Fremont Peak, Coulter Area Observing Last Night (April 13-14, 2005)

by Peter Natscher

Last night up at Fremont Peak's Coulter Area was a throwback to my earlier days up at the Peak with the crisp cold winter weather, very transparent skies, and a young 5-day old moon that wanted some of the action. I enjoyed the four hours of week-night observing with Mark Wagner. It was in my first time up at the Peak with Mark back in January 1995 at Ranger Row, and with a few other TACos who I haven't seen observing since the 90's, that I had one of those memorable observing experiences. I had no scope yet but had made the 1-3/4 hour drive down from Belmont to see what the TAC group was all about. I mooched my first views of show piece Messiers and NGC's from Mark with his grey 14.4" Dob of the Winter Milky Way sky. The night was cold, crisp, and the sky glittered with winter time objects waiting to be seen. First times are usually remembered for life, and this is one of them for me.

Last night, the wind was heard blowing all around us in the distance but Coulter Area continues to amaze me in that we were thoroughly protected from the wind's effects with out big Dobs. By 11 pm, the temp. was 35°, RH approached 90%, and the roof of my SUV had a good layer of frost. Mark and I forgot about the cold being so immersed with our views of mag. 13-14 galaxy groups. We observed 'til 12:30 am. If it had been a weekend night, I would have continued observing a few more hours.

I continued with logging, describing, and sketching more Herschel II's and was able to see the mag 12-14 objects with the 5-day old moon shining brightly 10-45 degrees away. The transparency was mag. 6.5 naked eye in Leo overhead and the seeing was between 1-2 arc-sec. My objects of observation were in Lynx and Leo Minor high overhead.

20" Starmaster with tracking using manual finding with Sky Atlas 2000 and the Millennium Star Atlas.

NGC 2500Lynx, mag. 12.2, size: 2.9'x2.6', seen in direct vision as a moderate-sized circular shape and evenly lit with no core or no detail visible within. Halo diffuse at edges. 200X with 12mm Nagler + Paracorr.
NGC 2541Lynx, mag. 12.3, size: 6.3'x3.1', seen with averted vision as a large 2:1 oval shape evenly bright and with a diffuse halo. Intermittently appearing compact core visible. 200X with 12mm Nagler + Paracorr.
NGC 3158Leo Minor, mag. 11.9, size: 2.0'x1.8', seen with direct vision as a circular shape with a stellar core and diffuse halo. No detail was visible within halo. Seven surrounding mag 14 galaxies were seen making a very beautiful array within the 25' fov of my 12mm Nagler + Paracorr at 200X.
NGC 3245Leo Minor, mag. 12.4, size: 5.0'x1.5', seen with direct vision as a long thin shape with diffuse and pointed ends. A stellar core within a compact core area was visible. The galaxy is close to edge-on. 9mm Nagler + Paracorr at 266X.
NGC 3424Leo Minor, mag. 13.2, size: 3.2'x0.9', seen with direct vision as a evenly bright elongated shape with pointed ends. There was no core visible and halo was diffuse. There were four other fainter galaxies directly visible within the 60' fov of my 31mm Nagler + Paracorr at 78X. This view was interesting with all five galaxies and numerous field stars visible.
NGC 3430Leo Minor, mag. 11.5, size: 4.6'x2.3', seen with direct vision as a evenly bright oval shape with an intermittently appearing stellar core. Halo was featureless and diffuse. Thinly shaped NGC 3424 within 25' fov at 200X with my 12mm Nagler + Paracorr.

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Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 14, 2005 10:32:11 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Apr 18, 2005 20:13:21 PT