A breezy but productive night out near Palomar

by Jeffrey Gortatowsky

My employer saw fit to give me two extra paid days vacation this holiday season. The only caveat was they had to be taken before January 2nd, 2003. I had informed my manager that I'd be taking those two days as "Clear Sky Targets of Opportunity Days". :) Based on the my own interpretations of the San Diego NOAA weather site, I felt Friday the 27th (28th UT) seemed as good as any.

So I slept in Friday morning, then sat down at the computer to plan the night beyond the H400 list I knew I'd work on. Moonrise? About '1 something' (9:00UT). Plenty of observing time. Next I checked for new comets: Yes, Kudo-Fujikowa would be 'just visible' and would have to be my close to my first target. That is unless I stayed into the early morning hours past 4:00AM (12:00UT). Then the comet could be my last, but then there would be that pesky Luna to deal with. Next I checked the planets... Mercury is well placed at sunset... my second target. Saturn nears M1 and Mimas is nearing an elongation, I'll have to check that out, no events of Jupiter's moons worth bothering with. So that is that. Plan complete.

I checked the weather and dew point data from my observing site to try and gage the moisture content of the correct air mass (dry). Okay, into the final countdown... make some ham sandwiches to munch on, load everything into the truck, thermos, laptop, a soda or two, and I was off. A quick Starbucks run to fill the Thermos, and head out CA91 and the I15...

I had a senior moment about 1.5 hours out. Did pack the truss tubes??? Pull off the road, open the back... yes... whew.

Fourteen miles (~26km) northeast of Palomar Mountain, it was a typical December afternoon. Very clear, quite breezy, and temps in the 8-10C range. Nary a cloud in sight. With luck the winds would subside. Well, they never really did. It stayed rather chilly and windy most of the night. But with the winds it was dry, clear, and dark. We take dem as they day come aye?

Except for my 'imaging friends', Jerry and Wanda, I was 'it'. The lone observer on dark Friday night. Well it is the holidays I suppose. Seeing was pretty bad for this site. Most nights a 13cm scope will show 6 stars in the Trapezium. Not this night. I'd say seeing was in the 3-5 range (on a 1-10) most of the time I was there (dusk to about 2am - or 01:00UT to 10:00UT on the 28th of December). But towards the end of the evening, 1am (09:00UT) or so, I was getting back to 6 stars in the Trapezium and could once again see Enceladus in the 45cm dob.

I don't have my logs transcribed yet so we'll just wing it.

At oh, dusk I'd say, I turned to Mercury... In the 45cm dob at 166x... Yes sir-eee... A gibbous protoplasmic plurality of prisms. Oh well, it is always nice to see the fast flying fleet-footed fellow.

I found Comet Kudo-Fujikawa with the 45cm dob low in Hercules at around 1:50UT . A fuzzy patch of cotton. Don't miss dinner for it, not yet anyway. BTW: I never found it in the 16x70s...

Seeing was far too crummy to coax any details out of the last of the Aquarius and Cetus H400 objects. Besides with no fog on the coastal plain, the Escondido, Temecula, and L.A. light domes were terrible anyway. So what to do when seeing is bad? Why 'Open clusters' and 'Nebulae' of course!!! Low power. Wide fields.

I logged all of the H400 open clusters in Cassiopeia, Pyxis, and Puppis. Quite a challenge considering the wind often blew me off target or shook the cage enough to make a 100 points of light laser light show.

Of course I detoured to the gas giants. Given the seeing that appeared they should have taken BEANO as they were blowin' in the wind most of time! Around 11pm (07:00UT) things calmed considerably and I quickly star checked and tweaked collimation. I veered off the H400 superhighway and set course on over to Saturn. During those fleeting moments where calm winds and reasonable seeing intersected, I could see Enceladus clearly and thought once or twice I saw Mimas. But 'thinking' and 'seeing' are two different things in my log. And most of the time I could not even see Enceladus, a feat that the 45cm handles normally with aplomb and grace.

Saturn and M1 fit nicely into the 31mm Nagler's FOV and were stunning to see together. M1 was SO BRIGHT! How in heavens name did I miss M1 just a few nights before under the magnitude 3 skies of home? Could it be the missing 27cm of aperture? Or the missing 3 magnitudes of dark sky? <g>

I did look once or twice at Jupiter, but I generally don't bother on my dark sky nights unless something interesting is happening. I can see details in Jupiter at home. I don't have to travel a few hours to do that.

So with the great light polluter rising in Virgo and 8 to 9 decent hours of observations in the 'can' so-to-speak. I packed up and headed home. Out my window as I was driving I could see 'that dog' still following 'that hunter'. Over and over again... all these years.

A treat! As I parked I caught Venus and Mars rising in Libra. So with a pair of 10x50s I'd finished the 'Naked Eye Planet' visual marathon (well I suppose Uranus is visual as well. picky, picky).

As usual I had a blast and despite the wind was quite warm 95% of the time without ever stepping inside. Funny thing, the few times I felt cold are when I stopped to take break and chomp on a ham sandwich. Layers are the key. Thermal underwear from JC Penney, sweat shirt and sweat pants over that (read loose fitting), knit cap and knit shall, and a loose fitting winter jacket. My feet stayed warm all night wearing thick cotton 'boot socks' and sandals. Yes sandals. I suspect either I am weird, or it has something to do with staying dry... I'd tried this at home first if I were you. :) And of course snow is not staying dry. :) But it worked on the night of the Dec 7th-8th, and it worked again last night. My feet staying warm were never a problem.

I got to try my new 3 element 2x Orion Barlow with a 18mm Takahashi Ortho. I was VERY impressed. What a sharp contrasty combination. Narrow FOV, but very impressive views.

Might try tomorrow, Sunday the 29th and take the 30th as my other vacation day... if not, then perhaps Monday night.

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