Dinosaur Point 4 January

by Jamie Dillon

Last Wednesday week, Joe Bob Jardine and I met up at Dinosaur Point for a renegade night of actual telescopic stargazing. Far as I know, this was the first time in years that anyone other than Albert Highe had checked in with the rangers there. They were plenty serious, but friendly, on the phone.

Just after sunset, Ranger Sean hung around and looked at Mars, M37, M42 and the Moon, had a good time looking. Jardine pulled in well after dark. Moonset was around 2240, so we actually did some crater-fu. There was some dew, nothing terrible. High cirrus came and went, but in between there was some quality sky. Limiting magnitude at zenith measured 6.1 in Gemini, and the seeing went from 4/5 good to 5/5 excellent. It was a real treat to find a window and do some observing in the dark.

On the Moon, Theophilus was on the terminator, with its central peak showing just the summit. Very pretty. By 9 pm the sun had risen enough on Theophilus that there were two peaks showing, and the western rim showed all kinds of detail in its sunrise. Catullus and Caterina were hidden in shadow. Bob had brought a Rukl moon chart, which was handy for navigating and comparing notes. Poking around Mare Nectaris, crater Daguerre looked to be all filled in with mare lava, with a ripple thru the middle. Fracastorius (great name) on the south rim of Nectaris showed 9 teeny round dark craters inside it. Excellent seeing at 420x.

Spent plenty of time thru the night staring at Saturn. The Encke gap kept showing up to direct vision, esp on the following edge of the rings. Titan, Dione, Tethys and Rhea were spread out. There were long stretches when Saturn held up at 420x. This was all in Felix, a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with optics made by Discovery Telescopes. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians and a TV 2x Barlow.

There is a set of 4 little (little from here) reflection nebulae just west of beta Mon. If you haven't been there, beta Monoceroti is a gorgeous triple star. These RN's, anyway, are in a row - 2185, 2183, 2182 and 2170. Pretty and interesting. One more area where just scanning the field is amazing, with the rich Milky Way background.

So yowza, Dino is back. This dry run sure was worth the trip. Mebbe next weekend will hold some prospects.

Good weekend under the Moon to all.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Jan 14, 2006 00:35:20 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 02, 2006 21:09:28 PT