Steadiness, Smoke, and Saltines

by Jane Smith

A week of watching little dark blue boxes on CSC had me fairly salivating at the prospects of 3rd Quarter observing at IHOP Saturday night. Jamie Dillon, TACo extraordinaire and good buddy, braved the Bay Area traffic mania to join us. By the time he arrived, the talk of smoke-filled skies had somewhat dampened my spirits. A quick dinner and we were on our way. We arrived about 7:45pm to find Randy Muller, Shneor Sherman, Jake Burkhart, Tony F, and Bill Chandler all set up. Ken Mason arrived a few minutes later. It was nice to finally meet Jake and Tony.

After Jamie unloaded Felix, his incredible 11" dob, I hauled the 18" out and started setting up. The sky didn't look too bad, expect for a thin layer of pink smoke at the southern horizon. My spirits started to rise and I thought we might salvage this night after all. Aiming at Polaris, I prepared to do my customary two-star alignment. I glanced in the EP at the famous double and.....KAZZZZOWIE.... I couldn't believe what I saw. Polaris looked stunning!!! I couldn't remember the last time it looked so good... sharp, clear, and sporting 4 beautiful diffraction spikes. The seeing was fabulous!

My starting object of the evening was M57. I often use this famous Messier to test my GOTO alignment. It quickly popped into view, central star glittering nicely. A squeal of delight brought Randy over for a look. Yup... sure enough... central star and it wasn't even astronomical twilight yet. I was now convinced it would be a night to remember, and it was, but not for the reasons I expected. I quickly started on the few remaining objects I had on the Eye Candy List.... my thanks to TACo Bob Jardine for all his hard work and Jamie for his contribution of favorite objects.

First up was the Bug Nebula, NGC 6302. I found this object disappointing, faded and more like a fat, elliptical galaxy than a nebula. I think the smoke may have obscured the view a bit. I'll give it another look at CalStar.

My next target was the "Object of the Night"... Barnard 86, the Ink Spot in Sagittarius. Now THIS is what I call a DSO! What a stunner! It took my breath away. The dark nebula against the brighter background really drove home how bright the sky really is. The cluster nearby was a beautiful contrast to the deep dark black of the nebula. I shared a view with Randy, again. No doubt this is why I was accused of "pestering" him. ;)

After Jamie, Shneor, and Tony had a look at the Ink Spot I moved on to NGC 6445, a rather large and bright PN in Sagittarius. I didn't notice any particular detail as noted in the Companion to Sky Atlas 2000, however this may also have been due to the presence of smoke in the southern sky.

About this time Jamie called me over for a look at the False Comet, NGC 6231 in Scorpius. Felix provided a stunning view. I can't tell you how impressed I am with Jamie's telescope. Every time I've looked through it the view has been especially nice. I hope my new 10" shows as well as Felix.

The next object was NGC 6380, a globular cluster in Scorpius. This is an object from Steve Gottlieb's 2004 SSP "Challenge List". Jamie was trying for it in Felix, and I thought I'd have a go in my 18". BTW, Jamie likes to refer to this object as a SGNB (Steve Gottlieb Nut Buster), but for some reason I have difficulty relating to that term. ;) I will agree this is one very difficult object. We looked for it for quite some time, referencing both Uranometria and Herold Bobroff charts to make sure we had the right star field. Still, No Luck! The layer of smoke at the southern horizon may have done us in. Not to worry, I'll get it at CalStar!

After my failure to find 6380 I headed for an OC in Vulpecula, NGC 6802. This is an interesting little cluster which struck me as being much more delicate than most of the bigger opens. Although it's not overly bright and somewhat more sparse than many others, it had an appealing daintiness which reminded me of a bed of tiny glittering rhinestones. Very nice object.

I next took a quick look at the Coathanger, Cr 399, or Broncchi's Cluster, also in Vulpecula. This is definitely a bino object, along with the Double Cluster and the Pleiades. A scope really can't do it justice.

Next up was the Saturn Nebula, NGC 7009, a huge planetary in Aquarius, at least it looked huge to me. I was so astounded by its size and big mushy disk that I forgot to look for the 12 magnitude central star. I must remember to do this in the future.

While in Aquarius I also grabbed a look at the Helix Nebula. My 13mm Nagler only showed a small piece of this gigantic object. Maybe Jim Ster will loan me his "Terminagler" at CalStar so I can get a fuller view of it.

Then I was off to pay a visit to my two favorite parts of the Veil, the "Waterfall" and the "Witch's Broom, NGC 6992 and NGC 6995. Although the nebulosity popped out under my OIII, I've seen them look far better. I regretted not observing them earlier when the seeing was truly spectacular.

The last object of the evening in my 18" was NGC 7479, a galaxy in Pegasus. This galaxy has a very "tortured" look to it with the dust lane appearing ragged and uneven, very reminiscent of that other well-known "tortured" galaxy in Ursa Major, M81.

I ended the evening by mooching two views in Felix.... one of Neptune and one of Uranus. This was a very big treat for me as I had never seen either. They looked very similar... two small, bright, blue balls. Looking at them, I felt a bit eerie as I realized I was seeing two other planets in our Solar System.... so close, and yet so far.

And so ended a night of nights. My sole disappointment of the entire evening was that Randy didn't offer to share his saltine crackers with me. Randy is usually a very generous person, especially with stale Fig Newtons, however he hasn't quite been himself since Gary has been abroad. So I'll forgive him this rare lack of generosity. I'm quite certain he'll return to sharing his astro-munchies with me in the future.

NOTE: I'd like to acknowledge Randy's header and some of his information about IHOP which I borrowed for my OR.

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Posted on tac-sac Aug 09, 2004 21:21:26 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 06, 2005 22:32:56 PT