Giving Thanks in Tucson

by Renato Del Rosario

My first day of viewing was accomplished at Mt. Hopkins on Tuesday, Nov 21. Following a six hour drive from Palm Dessert and family errands at Wal-Mart upon arrival in Sahuarita, I hurriedly loaded my equipment into the minivan. As I lifted my 12.5" ball scope along the house's driveway, a sign of good omen struck my travel weary eyes. I looked up and the sky glittered with stars everywhere, with the Milky Way clearly visible from the Cygnus to the Cas area. Living close to an oil refinery in Benicia, I was struck by the darkness and stillness around the entire residential area, which had no lamp posts anywhere! Even the nearby Mall displayed very subdued light spillage from its well shielded large yellow lamps. What a refreshing sight, I thought. I called my wife to come outside who reaffirmed my amazement.

With only Andrew's directions on hand, I raced to the site in only 30 min. I began observing around 9:40 to about 2 am. As soon as I peered through the eyepiece, I slowly began to realize that this night wasn't one intended for running through a laundry list of homework targets. I remembered Jane Smith and how much delight it would her given her to do her sketches here. Two star hops from Ankaa led me to NGC 55 and 300 (via lambda 1,2). My previous attempts to find these at Fiddletown were met with frustration. Here, the extra five degrees of lower latitude and above average transparency provided success. NGC 55 was large, bright and beautifully detailed. It appeared like a tadpole which had been stretched out, with the head being significantly brighter. There were noticeable breaks along the brighter bulb of the galaxy (79X, 113X). It also vaguely reminded me of the "whale" galaxy. In contrast, I found 300 nestled within an F shaped configuration of stars (79X, 113X). The galaxy appeared as a large irregular oval glow, possibly hinting of some structure. It reminded of NGC 2403, which I also observed on the next day, Wednesday at Las Cienagas (vide infra). NGC 2403 showed more brightening and structure (79X, 113X) and it looked like an oval shaped crab's head with two eyes (13th mag stars) slightly displaced. NGC 247 which had previously given wash out images at Lake Sonoma displayed a large grainy, amorphous (?) irregular ellipse (79X, 113X).

As Orion rose, I did a number of repeated observations near the area of Orion's Sword, a region where I had not much luck at Fiddletown, at least the last time I tried. At 53X, I easily located 2024 (relatively bright patch), 2023 (visible glow around a star), IC 435 and IC 434 (OIII, irregular faint ribbon of nebulosity). On fleeting moments, I suspected seeing a dark "break" on 434 which formed a triangle with Alnitak and sigma-Orion. At Las Cienagas (vide infra), the "break" took a very obvious hammer like, silhouette form with Sam Rua's 25" cannon, thus confirming it to be the Horsehead Nebula.

M42 was a grand surprise as well at Mt. Hopkins. At 79X-159X, my 12.5 f/5 scope yielded a breathtaking three dimensional view of the greenish nebula clouds which I will never forget. At 79x, the nebula's presence brought to mind a inverted giant Klingon Starship. Perhaps, the combined altitude, transparency and excellent contrast made me appreciate the multi-dimensional appearance of this well known target for the first time.

The night did not end without my favorite galaxy, 891. At 113-159X (best view at 122X), the dust lane was clearly visible with minimal averted vision against an ink black background with hints of molting near the brighter portions of the galaxy. On the following day at Las Cienagas (vide infra), the view of this galaxy with Sam Rua's 25" Obsession Galaxy's optics was both photographic quality and simply majestic. Two other targets that stood out from my notes at Mt. Hopkins were NGC 1333 (a long narrow smear of nebulosity) and the handsome pair of edge-on, needle like galaxies, 7332 and 7339. This was a very cool pair, indeed.

Wednesday's adventure started with a rendezvous at a local MacDonald's along I-19E on route to Highway 82. There I met "diehards" Andrew Cooper and Sam Rua (www.balinka.com/astronomy.htm) in person. When they stated that they were planning to stay until sunrise until Thanksgiving day, I knew that I have found another Dennis Beckley and Darrell Lee duo.

After a ~ one hour scenic drive through picturesque mountain vistas, we arrived at the barren airstrip of the Las Cienagas site. The seeing and transparency was above average until around 10 pm when temperatures dropped to near zero degrees. Over the weekend, Andrew created a webpage of our night together complete with photos.

http://www.siowl.com/index.html?thanksgiving

I spent the early part of the evening studying the region of M52 to find the Bubble (NGC 7635) which I could not find during my last visit to Lake Sonoma. I finally located it as a round egg like patch of nebulosity around a star in between M52 and open cluster NGC 7510 (79-113X). NGC 7538 which formed a triangle with M52 and 7635 reminded me of a brighter version of NGC 246 (in Cetus). A larger patch of irregular nebula was also visible and I suspected it was Sh2-157, based on my star atlas. I should also mention that NGC 253 and M33 displayed a level of fine detail I have not seen in Northern CA during the early part of the night. I was again reminded of Jane and how she would have been motivated in doing sketches of these well know targets.

For the rest of the night, I savored the splendor of IC410 (OIII filter) and NGC1893 (pseudo ET "Y" cluster) and surveyed view angle views of the Fornax galaxies. From time to time, I complemented my star hopping with shared views of various objects on Andrew's and Sam's 18 & 25" apertures.

With 3 hrs. of sleep on Tuesday, my exhaustion caught up with me and I started packing up for Sahuarita at ~ 1:30a. As fate would have it, my supposedly routine and short trip was made colorful when I was stopped by Border Patrol along 82 and questioned for several minutes regarding my nationality and "business" in this remote area. One of the officers got particularly curious about the sphere like object sitting next to me. Fortunately, I happen to remember my A# and they were able to verify my legality by radio.

On Thanksgiving afternoon, my family had an excellent feast at a local resort. Although my wife encouraged me to do another night of viewing, I opted to stay home and rest, content with gazing at the sparkling star studded night sky outside the house we stayed.

This was one visit I will always remember.

Posted on tac-sac Nov 28, 2006 12:59:32 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.4 Dec 14, 2006 20:35:34 PT