Fremont Peak, Good Wintertime Observing,1-12-2005

by Peter Natscher

My fours hours of nighttime observing pleasure up at Fremont Peak (the FPOA Ranger Row area) was accompanied by Rob Hawley and on with Andrew Pierce from the far-off land of Santa Cruz. Fremont Peak never always comes up with it weather surprises. The night turned out to be better than average observing night after initial threats of high cirrus and gusty wind. I arrived at 3 pm to find sunny 40's temps and calm air. By 5 pm, a wind started up and gave gusts to 20 mph providing a wind chill that felt in the 30's. The RH grew to 85% and a thin cirrus sky was forming--things weren't looking too good. I had to hold on to my set up 20" Dob during the gusts to keep it safely upright. This condition went on for about an hour's time. By the end of twilight, the wind disappeared and the temp. rose a bit into the 40's 'and' air dried greatly down to 40% RH. What a change!

My initial views through the eyepiece of my 20" Starmaster at showed a good jet stream overhead boiling the brighter stars and the 2-day-old moon. The threatening cirrus and milky sky had now long passed and was traveling on down to the SE. The transparency was now a lot better with a 40°F/40 RH--not bad considering what we've had for winter weather so far and what is forecast for this weekend. This condition stayed with us until 11 pm when new cloudiness arrived from the west and we decided to call it quits for the night.

Last night's seeing allowed me to observe mag. 12 thru 15 galaxy trios in Eridanus, Cetus, Gemini, Canis Minor along with a few mag. 9 thru 14 PK planetaries along the wintertime galactic plane. I took another look at NGC 1999 in Orion. This time without a bright moon in the sky, the better seeing afforded me to enjoy observation of the minute dark matter enveloping the reflection nebula surrounding the star. It showed well using high power (300X) with a bino.

Galaxy trios observed-

Cetus: NGC232, NGC235,NGC235A Eridanus: NGC1725, NGC 1721, NGC 1728 Gemini: NGC 2375, NGC 2379, NGC2373 Canis Minor: NGC 2510, NGC 2511, NGC 2513

IC 418 in Lepus, mag 9.3, is a bright but small classic multi-shell oval/eye-shaped planetary (10 arc-sec dia.) with a prominent central star. It takes on high power well in my bino's at 360X. There is nice detail in the outer shell at high power. It's a found diamond.

NGC 1042 in Cetus, mag 11, face-on spiral galaxy with structure showing two visible arms out of a brighter nucleus, easy size to enjoy viewing for awhile.

M77 in Cetus, mag. 9, face-on spiral galaxy looks a bit like a sunflower, large nucleus with radiating mottled structure all around. This Messier deserves more of your time viewing at higher power when the seeing is steady. Binoviewing helps.

NGC 1073 in Cetus, mag. 11, barred spiral, bar is easily seen extending full width along with two opposing arms beginning to appear at the bars ends. A good barred-spiral example.

NGC 1055 in Cetus, mag. 10.6, nearly edge-on galaxy showing a nice dark lane. Its proximity next to two bright stars and many field stars adds to its eyepiece attractiveness.

PK221+5.1 in Monoceros, mag. 14.8, a sharply appearing 13 arc-sec disk barely visible in my 20" Dob but easy with an OIII filter. Use high power +300X to enjoy.

M46 and a planetary (NGC2437/2438) in Puppis, I always like returning to this winter favorite of mine--a combo: a great star cluster with an embedded planetary nebula with a central star. Bino's give a breathtaking 3D effect of these two different DSO's at 180X.

NGC 2452 and 2453 in Puppis, another star cluster/planetary combo only smaller and more widely spaced apart than the 2437/2438 pair. Both easily sighted together with a 180X view.

NGC 2383/2384 in Orion, two closely spaced open clusters that can be enjoyed within a low-powered view.

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Jan 13, 2005 11:02:14 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 27, 2005 21:07:16 PT