Fremont Peak Last Night, Jan. 4, 2003

by Peter Natscher

My first observing trip up to Fremont Peak for this new year, 2003, offered mixed pleasures. I brought my AP 10" Mak-Cass telescope to primarily observe Saturn. There were 6 or 7 of us from the TAC observing group set up around the Coulter Area. The skies struggled to offer us a clear window to the night skies, but all to often we encountered obscuring cirrus moving in from the west. Every 15 minutes, we would get a good clear sky window that would last another 15 minutes or so. The early part of the evening gave us the best seeing. By 9pm a few of us became disenchanted with thhe continued cloudiness and dew and we packed up. My plans in leaving early were to spare myself a late mediocre evening so that I can arrive fresh again tonight, on Sunday. I enjoyed the company of all who were set up in the area. Michael outdid himself with a full table offering of great food, and of course--CRAB!

The Crab Nebula (M1) did show itself behind Bright Saturn to me as an elongated patch angled 90° to Saturn and its rings. The hazy patches shape extended beyond Saturn's scattered-light glow through my two 10mm Zeiss Ortho's with a binoviewer at 400X. Before 9 pm, the seeing was good enough at that power to observe Saturnian globe and ring detail to under 1 arc-sec. Light band filters and a Sirius planetary filter failed to provide a better view of the Crab/Saturn event to me other than with my normal eyepieces. What gave a better view (less light scatter) was the use of simpler eyepieces with less glass, as in my Zeiss Abbe orthoscopic eyepieces.