without a filter at 100x it looks like a fuzzy star, at 160x with an OIII the PN stands out from the background and shows its circular shape.
NGC 7354 is a moderately sized PN, a nearby double star points right at it. It is bright, but flat, at 100x, with two very faint stars adjacent. Moving to 160x and the OIII filter, these stars disappear and the 'surface' of the planetary appears mottled.
Finally NGC 40, a really neat PN, bright and quite noticeable at 55x, like a bullseye target. Another object well worth revisiting.
To close out the evening I did a quick scan of favourite nebulae in Orion, M42 (6 stars in trapezium), the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024), and NGC 1999 off the end of the sword.
This was a very slow evening for me, new equipment and poor conditions, but well worth the trip and traffic.