Coyote Lake 6/28 Markarian's Chain

by George Feliz

I got out on Saturday night to Coyote Lake Park for a few hours with Dobby, my homebuilt 150mm f/6 Dob based on Albert Highe's design. The skies were cl ear and reasonably transparent - about mag 6 for my eyes with moderate-to-good seeing. The conditions were much darker than Montebello on the previous W ednesday night.I arrived about 9PM and started out in shirtsleeves, but adde d a thin windbreaker after a while, and then another layer about midnight. I packed u p about 1:15. There were at least 7 other scopes including a Questar 3.5", a Celestron 11" GPS, a Meade 8" LX90(?), 2 Orion Dobs (8" and 10"), a 100mm Or ion refractor, and a 6" Mak-Newt.

I had brought Sue French's July Small Scope Sampler, and a copy of the SA200 0 Virgo Chart (which I had blown up on the copier by 200%) in the region aroun d M84/M86 to M88 in order to look at Markarian's Chain.

As the skies darkened, I surfed doubles and M's for a while and was sociable

There was a major star party near Mount Lassen, so there were few experience d observers present, and I shared views and helped my fellow observers find several objects.

The SSS went incredibly quickly compared to my backyard. The difference between mag 4.5 skies and mag 6 is, dare I say, Eye-Opening. I especially en joyed the carbon star UX Dra, the mini-Cassiopeia asterism (Kemble 2), NGC 6503 (m ag 10.2 galaxy) and NGC6543 (tiny blue PN).

As the skies darkened I checked out M97, M108 and M109 to get a sense of whether I should start on the Chain. I decided I had better start as Leo was

already partially set behind the hills. As an added challenge to the low sky

position, a few campers decided to drive around to check out the scopes (wit h their headlights on) and a few late arrivals also helped add some unwanted photons

I observed the Chain for about 45 minutes and worked through M84, M86, 4387,

4388, 4425, 4438/4435 (the Eyes), one of the pair 4458/4461, 4473, 4477, 445 9, III ZW 66 (hey, it was on the chart), 4474 and M88. I did not attempt 4440, and could not confirm 4413, 4402, and which of 4461/4458 I had seen.

According to my SA2000 Companion the non-Messier galaxies I viewed are mag 10-12, and I had trouble with: 4413 - mag 12.2, 2.3'x1.4', 4402 - mag 11.8, 3.6'x1.1', 4458 - mag 12.1, 1.6'x1.5', 4461 - mag 11.2, 3.4'x1.4' (probably the one I saw).

I used my 9mm Nagler type 6 for a magnification of 100x and exit pupil of 1.5mm, but also tried my 19mm Panoptic for lower mag views.

I feel that I would have been more successful without local light problems, with the objects positioned higher in the sky, and with a bit more Patience on the "missing" objects. This is where experience with these dim objects would

have helped as I had not seen most of these before that evening.

As I was a bit frustrated from the lights, and my lack of finding the small,

dim fuzzies, I treated myself to the Teapot area for a good long while spending time with all the M's in the region. Once I was relaxed I kinda wen t into star party mode and showed the nearby folks the eye candy objects such as M1 1, 13, 5, 4, 57, 27. I also gave out part-views of the Veil with my Ultrablock and OIII filters and the North American nebula. On these objects I really missed

not having a wide-field refractor with me (Dobby is limited to 1.7=B0).

In all, it was a rewarding and relaxing night (although I could have stayed for another hour or two). I got a taste of dim-fuzzy hunting, and I will probably try again.