Dino and the Peak, 11/18- A moveable feast

by William Cone

Literally by the minute, clouds were forming over the surrounding hills. After a nocturnal supper, with some tasty gumbo soup supplied by Jamie, and the night still being young, we packed up and left under an opaque ceiling, some for Coe, and others for the Peak. I went with the Peak group, joining Jamie, Bob, Denis, and Pete, for a pleasant evening, regardless of the weather conditions.

We were at the SW lot around 7:30, and found ourselves staring at a high altitude, mackerel patterned cloud layer drifting in from the west, slowly wiping out a good 80% of the sky. Out came the binocs and the chairs, and we settled in for awhile to see if it would blow over. Denis Lefebre set up his 4.5 newt, and the rest of us contented ourselves with scanning for what targets were available. Bob Jardine had a chart of comet Swan, which was a few degrees west of Altair, so we looked at that awhile, and chatted about various things...feuds, vendettas, the Northern Lights.... After about an hour the sky was looking quite good, so we all proceeded to unpack our gear and go to work. I got started on a couple of objects before another layer came over. Here's my notes:

IC 349: This is the little nebula clump lying aside Merope, in the Pleiades. There is a nebula complex around Merope that I had no problem seeing, but IC 349 was not to be found at 242x, with or without an OII filter. More research is needed. I'll try an occulting bar next time, as was suggested awhile back.

HII regions in M33: Since last month at Willow Springs I've been studying images and charts of this great galaxy, finally making my own chart, utilizing among other resources, an S&T article on this area that Steve Gottlieb was kind enough to send me. On this night, though not as bright and contrasty as last month's view at Willow Springs, I found I could easily pick out many of the HII regions and star clouds by scanning around at 242x (9mm Nagler). Like a dim apparition of the photo images I've been studying, the spiral structure was visible as a fat, reversed 's', like a Cuisinart blade. From the nucleus, I followed the north arm up and east to ngc 604, a large, detached clump just off the tip. Swinging back down the outer edge of the northern arm towards the west, I could pick out what were probably the IC sections in this area, glowing brighter with averted vision. NGC 595, 592, and 588 were easy to spot as 3 small, discrete glows, in a curving line to the west. NGC 588, on the west end of the line, to my eyes the faintest of the three, was easy to locate as it is away from the lower contrast regions near the nucleus. Scanning down the east side of the galaxy south of the nucleus revealed the dim extended star clouds that either are, or contain, IC 135, 136, 140, and 137. 135 and 136 were much dimmer than I expected, while the 137 region was obvious, as was A112, the star cloud situated just below (south) a photographically prominent mag 8 star 15' S. of the nucleus. My chart has a total of 32 objects to look at in this area, including a triple star asterism (NGC 603), one M33 globular, and numerous IC's and stellar associations, in the arms, the nucleus, or just loitering about the field. I was eager to dig in and start pinpointing the dim buggers, with chart in hand, but decided to go get a quick snack from the car. I started a brief conversation, and before I knew it, another high altitude layer began sweeping across my field, wiping out the chance of seeing any deeper that night. It was a promising start, though.

We took another break, sipped hot chocolate and coffee, nibbled on cookies, and talked to Bob about his recent adventures observing in Australia with a few other TAC'os. I am planning on going there in a few years, so it just whets my appetite to hear people's experiences. Even if it was not a great night for observing, the company was fine, and the weather was surprisingly comfortable. It began to clear a bit. I went back to the eyepiece.

Orion neb: Why not? When clouds are obscuring your designated targets, sample photons freely at the great, all-you-can-see buffet of glowing gas structure that is M42 and it's neighbors. Beautiful. Depth, overlapping forms. 6 stars easy in the trap. I just cruised around here for awhile. I wish there was a 3d model of this area, as the view we get from Earth seems to imply so much depth, what with overlapping edges of clouds, and the way the light falls off in certain regions. I'd love to move around this grand form to observe the parallax and scale of it from different angles.

ACO 347: Well, the good news is I'm getting better at finding 891, the grand leviathan in a neighborhood populated by small and obscure Abell brethren. 891 had a slightly warm hue, which if it was brighter, would be brown. Does anyone else see this warm color in some galaxies? I first noticed it this summer in Paul Alsing's scope. I recall seeing it on NGC 5985 as well. The dim character of this large object really sets it back in the field relative to the stars, so a great sense of depth and scale is evoked. Like a massive ship on the far side of a city (the field stars), who's contrast is attenuated by the atmosphere in between. By sweeping East from 891, I could pick up 898, the little edge on, but the MCG galaxy about 8' to the east of 898 I could see last month at Willow Springs was hard to come by. However, I could finally orient myself to more of the field, which I found was inverted to my chart. About 12' due east of a prominent mag 6.7 star, NGC906 sits at the northern tip of an isoceles triangle, with 2 field stars forming the short side to the south, NGC 909, on the southeast side of this triangle, lies about halfway between 906 and the 2 field stars. These are dim, round blobs, with a brighter core. Further SE of this group, NGC 911 is picked up in the same field as a similar, fuzzy glow S. of a field star. Sliding the scope 10' south centers the field on 4 galaxies running wnw/ese, with UGC 1866 on the east end, NGC 910 in the middle, being the brightest, and NGC 912 and 913, making up a very dim pair on SE end of this line. That's about as far as I got before the field began to be compromised by yet another cloud layer coming in from the west.

We had a steady breeze blowing from the East for awhile, as the high stuff drifted in from the opposite direction, effectively shutting Pete down for imaging.

I had made a chart of Howell-Crisp 1, and studied the field briefly, but as this area of the sky was also being affected by the cloud layer, I didn't even bother knuckling down to pick it out. It could well have been impossible anyway, with the contrast so low. I found it interesting that the DSS plate clearly shows an object at this position, and got me wondering why this object was overlooked until now.

Bob made the first sacrifice and began packing up. Pete followed suit. I was waffling, and was tired after 2 bouts of loading my car and setting up. I was looking at another tear down, pack up, and 100 miles to get home. It's bad to think like that, as the sacrifices were starting to work, but there you have it. If only I had some of that astro-gum that gator chaser was going on about!

Jamie was still in the game, and was calling us over to look at something through Felix.

40 Eridani: Triple star, Bright primary, with a white and red dwarf as a close pair on one side. The red was quite apparent, but very dim. That led me to suggest taking a look for S Cephei, a star that I could once pick out in my finder, but in the last 3 months, I've been unable to do that. Why? Because it is a variable star!

Some evenings are a moveable feast, and Saturday night was one of them. Thanks Jamie for the great soup, cookies, and hot beverages. Good company all around with the likes of Denis, Pete, and Bob.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Nov 20, 2006 23:01:02 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Dec 13, 2006 21:44:30 PT