by Matt Tarlach
Arrived Wednesday afternoon and picked out a good spot 1100' up the runway, a stone's throw from the community tent. Enjoyed a fun potluck dinner and was happy to put faces to some folks I'd known only by name, like Jake Burkhart, Stacy McDermott, Marsha Robinson, and Gene Ozer. Also happy to renew acquaintance with Ancient TACos like Mark Wagner, Dennis Beckley, Randy, Rashad and many others.
Wednesday and Thursday nights offered pretty good observing too. Each night started out very dark, and seemed to gray just a bit around midnight, though at worst limiting mags were still 6.5 or a bit better. Seeing varied, 3/5 most of the night though I had a nice steady view of Jupiter in Thursday's twilight. I'd brought 3 instruments: 15x80 binos, the 80mm Orion ED, and the 180mm Intes-Micro Mak-Cass. With all the Big Iron up and down the runway I was feeling a little outgunned, but I wanted to see what the 7" Mak could do from a dark site, and finished the weekend very pleased. Thursday night I was able to sketch the spiral arms of M51...along with the recent supernova which I was able to glimpse with averted vision about 30% of the time. Another Thursday highlight was Stephan's Quintet. Taking a break from my current project of sketching all the Ms with the Mak, I helped Darrell locate the Quintet in his 18". The cluster of galaxies looked pretty bright in that scope, so I decided to try with the 180mm, and sketched 4 members. Comparing my sketch to a NSOG photo the next morning, I found I had actually seen all 5 members but plotted one as a star. Another highlight was M27 in Bruce Sayre's 22" binocular. Awesome!!! I don't think I've ever seen so much color in an object.
Friday evening was partly cloudy, but I managed some fun observing in between bands of cloud until packing it in around midnight, deciding to save energy for clearer skies. I spent some time with Alvin Huey and his 22"; we had some incredible views of M17 and M101. Alvin used an Ultrablock filter to dim the starlight of M101 and we saw the spiral shape of the galaxy outlined by clumps of HII star-forming regions. Wow!!! Alvin also released his Abell and Hickson observing guides at SSP - they are some serious pieces of work! Anyone with an interest in these objects should check them out.
Saturday was public night...the biggest highlight was probably the fine assortment of homemade cakes and pies offered by the ladies of the Shingletown Community Center. Unfortunately the evening began as mostly cloudy and went downhill from there. By 11 it was fully overcast and around midnight we actually had a light drizzle. But despite the weather there was a good turnout by the public, and I was able to evoke a few OOhs and AAhs by showing bright objects like Albireo through the evening haze.
Either Friday or Saturday, I forget, we had that awesome Sun ring, the best I've ever seen. Besides the bright ring itself I was struck by the contrast between the sky to either side of it - inside the ring the sky was a dark purple, outside a light hazy blue.
I was one of a minority who stayed through Sunday night, and we were rewarded with perhaps the best skies of the weekend both in transparency and seeing. After sketching M57 and M27, I tried using Alvin's guide to find some Hicksons, but my earlier success with Stephans was not repeated as I was only able to confirm a single member in each of a couple of HGCs.. After that I spent most of the evening visiting. An observer set up next to me was touring planetaries in Aquila in his 15", and I viewed with him for a while. Two fellows setup across the runway shared fine views of some galaxies in CVn with their C-14: NGC4490, M106, and the Hockey Stick, among others. The view of M51 I shared with them was the best I've had in some time: the SN was held steady with averted vision, and nearly so directly, while the spiral arms were clear and showed lots of internal structure. At one end of the 2350' runway I had a very nice view of the Cat's Eye, NGC6543, in a 17.5" owned and operated by a charming couple down from Washington State. Near the other end, I got a look at Minkowski's Butterfly in a 20" Obsession owned by a friendly fellow whose name I did not catch. And in between I made my first-ever sighting of the central star in the Ring, in Rashad's 16"!
SSP was a great experience, and I'm very happy to have finally made the trip! Thanks to all who generously shared eyepiece time. I wish I had been able to visit more with all the good people there, too...5 days was not enough! Hope to see many of you at Calstar.
Posted on tac-sac Jul 13, 2005 18:49:36 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 28, 2005 20:43:16 PT