Sketching at Coyote Lake, 09/04/2004

by Alexander Avtanski

Although this Saturday (Sept 04) the nuisance called Moon (sorry Dave! :-) ) was going to rise quite early, the CSC for Coyote Lake looked great. So we (me, my wife Rouska, and my daughter Maria) decided not to miss the chance. I actually had it planned from some time, but left the go/no-go decision for the last moment. I'm glad now that we went, because the hills east of the lake keep the place dark for quite a long time after moonrise.

We got there just before sunset - no other scopes at this time, but just when we started setting our scopes, people started showing up.

For the night I had not made any plans, apart from two objects I've never seen before - the Coathanger (somehow I never get to looking at this asterism; wow, it really looks like a coathanger!) and M30 that I missed in the Messier list.

Having exhausted this very short list of "mandatory" targets, I decided to try my hand sketching eyecandy objects. Today I scanned the sketches and re-sketched them with PhotoShop. Below are my notes from the night and links to the photoshopped sketches:

The Helix nebula: Very big but quite faint. Almost undetectable without filter. Through the UHC filter, however, the nebula just pops up as a huge ring with darker central region. The N-NE and S-SW edge of the ring looks slightly brighter than the rest. Elsewhere the ring looks kind of "lumpy", and not smooth. Couldn't locate the central star, although it should be quite bright at mag. 13.6 - well, will try next time. [sketch at: http://avtanski.fotopic.net/p7344283.html ]
The Dumbbell nebula: Although I have seen it countless times, this is the first time I tried to sketch it. With the UHC filter it was visible as a complete oval, with the brighter hourglass shape giving it the unique character. [sketch at: http://avtanski.fotopic.net/p7344282.html ]
The Veil nebula: Tried the view both with the 8" Orion and with the 4.5" StarBlast. I was kind of hoping that the wider FOV of the StarBlast will show more of the nebula at one piece. However, in the small scope it was just fainter and smaller. [sketch at: http://avtanski.fotopic.net/p7344285.html - west part of the nebula; unfortunately I didn't mark any stars except the bright star in the center of FOV]
The North America nebula: Here, the StarBlast had definite advantage over the 8" Orion. With 25mm it gives magnification of 18x, and manages to pack most of "North America" in the FOV. Through the 8", the same eyepiece manages to show just the "Gulf of Mecico". [sketch at: http://avtanski.fotopic.net/p7344284.html - here I didn't mark any stars at all - a mistake I'll never make again; since the view was not the same without stars in the FOV, I just randomly sprinkled some "stars" on the sketch; sorry...]

After sketching those objects I tried the Cocoon nebula. No luck. I was thinking that I'm taking a wrong turn somewhere in my starhop, tried to hop starting from a different location and ended in the same empty place. What do I need to see it? Is it something that can be done in an 8" from Coyote Lake?

Looked again at M31, trying to see how far I can trace the arm, then on the way to M33 was surprised by NGC404 (GX) which was visible even in the glare of Beta And! Could someone turn off Beta And for a while, please? NGC404 would be quite a sight then! Finally, tried to see the galaxy couple NGC670 & 672 (no luck), and then finished the night looking at several double stars.

After we packed the scopes, I tried the "stealth exit procedure" I practiced for some time. This includes turning off all the internal and external lights of the car and then using the parking brake to control the speed until exiting the spot. The only thing that I still can not avoid is the bright flash from the back-up light when I go from "Parking" to "Drive", so I had to warn the other observers. I'm thinking of installing a small switch for this light so I can turn it off when needed...

Posted on sf-bay-tac Sep 06, 2004 16:39:57 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 09, 2005 08:52:28 PT