by Marek Cichanski
We had 3 good nights out of 5, and I don't think anyone is too sorry about that ratio, given what nice nights they were. Here are the things that I remember most about observing during this year's SSP:
First, it struck me that I hadn't been under really dark skies for a long time. Object after object just looked amazingly good, and this year's SSP was a much-needed reminder that the sky quality really matters. Now that I've finally got a reasonably large-aperture scope, it was great to be able to take it to a good dark site. In the 18" under a Shingletown sky, the H400-2 objects actually look pretty good, at least for the most part.
That H400-2 list was one of my main observing targets. I had a spreadsheet that gave the list with SkyAtlas, Urano 2000, and MSA pages, but it didn't have the Herald-Bobroff pages. I spent a few days before the star party annotating my list with H-B pages for the objects that are visible during early July nights. I found that the H-B atlas does a pretty good job of finding the H400-2 objects. On a few occasions, though, I had to pull out the Milennium Star Atlas to find something. Given that I had a nice long stretch of dedicated all-night observing sessions, this was actually quite enjoyable. Instead of excoriating the list, as I might do under a Montebello sky, I found myself enjoying the challenge. That's what a good dark sky will do for you. I only did about 20 or 30 of the objects, all told, but it was generally a lot of fun.
I also had a copy of Steve Gottlieb's challenge list, and I managed to bag a handful of these objects, too. I have to say, though, that these suckers lived up to their billing - they were CHALLENGING! I don't have my list in front of me, but here are some of the objects that stand out in my memory:
The Hercules galaxy cluster: Other than Virgo, this was the first real galaxy cluster I've looked at. It took some careful locating and some high magnification, but I managed to identify all of the members shown in Uranometria 2000.0, and saw a few others besides. This was satisfying.
Gyulbudaghian's Nebula: I had to go after this one, simply based on the name. I'm fairly confident that I saw it, although if I'm right, the position shown in the MSA is a bit off.
NGC 6822 (Barnard's Galaxy): Cool to see this. Psyched to get it in binos, too.
The Corona Borealis galaxy cluster: Got skunked. Had a whuppin' put on me. I tried like crazy on two different nights, but never quite got it. I'm booked for the 30" at the Peak later this week, and, fog willing, I'm gonna git that CorBor sucker.
Another highlight of the star party was showing Doug Sprigg some northern-sky treats on Sunday night. If you've read the posts by Albert, David Kingsley, and Bob Jardine about their April trip to Australia, you may remember Doug's name. The TAC crew met Doug at Doug's place in Arkaroola, Australia, and Doug came to SSP while on a trip to the States this year. Given what a big deal we make about going to the southern hemisphere to observe, I got a kick out of showing boreal stuff to someone from the Antipodes. Here's what I can remember showing Doug:
Good stuff. For as much noise as I make about wanting to go down under, it was good to be able to strut some northern pride. You want big galaxies, we got 'em! (As it turns out, I am going to Oz later this summer, and it was fun to talk to Doug about the southern sky, too. I think he got a kick out of my descriptions of how we call out 'Omega Cen's up!' at Montebello, and about how we hike up the hill behind the FPOA observatory to see Canopus.)
Two objects that I tried to see were marginal and questionable, but memorable to go for: The central star in the Ring, and the Pillars of Creation. I tried like crazy to see the central star in M57, and I might have gotten fleeting glimpses, but nothing I can call a definite 'bag'. I also worked pretty hard at seeing the 'Pillars of Creation' area in the Eagle nebula. Using the photo in Burnham, I think I had some glimpses of the dark structures that make up the Pillars, but it wasn't anything like the images. Still, it was fun to try.
Oh yeah, I managed to get the Snake Nebula (B72), which was quite satisfying.
I looked at Mars a few times, and could see the south polar cap and a few dark markings, but mostly it looked really wobbly.
I did more observing with the 15x50 IS binos, and they continue to be wonderful. I'm tempted to take something like the Cambridge Star Atlas and see how many objects from it I can see in the Canons.
So, that's what I saw (or tried to see). I'll be sad to leave the dark Shingletown sky, but I'm looking forward to getting back on home ground - and to going to Oz. It'll be good to be back at the Peak and Lick later this week.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Jul 11, 2005 13:22:16 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 28, 2005 20:37:07 PT