Calstar 2004

by Mark Bracewell

Likewise - it was a really pleasant first time at CalStar for me. I saw some newly made friends, made some new ones, got some good advice, saw some good things in the sky. Jeff C. had advised me not to set up next to Rashad because I snore. I didn't know Rashad, so I set up next to a nice fellow with an infectious laugh - turned out to be Rashad (who kindly gave me permission to snore after we had shared some fond memories of 1969). I heard the kumbaya story later :) I was able, at dinner, to demonstrate my innate ability to be opinionated on topics about which I am entirely ignorant, fueled by cabernet and excellent tri-tip. I'll add my kudos to those who handled the logistics, Mark, Rob and Mike (who made the rounds in the dark to make sure we all had the latest on the weather).

For me, this trip was largely experimental; I had made myself an observing chair the weekend before, left it partially complete so I could try it out in a real observing environment and make adjustments before finishing it properly. That turned out pretty well. The other experiment was trying to adapt my 75 year old refractor to work well with modern eyepieces and a diagonal. Thanks to several folks who came and offered advice, especially Bob Hess, I was able to jury rig a baffle inside the focuser and get much improved contrast and clarity out of a weird diagonal with barlow cell combination, and best of all I have a pretty good idea what I need to do now to make it all work properly.

My entire observing plan for this trip was: see Saturn in a scope for the first time. So everything else was a bonus.

All with a 75 year old 4" f/15 refractor, 10, 12.5, 17 and 25mm plossl ep's, sometimes with a 2.3x barlow/diagonal combination, magnifications ranging from about 60 to 350x

OR for those things that didn't pan out well:

Eta Cassiopeiae - pretty double but nasty clouds obsured the view
M72 & M73 - constantly going back to these to confirm earlier observations. This time the tables were turned on me, M73 was easy but faint, M72 was a bear to find and entirely unremarkable when I finally did find it, barely discernable as a globular, large but faint. It's usually the other way round.
Neptune - since I was in the neighborhood and had sufficient magnification to give it a good shot, again unremarkable except this time I could tell it was blueish
Double Cluster - as always a treat, but won't fit in the FOV of the scope very well.
Pleiades - really bright and blue - again wouldn't fit. Wished I had my f/6 scope.

And those things that did:

Working on the Messier list (12 left to go for a pin - yay)

M38

A medium density open cluster with a sort of aluminum color to it. Many stars not resolving to points but many more very crisp.

M37

Very rich OC with a multitude of stars in the background not resolving to points, blueish color overall. About a dozen very bright points in the foreground, many more with averted vision. Spent a good deal of time on this one, waiting for cloud bands to pass by, worth the wait.

M36

Loose cluster with about 30 stars in what looked to me like the shape of a spider - fits well with the LSA tarantula stories I heard next morning.

M35

Sweet! Really sparkly cluster in a wide band rich with stars running north-south, like the buckle on a belt. Tried to count them and stopped at 100 as the longer I looked, the more stars were there.

NGC 1647 - on an open cluster kick

Nice sprinkle of stars, not a real 'bunch' like the M's just seen, but what made it interesting was about 6 pairs of bright stars with very similar separation and magnitude - like seeing 6 doubles at once.

NGC 1746

Very broad, loose scatter of bright stars, about 20-30

M42/M43 - first look in a scope

Ok, I must have seen 50 or 100 photos of this, but I had never seen it in a scope before, and when the clouds were not completely blocking it from view it was amazing! Half of the field of view just glowed right to the edge and beyond, amazingly bright and full of swirls and rivers, the other half of the view jet black with just a few tiny points of stars here and there. the semi-circle of bright stars at the center almost looked like ball bearings, they seemed so perfect and round, perhaps the surrounding nebulosity helped conceal some lack of contrast. This was a stunner, I'll be back.

M1

The seeing went bad and the clouds went by when I found this near the horizon. Very faint, squarish patch of grey that seemed to shift 1/2 its own width once or twice per second because of the seeing - not swimming, more like the hula dance. About this time I started to notice a bad neck-ache from what Stacy calls refractor yoga, it made me tense up and I realized that the quality of the view has a lot to do with how relaxed one is. On the bright side - polar-fleece lined jeans and sheep-fleece lined boots seem to do the trick below the neck.

Saturn - first look in a scope

I was waiting for it as it came up above the horizon, sometimes the clouds completely obscured it, but when I got my first look at this I was pretty euphoric. Much more detail than I expected. I spent at least an hout trying out different ep's, looking for the best overall view and for what I could coax out of the scope. The best view was at about 150x with a 10mm ep straight through, no diagonal or barlow, was bright and crisp, with very little color from the scope and some very nice golden/straw color from the planet. With the barlow in, at 200 to 300x the contrast was not great, and the seeing had the planet doing the hula, but the color remained good and I could just glimpse the cassini division at the extreme ends of the rings. The shadow of the planet on the rings was also very clear. Bands at the equator were possibly imagination. The brightness of the rings surprised me, as did the way the shadow on them made the whole scene positively 3D. I only noticed one bright moon, was so entranced I didn't even think to look for more.

Turned in at about 3:00, a tired, happy camper.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Oct 18, 2004 00:25:34 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 15, 2005 18:04:34 PT