Fremont Peak FPOA Area (5/8)

by Rob Hawley

Robert Armstrong and I set up by the restrooms last night. Ron Dammann came by on the way to set up the evening program. We chatted about how FPOA is doing. I complemented him on how easy it was to work with the new Observer status system. They have simplified the process and no longer require a procedure training session. FPOA realized they could condense the information into a single page.

The first object we tackled after sunset was Comet Neat. I was not planning to look for it at FP, but fortunately it was in a notch between the peak and a large tree by the old Ranger house. I thought I could see a tail in my finder scope, but in my 10" all I could see was a bright central core and a less distinct bright area surrounding it. The surrounding area was bit larger on one side so that may have been the tail. In Robert's 20" the central region was very bright and distinct.

We had been worried about clouds all day. Once we got to the Peak there was a low bank of clouds to the south. But it was very windy and the temp dropped as the sun set.

I wanted to try to see the Abell 1367 objects I looked at on Kitt Peak 3 weeks before (see the next Ephemeris). With my 10" I could just barely make out NGC 3862 (my initial reference at Kitt Peak). Nothing else showed up. Robert looked at it in his scope. With twice the aperture (and an observatory that was not shaking in the wind) I could easily see the companion IC 2955.

Robert was interested in Markarian's chain. We first did that in his scope and then in mine. Most of the rest of the evening I did bright stuff 51, 13, 57, 3, etc.

The transparency and seeing were just average. It was far from as nice a night as the last time I was at Ranger Row. The strong wind at sunset relaxed a bit, but it was still surprising cool. The temps got down into the low 40's and light dew started forming about 10 PM. The Milky Way was visible, but fairly indistinct. This was partially due to transparency and partly due to the extra moisture reflecting light.

About midnight Sean came over and the 3 of us joined Ron up in the Challenger.

My scope is misbehaving. The level sensor seems to be not working. During an auto align the tube slews down until it hits its limits. I will check on the LX200 mail list today. If anyone has any ideas, then please mail me off list. The collimation is also suspect, but a star test showed it was close and the sky was not steady enough to attempt an adjustment.

Posted on sf-bay-tac May 09, 2004 10:38:31 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 11, 2004 14:43:13 PT