by Mark Bracewell
Arrived at MB about 6:45. Stacy, the TAC fashion editor, resplendent in black and white Chanel with matching refractor arrived soon after, followed by Mike, Kevin, Mark, Bill, Dan and several others including a very nice gentleman with sweet 6" Dob whose name escapes me. I brought up my ancient brass 4" f/15 and was setting it up when I discovered I had packed everything including a 4 lb. counter weight. Just one. 19 lb. scope - 4 lb. weight. Never mind, other TACos I have heard can grind a mirror from an old beer bottle, so in that spirit I found a largish rock, about 10 lbs., stuffed it into the bag from my folding chair, tied it on to the 4 lb. weight and presto! The poor mount looked like it was running away from home with all its belongings tied to a stick.
Early in the evening the seeing was great, like the night before, but the transparency, at least for me, was not. There just wasn't enough contrast for me to make out the guide stars I needed for my project which was to get a good look at Neptune and Uranus and the Moon later on ('cause that's what an f/15 refractor is for, right?). I'd also planned to spend a good amount of time really soaking up each object, not just checking off the list and racing off to the next. I found them ok using brighter stars farther away, and looked long but it just seemed murky over in that part of the sky and the planets were uninspiring. Another time then.
Stacy was aiming at Eta Cassiopeiae so I thought I would have a peek at that - now that's a pretty sight indeed at 215x in a long scope. The brighter blue-white star had an almost perfect airy disk, its tiny red companion excellent color. Several people came and had a look and complimented the view despite having to get down on their knees to see it (no diagonal on this scope). Thank you all for the morale boost - I'm no longer afraid of parking my old scope next to some hair raising AP behemoth and getting snickered at :)
I'm thinking I could get hooked on double stars, but I need to do something about this diagonal problem - the scope is in focus with the focuser backed out only about 1/2 inch. Jeff Crilly suggested putting a barlow lens cell into the insert tube of a diagonal, and I am going to try that, but if you have any ideas please let me know. I wanted to have another look at Struve 2816 after that but it was near zenith and I would have had to lie in the gravel to see it :(
I decided instead to get my chair arranged so that I would have a very comfortable view, and just see what happened to be where I was looking. After manouvering the hanging rock around a tripod leg, it turned out to be M11 which was in a very nice bit of dark sky. I could make out perhaps 25-30 distinct points @ 110x. Previously I had only seen this cluster at about 50x in my 80mm f/6, also a nice view but more like a loose cluster on a smudge. Tonight was more like glitter.
By about 11:00 the city lights had faded a lot (or maybe the crud in the air that it was reflecting on had moved off) and the air temperature went up a few notches. Very fine warm breeze coming up from the valley. I spent some just looking around the neighborhood of Polaris naked eye. Still can't make out the little dipper very well, but it was very fine indeed up there.
Moonrise, and this is where the old scope really shines. The Appenines were spectacular and crisp, no swimming, not even dog paddling. I was really ready to settle in for some good looks but everyone was leaving. Nobody likes the moon? Seen it before I guess :) Oh well, the rock was hitting the tripod leg again, so after a welcome cup (actually can) of coffee courtesy of Kevin I packed up. Thanks to Stacy for patiently waiting for me to get a move on so she could lock up.
On the way down Moody Road saw a family of 4 deer not five feet away, they didn't mind me a bit, out enjoying the stars too I expect. Overall, a very nice night.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Sep 06, 2004 02:54:38 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 09, 2005 08:46:18 PT