Icy night at Ice House

by Randy Muller

After 2 months of weather- and schedule-imposed observus interruptus, the weather and my schedule finally cleared enough to permit observing on Saturday evening, May 28, 2005. I was the last to arrive at 8:15pm or so, and was greeted by Shneor Sherman, Gene Kahn, Jake Burkhart and Michael Damer. It felt great to be out once more under the stars with astro-friends.

Fearing bad conditions, we were pleasantly surprised by the clarity of the sky. The seeing was soft, but the clarity was pretty good. Later in the evening, the Milky Way had a billowy, turbulent, but not-quite sugary look. The dark areas were fairly prominent. The bluish area east of the claws of Scorpius was prominent.

I can only presume that the no-shows (we have noted their files) are quietly weeping and gnashing their teeth as they read this, which is probably punishment enough, so I will spare them and not heap further scorn or ridicule upon their shame-faced drooping heads.

The site is aptly named, as it was surprisingly and bitingly cold, so I put on all my winter clothes, which serves as yet another reminder that it is often colder than I expect and that it pays to be prepared. It was also a little dewey, but it never affected my optics.

Gene didn't even bother to bring a scope, but brought some eyepieces and a binoviewer and he and Shneor played at Shneor's scope, and he mooched views off of the other scopes.

The Twilight of the Planets

Venus	Naked eye low in the west, having wandered there from behind the sun, as planets are wont to do. Its brightness does not yet rival the King of the Planets (Jupiter), but it was comparable. It will grow in brightness (and distance from the sun) in the coming months, and should make a great apparition with Saturn in the neighborhood. It was very pretty hanging low in the western orange and yellow sunset.
Jupiter	A mediocre view at 266x, showing only 3 belts, with a small amount of detail which was coming and going. The belts were dark brown. The 4 bright Gallilean moons were all lined up, as usual, and showed varying sizes and brightness.
Saturn	Looked OK at 266x, but was a bit blurry. The Cassini Division was not visible. 3 of the brighter moons were, in fact, visible though: Titan and Rhea were bright and steady, but poor Dione shone only very intermittently. The colors were flat and pale. Usually Saturn shows a little bit of pale pink with a dark yellow equatorial belt, but not tonight. I was wondering if the Cassini satellite was somewhere in my field of view as I watched Saturn, and found that it had been http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?tbody=699&vbody=399&month=5&day=29&year=2005&hour=04&minute=45&fovmul=1&rfov=0.2&bfov=30&showsc=1 It was about twice as far from the planet as Titan, on a line with Rhea, and I had it in the field of view with my longest eyepiece, 26mm.

Venus

Naked eye low in the west, having wandered there from behind the sun, as planets are wont to do. Its brightness does not yet rival the King of the Planets (Jupiter), but it was comparable. It will grow in brightness (and distance from the sun) in the coming months, and should make a great apparition with Saturn in the neighborhood. It was very pretty hanging low in the western orange and yellow sunset.

Jupiter

A mediocre view at 266x, showing only 3 belts, with a small amount of detail which was coming and going. The belts were dark brown. The 4 bright Gallilean moons were all lined up, as usual, and showed varying sizes and brightness.

Saturn

Looked OK at 266x, but was a bit blurry. The Cassini Division was not visible. 3 of the brighter moons were, in fact, visible though: Titan and Rhea were bright and steady, but poor Dione shone only very intermittently. The colors were flat and pale. Usually Saturn shows a little bit of pale pink with a dark yellow equatorial belt, but not tonight.

I was wondering if the Cassini satellite was somewhere in my field of view as I watched Saturn, and found that it had been

http://space.jpl.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/wspace?tbody=699&vbody=399&month=5&day=29&year=2005&hour=04&minute=45&fovmul=1&rfov=0.2&bfov=30&showsc=1

It was about twice as far from the planet as Titan, on a line with Rhea, and I had it in the field of view with my longest eyepiece, 26mm.

Messier Survey Wrap

I also wrapped up my Messier Survey for this telescope with these beauties:

M104	226x. Very bright and big. Oval halo with very prominent dust lane cutting almost North-South. Very bright, concentrated and nearly stellar nucleus. Brighter on larger western side of dust lane than on smaller eastern side.
M61	226x. Very big and bright. Bright stellar nucleus or superimposed star near the center. Mottled circular halo. Mottling appears in large scale with only a few dark areas.
M68	133x. Big, bright, moderately rich globular cluster. Moderately concentrated. Stars easily resolved.
M83	226x. Enormous; very bright central nucleus, non-stellar but tiny. Hints of spiral structure. Oval shape overall. This doesn't get much attention from us northerners because it is so far south, but this is one spectacular galaxy!
M22	At 226x, this fabulously rich globular cluster nearly fills the field of view. The number of stars must range in the millions. Not part of my survey. I pointed here at the request of Jake. From the comments he was making during this viewing and ealier in the evening, he is starting to sound like he has aperture fever.

During the evening, Jake shouted out happily that he was seeing Omega Centauri in binos. Shneor turned his 22" scope on it and we all took a peek. This was, by far, the best view I've ever had of it. It was very large, oval-shaped and stars were resolved in it.

Sometime after 1 am, lunar twilight began, and the eastern sky became increasingly washed out, and visual limiting magnitude dropped, so I began packing up.

When I began tearing down, I noticed a small amount of ice on my table.

Observer	Randy Muller
Date	May 28, 2005 8pm-1:30am (May 29, 03:00-08:30 UT)
Location	Ice House Observation Plateau (IHOP)
Coordinates	120°W 23.864' 38°N 47.548'
Elevation	5024 ft
Instrument	Starmaster 18" f/4.3 dob-newt
Eyepieces	7.5, 10, 17, 26mm Sirius Plossls; 1.15x Tele Vue Paracorr
Seeing	5/10; Fair; Cassini Division not visible in Saturn's Rings
Transparency	8/10; Pretty good

Posted on tac-sac Jun 01, 2005 11:56:19 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 24, 2005 09:59:08 PT