Henry Coe - 7.3.07

Greg Claytor

Chris followed me up the hill and we arrived at the lot just as the first stars were peeking through. There were only three other cars there. We quickly began to set up. I noticed I pack lighter since taking Albert's advanced beginner course at CalStar. For my XT8 I had my O.S.P., Target table, atlases, eyepieces and filters. Setup was a snap. On the other hand I scrambled to unload and set up my Super Polaris, C8, SkySensor and battery thinking I might spend alittle time fine tuning the set up.

Darkness settled in as I leveled the EQ mount, found Polaris and established a rough polar alignment, plugged in the SkySensor and hooked up a battery during which I listened to the slewing of BIG Schmidt-Cassegrains belonging to observers parked next to me. I LOVE the high pitch whirring sounds of a telescope stepper motors at work. One of the worlds 10 greatest sounds.

I raced to replicate the sound and breath life into my Frankenstein kludge by entering in the time, date, longitude differential and latitude then the RA motor sprang to life! Tick, tick, tick, tick,tick... OK, so it's not as impressive as a stepper, but it was alive and in motion.

I stepped back to admire my set up and realized that this vintage Y2Knon-compliant SkySensor is really BRIGHT! I grabbed a roll of red duct tape and layered a few pieces over the display to fix it out of respect to the imagers parked to the right and in back of me. I released the clutches,disengaged the locking levers and moved the scope to center it on Polaris to collimate. I'd added Bob's Knobs a month and a half ago, but haven't got around to finishing the job. I wasted the next 45 minutes struggling to keep the object centered in the FOV at high mag in order to collimate. I don't have a Telrad or red dot finder onthe C8 and sighting an object is a major pain.

While collimating I started to psych myself out. The next step was to locate a second star referenced in the Star Data Tables, center on it, input it's code and 'complete' the set up. This is where I always get stuck. Even after this step the SkySensor always goes where it wants too. I knew this. I'd done it a dozen times. All the steps I was doing now were the same as before. Someone once told me the definition of insanity is to keep doing the same thing time after time expecting something different to happen. I could feel the frustration well up inside me.

I can't rationalize my stubbornness or need to get this archaic system online. I guess I want to say I got it to work. Sadly though, it can't be any good for imaging, there's no way to guide it. I stepped back, took in a deep breath and exhaled my frustration. I looked over at the lonely XT8 and accepted the futility of this time wasting endeavor... and abandoned the C8, again.

My O.S.P. provided a comfortable place to retreat to and recall lessons learned from Albert. I needed a target constellation, an object and a strategy. I looked northeast to Cassiopeia and Pegasus. Ah, Pegasus... and NGC7331. This was an easy choice. I opened up Star Atlas 2000.0 and set off to find the dim object and re-create the magic. I quickly discovered two things: left on my own I'm no Albert and a 13.5' primary is not replicated by use of an 8.

OK,what can I do? I needed a new strategy. First I decided I needed less data. I was overwhelmed by SA2000.0, so I switched to Pocket Sky Atlas. It offered three advantages: less data, constellation outlines and adjacent atlas page information. Just as I located a target constellation area in the atlas Chris says 'Hey I got the veil'.

Oh yes he did, wicked cool wispy nebulosity stretching well past the FOV of a 24mmPan, a view that that grabbed me. The part of the hobby that's hard to describe to non-astronomy people. Chris remembered Greg LaFlamme telling us how to locate the knotty section. Chris panned over with the panoptic, courtesy LaFlamme and Wham-O. Now we're star gazin' like we mean it. I drew back to peer through the Telrad and sprinted back to the XT8 with the 24 Pan to repeat the observation. Notes say 'Found veil for 1st time! Better with UHC, but SkyGlow works. Could see ribbon, not knot.' This was the kick in the pants I needed. Thanks Chris.

I brought the laptop as a security blanket, but it sat in the front seat of the van along with the elevation gage. I settled in and embraced the hunt. Cassiopeia and Pegasus called, so I went to M31. Notes say, 'Andromeda is best at15mm. M31 and M32 fill entire FOV.” I went back to study the atlas.

Next upM34. 'M34 is not spectacular. Read about it. Happened to be in target area', read my notes. I later learned that it’s an open cluster about mag 5. Seemed a whole lot dimmer than mag 5. At least I targeted and found it!

Next upM33. 'M33 is a faint Galaxy though not very bright and hard to locate in an XT8, 12' Zhumell was easier and brighter too.' I'm partial to galaxies. This was coupe using the XT8in my opinion, but it’s another mag 6 object. Are my eyes that bad? I had to move the scope back and forth and use averted vision to see it.

Next upCalifornia and Simeis nebulas. Nuthin'. Couldn't find 'em. Spent some time on 'em too. Nuthin'. I renamed Simeis Smilies instead; makes more sense to me. It looks like a laughin’ place. Maybe I need different filter or a bigger lense. Dunno.

Next upM78. Mag 8. Faint. A smudge with afew stars in the background. I foundyou; nonetheless, smudge. People lost you and I found you again and again, smudge. A month ago I wouldn’t have seen it. I was proud of this one. MaybeM34 or 33 were more notable. I dunno. Again, another pretty bright object, I learned later. My eyes must be really bad.

Also found M42. This was very much fun. Started with the 24 Pan, magged up to a 7mm and then barlowed the thing to a 3.5mm. Lotso nebulosity. We were peering into the cave part and just having fun poking around this neat, large,fun object.

I looked at other objects as well, but I’ve mentioned them in other ORs, so I won’t repeat them again. Albert helped me appreciate this immersive aspect of the hobby. Hunting. I suppose my strategy this night was dictated more by exhaustion that an actual plan. I was still feeling jet lag from my trip to Disney World, I’d attended the Hogue Park star party the night before and was runnin’, but not on all cylinders.

I set my scope at about 45 degrees between Cassiopeia a Pegasus to start with. Then dropped the scope lower where it was comfortable to for me to sit at the eyepiece on my O.S.P. I’d look for a constellation near where the red dot was and refer back to the atlas to find a target. Then I just kinda let the sky rotate upward revealing whichever constellation was next in line. I later thought that it was like watching a strip of advancing movie frames that changed about every hour or so. It was a fun night of viewing. Can’t wait for another full night!

Greg Claytor