by Marek Cichanski
I was feeling a little out of sorts, and I needed some quality time with the sky, either with one or two fellow observers, or alone. I had gone up to MB on Saturday and observed with Lance, Dennis, and a couple of others, and that was fun. Spent Sunday night up there as well, and Jerry Elmer dropped by on his way home from a hike, which was nice. Always fun to observe and shoot the breeze with Jerry. But tonight, everything just sort of fell into place for the ideal solo session. Ranger Chris swung by after sunset, dummy-locked the gate on his way out, and I settled in for a night with the ED80. Easy set-up, easy tear-down. The previous two nights had really reminded me just how much you can see with a nice little refractor like this. Sure, it doesn't have a lot of light-gathering power or magnification, and sure, it yields some pretty small exit pupils, but for bagging winter Milky Way objects, those things don't matter a heck of a lot. A nice wide field and some pinpoint refractor stars go a long way.
If I may, I'd like to sing the praises of the Cambridge Star Atlas for the small-scope observer. I had picked up a copy at Orion some months back, and it had mostly sat on a shelf in my closet. But after a very successful session with it at home bagging double stars, I realized how nice this little hardbound atlas is when I'm using the ED80. Frankly, I like it a bit better than the otherwise very serviceable (and admittedly more pocket-able) Karkoschka atlas. The Tirion charts are basically a scaled-back, scaled-down version of SA2000. I'd say that about 2/3 of the double stars shown are splittable in the ED80, which makes it a very handy double star guide. It probably shows a lot of galaxies that are beyond the reach of a small scope like that, but that's the breaks with galaxies, I'd say. The star magnitudes shown in the CSA mesh very nicely with the 6x30 Orion finder that I'm using.
I'd worked the Orion / Canis Major area fairly heavily on Sunday night, so tonight I pointed myself the other way, towards Andromeda, Cassiopea and Cepheus. First I hunted down a few double stars in Cetus, just because it was there. Had mixed results. Couldn't quite split Gamma Ceti. Then I put in the Terminagler for a nice long look at M31. Very gratifying, very soothing. Started to get myself sorted out.
Switched to the 17 Nagler for long looks at Comet Machholz and the Double Cluster. It seemed to me that the comet might have had a long, narrow, wispy tail that extended almost due east, and possibly another, wider tail extending a bit east of north. Hard to say, though, it might just have been averted imagination. I looked at the Double Cluster for a long time as well; it's another take-you-back-to-basics object.
I started to look more closely at the CSA, and noticed that Cassiopea was thick with open clusters that I could probably bag. It had been a year or two since I'd really looked at that area, probably when I was caught up in Herschel 400 frenzy. So, off to NGC 957. Not much luck there. Then NGC 744 - got it. Then the group NGC 659, 663, and 654. This arc of three clusters fit beautifully in the eyepiece field. Remind me again why I'm supposed to hate open clusters? Next, NGCs 637 and 559, and then... hey, check it out! I forgot that M103 was over here! Nice. And who could forget 'ol NGC 457 - E.T., phone home.
I had to try to see the nebulosity around NGC 281, and I think I could just see part of it, using an Orion Ultrablock filter. I also tried to see the nebulosity around IC 1805, but only got some semi-hints of it.
Somewhere around here I decided to take a break from the north, and I swung around and looked at M37, M38, M46/47, Saturn, and M42. Saturn was pretty nice, but the seeing could have been a touch better. Not bad, mind you, just not superb. Didn't see M36 because it was so ridiculously zenithal.
To go home or not to go home? It was about 10 pm, and I realized that Perseus was now well-placed. Went for NGC 1245, but didn't have much joy. Ditto for NGC 1444. NGCs 1545, 1528, and 1513 fared better, although 1528 was definitely the easiest of these three. Took a look at M34 - also very nice, thank you very much - and then went on a long and fruitless hunt for NGC 891. I love 891, and I know that it's mostly a big-scope object, but I thought I'd at least be able to see it. Nope. Denied! It was one long DNF skunkathon.
I capped off the night with the Pleiades, M36, and M81/82. Tried to see M95/96/105, but they were still too much in the light dome. Many have tried, many have died. Need to wait another month.
All in all, it was a nice solo night. Chilly and somewhat breezy, but no dew. In my caver's fleece undersuit, construction worker's coveralls, and barn coat, I was a bug in a rug. As I had expected from the satellite loop, it was almost completely clear the whole time. Just a few bits of cirrus came by, and they hardly amounted to anything. It was still basically clear when I left at 11 pm. Temps in the mid-40s pretty much the whole way down the hill.
It felt really good to have a nice night like that up at good 'ol MB. Maybe the return of TAC was an omen. The whole evening helped me get my head back into a familiar, comfortable place, which was nice. Fortress of Solitude, gravel parking lot, what's the difference as long as you've got clear skies?
Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 01, 2005 00:28:32 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Feb 01, 2005 19:40:41 PT