Messier Driving Marathon 8/25-8/26

by Tony Franco

I hadnt had time to prepare an observing session and had to rely on some S&T articles I had snipped out before hand as my guide along with some random wanderings into the Messier Catalog. A while back, I had compiled a list in SkyTools from the "Small Scope Sampler" series from a few years ago from S&T mag also. Seeing was fair but the transparency was definately lacking, especially as the evening wore on. Spent most of the session just randomly picking things out.

Checked out a few Dark Nebula in Sgr, B93 and B92. Spend some time in that region early in the evening observing a few Messier's one last time before they said Goodbye for the season.

M13,M52,M22,M28,M25,M17,M18,M16

Looked at M8 & M20 in the same field using my 40mm Pentax.. Niiiice!! Checked M20 at higher power with my DGM Optics NPB Nebula filter.. Man, I love this thing. Really showed the dark lanes. And on M8, The Lagoon, I could see lots of structure. Checked out the "Blue Racquetball" in Oph, NGC 6572. Object noted - Yup, it's blue! Loaded the DGM, hummm, Now it's darkblue ;-) .. Even in the skyglow from Sac. Did the obligatory peak at M27, the Ring. Wandered a few times to M31 and company and the Double Cluster which was starting to rise in the east. Tracked down the Cocoon but the seeing had deteriated by then.. Not as impressive. Left IHOP at about 1am.

On Saturday, We had big plans to crash the Glacier Point Starparty but a quick check on the 'net dashed that idea. Yosemite was still veiled in smoke from that fire that started earlier in the week..

What to do.. What to do!!

Decided once again at the last minute to go with my backup plan... Drive to Willow Springs... That's over a 3hr drive for just one night... I know, Shneor wouldnt even blink an eye on that drive :-) ... Quickly unloaded the Durango and threw it all in the GMC Savanna Van.

With Criag's instructions in hand from SJAA(by the way, they are very nicely done), I started my dash down the valley on I5, quick trip across Pacheco on Hwy 152, then a drive thru Hollister and south on Hwy 25. Wandered thru hill and dale till I crested a hill. Whoa!!! I see telescopes nestled on grassy hill.

Checked in with Criag and interrupted Darrell's trip to the porta-potty... LoL!! Took me about 3.5hrs including gas and food stops. I was assigned a spot on Ayers flat next to Mark W and Steve G, along with Darrell and Denise and a few others I dont recall. This spot afforded excellent southern horizons. As darkness fell I was amazed at how dark it was from the southeast, south, southwest, and west.. There was a hint of skyglow towards the east from the Cental Valley, but the north was mostly blocked by the hill. The southwest and west at IHOP is usually blown out by light pollution.

Decided to do a recap of observed objects from the night before at IHOP as a comparision. Since I had a good shot at the south, went for the Bug, NGC6302 right off the bat.. Man, showed up better than I thought it would.. Coool!!

Hit the Messier's in Sgr,Sco, and Oph for grins and thought to myself.. It's 'dang dark in that direction.

I could hear Steve and Mark doing their "Human Interferometer" thing and found it interesting.. Goes to show you how two folks looking at the same object can pickup more detail than just one person alone.

Decided to jump on the Galaxy bandwagon and wandered over to Pegasus also.. Picked out a few galaxies w/o bothering to look them up, man there were sure alot of 'em showing up. Took a quick peak at Stephens Quintet. Looked as good as I've seen it up at IHOP.

Checked out the "Blue Snowball"... Noted... Yup it's blue also. Wandered over to where Darrell/Denise where.. checked out the view in the 10" string travel scope. Nice! Noted "Blue Snowball" there also.. Yup, it's blue!

Spent alot of time sitting in my recliner just gazing 1x at the milkyway while it rolled over to the West. Called it an early night due to fatigue from Fri nite and the long drive.

Woke up to a nice morning and left about 8:30am for the long drive back. Decided to take the other route back, east on J1- Panoche Rd to I5, then north back home.. Guess what!! It's faster by about 20minutes. Plus, J1 east isnt really that bad. Only one bad spot at the border of Fresno and Mecred Counties.

Noted the BLM site someone mentioned in TAC awhile back. Look's like a nice road up to a hilltop. Need to check it out one of these days since it has easy acess to I5.

Now you ask... Would I go down to Willow Springs again?

You Beecha!!

Special thnx to Bob Ayers, Criag and SJAA ..

TonyF