Canebrake, 4/1/05

by Shneor Sherman

It did not begin auspiciously. Though I was ready to leave half an hour early, I found that I had a flat tire. I pumped it up with my battery compressor, and took it to Big O, where they fixed me up in half an hour. It took 5 hours 50 minutes to get to the site (I-5 south), and I found Joe on the property. He showed me the back yard, which turned out to be acres larger than implied, with room for many telescopes (depends on the definition of back yard!). The soil is basically coarse sand and gravel, and the site is in a bowl between the hills. Horizons were a bit limited, but Sirius was about 10 degrees over the southern horizon. In any case I set up and was joined by Joe, Chris and Rich, all members of the local astronomy club. Joe has what looked like an 80 or 90mm refractor set up on an equatorial mount, through which I had a fine view of Jupiter as Io was transiting the planet. There was one annoying light not far away, and occasional healdights offered some distraction, but petered out after 8 or 9 p.m.

The sky is quite dark at Canebrake, and the transparency and seeing overhead were very good all night long. Toward the horizons, seeing deteriorated markedly, probably due to wind over the hilltops, although we had hardly a very mild occasional breeze.

Equipment	22" Sayre Monocular dob on an Osypowski equatorial platform Benkmeier Standard Binoviewer 30mm Widescan II+Visual Paracorr 13mm Nagler Type 1 6mm Expanse Nagler 2" 2X Powermate Pair of 30mm Rini Wide Angle eyepieces Pair of Widescan 18mm eyepieces Lumicon OIII filter Lumicon H-Beta filter Thousand Oaks OIII filter

I set up, collimated, and pointed the scope at M42 at about 7:15 p.m., though it was not dark yet. I had dinner while other folks viewed. It was soon dark enough, and as the Peanut Nebula was close to the zenith and descending, I checked it out. I had one of the best views ever, at about 375x with the 6mm, one lobe distincly brigher, the central star visible, and possibly sort of a halo surrounding the two lobes. From there, I inserted the Lumicon OIII and had a very nice view of Thor's Helmet. (I should add that everyone viewed objects thru my scope and appreciated the views considerably, although there was a certain propensity to view eye candy.) This was the second-best view of Thor's Helmet I have ever had, as considerable nebululosity and detail were visible, including some of the "beard". I then put the Denks with Rinis in the focuser, and viewed M42, pointing out the pink color of some portions of the nebula, The pink, very subtle in the first view, was now quite pronounced, and clearly not an artifact of contrast.

From here until 12:30 or 1 when the other participants had retired of left, we viewed galaxies in Leo, Coma, Virgo, Corvus and Ursa Major. I had my best view ever of the Siamese Twins in Virgo when they culminated, with considerable detail visible in the arms of these galaxies, then compared to the Antennae in Corvus. One "antenna" was in fact visible, a curved line coming off the lower galaxy (in the apparent field). My fellow observers insisted on viewing M13 and M5, so we did that, and were rewarded with fine views. We also looked for, but did not see, the double quasar, though we had a fine view of NGC3079. We also enjoyed a fine view of Abell 1367, with about 15 galaxies visible. Looked for Copeland's Septet, but was unable to find this compact group. Joe found NGC4565, which filled the field in the 13mm Nagler and showed a beaufiful compact nucleus as well as a distinct dust lane. Alslo had a fine view of M108, whic showed some detail similar to M82 (which also showed trememdous detail at 375x). In the 30mm, M81, while culminating, displayed faint spiral arms which are rarely visible, stretching toward M82. M101 was a fine sight both in a normal eyepiece and with an H-Beta filter. I should add that we had an excellent view of the Horsehead earlier, which Joe found for us, with the H-Beta.

We viewed some more trios in Leo, Markarian's Chain, M87 (no jet visible), M104, as well as the neat nebula in Corvus.

Joe's uncle Bob, who owns the property was hosting a jam session, although we could hear none of the music in the cack. One of the participants came out to view for a bit, and we looked as Saturn and M51; later Bob came out with one of the musicians and we viewed SAturn, Jupiter (which I did not look at) and M51, which at 375x filled the field while at the zenith, with the spiral arms distinctly visible.

By 12:30 or 1, everyone else had gone, so I checked out the Coma Cluster. I must have seen over 20 galaxies, panning around. It seemed that evey time I put in an eyepiece with more magnification, more galaxies were visible. That was terrific, and I spent quite a bit of time here. Next time, I need to try identifying them.

I closed out with the Owl, with and without an OIII, had a superb view of M57 with the binoviewer; it looked like a three-dimensional doughnut. Then I looked for the Crescent Nebula in Cygnus, using the Lumicon OIII. It was low, but it was still beautiful. I swapped out the Lumicon for the Thousand Oaks - lo and behold, more nebulosity was visible (the top of the crescent). Simply marvelous. And of ocurse, as it was up, I could not help but view the beautiful Veil. I never tire of viewing this object.

At 2:20 I began to pack up. I got to bed at 3:35 - they invited me to sleep in the living room - and slept on my lounge chair until 8:30. I left at 10 and the trip home was just 5 hours 15 minutes (99 North).

It was a long, but very worthwhile trip. The local elevation is a little over 3000 feet, but I'm told that further up 178, just before Walker Pass, there's a campground at about 5,000 feet, that has few trees and escellent horizons, and should still be in he gray, if not in the black.

Turns out also that my host has an object named for him in Uranometria.

Posted on tac-sac Apr 03, 2005 13:05:54 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Apr 05, 2005 20:44:14 PT