Dino Point 11/03/07

Bill Cone

I tried a different route this time from my house in Moraga, heading over Altamont Pass to the 5, and then taking the 33 over to the 152. Distance was 118 miles, and the drive time about 1 hour and 40 minutes.

I got there fairly early, and found several observers. Steve Winston and Jim Bartolini were my immediate neighbors, Greg Laflamme was nearby, and Marek and Kingsley were over by the picnic tables. In short order Rob Hawley, Matt Marcus, Mark Wagner, and others began pulling in. Eventually around 18-20 scopes had spread out over the lot. I set up, did a rough collimation, walked around and chatted a bit, then chowed down on my observing victuals: applesauce, peanuts, dried apricots, chocolate chips, a banana, cheese, and water.

In the mid-nineties, I remember being a newbie regular on a Compuserve astro forum, and one day reading Mel Bartels talking about touring the clusters and star clouds of the Andromeda Galaxy the night before. The concept of being able to observe objects in a galaxy 2 million light years away really impressed and excited me. I just had to try that at some point.

I had no idea it would take me 12 years to get around to it. I had prepared several charts to get me started, though I didn't expect to find everything, and hadn't even charted it all. I spent a few hours on this project, taking time early and later, to study the comet. I also poked around Perseus a bit, and then went after a few planetaries. Late in the evening, I feasted on Orion, then called it quits and headed back up the 5. At 2 in the morning, the 5 is almost deserted. I was home in 90 minutes.

David Kingsley used a phrase in a post last week, that I'd like to borrow: Mind Candy. That is one of the pleasures of this hobby. Even though we're often staring at objects that are at the limit of our visual perception, or merely present a faint point of light, our minds compensate for this minimalist state of affairs with an appreciation of what it is we are seeing. Everytime Steve Gottlieb says "What's cool about this object is..." It is the same thing. Such is the case with the Andromeda DSO's. They are mostly faint, stellar objects, with a few exceptions, yet I've had great fun making charts, and tracking them down. There are plenty of bright field stars superimposed on M-31, and with its bright nucleus, I found it fairly easy to orient and navigate, even at 242x, with a 9mm Nagler giving me an 18' fov.

Here's notes on 8 objects I observed in/around M-31. I decided to start with the easier objects and save the 'stinkers' for another session. There will be more to come.

G73- GC Andr 14.9m
Very faint, Stellar. First picked up at 91x, w/averted vision. Located between 2 stars oriented N/S, roughly 1/4 from the S. end. This globular is just E. of M32, and may actually belong to that galaxy. With a 9mm Nagler giving me 242x, I could hold this with direct vision.

G78 GC Andr 14.2m
Forming the E. apex of a right triangle w/ 2 stars to the W. Faint, growing w/averted vision, then becomes a faint spark. Much fainter than the 2 stars to the W.

G72 GC Andr 15.02m
Stellar point w/ averted, then direct vision. This globular lies N. of G78 in the same (18') field. Forms a faint SW corner of a trapezoid of stars.

G64 GC Andr 15.1m
Stellar, very faint. Averted vision pops it in, then held with periodic direct vision. Located between 2 close stars oriented SE/NW. 2/3 towards W. end. Viewed at 242x.

G76 GC Andr. 14.2m
Very faint w/direct vision, much brighter w/averted. Easily seen as part of a shallow 'W' asterism that is oriented E/W. This globular lies on the SW side of the nucleus, about 12' WSW of the star 70 Andr. Viewed at 242x.

C107 OC Andr
The first of these objects to appear non-stellar. Roughly 6' W. of G76. Forms the SE tip of an isoceles triangle. Very faint. Averted vision seems to show an extended patch.

NGC 206 Star Cloud Andr
Faint exended glow against background, oriented N/S. Averted vision shows a smattering of stars across this area. Fairly bright stars bracket N and S ends.

G1 GC Andr 13.7m
This is the brightest catalogued glob, yet it took me awhile to find the right star patterns to hop to it, as it is several degrees SW of the galaxy. This is also the only globular to show a non-stellar appearance.

Takes magnification well. Sails through the field with a 4mm eyepiece at 545x. Extended, non-stellar object, 3rd component of very small triangle w/ 2 stars to W, which form the S. apex of a distinctive isoceles triangle of stars. the NW corner of this triangle is a wide pair, or a double. I showed this one to Mark, and he commented on an apparent glow around the glob, which seemed to even encompass the 2 stars it was grouped with. I had noticed that, but discounted as perhaps being my own smudged glasses or scope optics. What also intrigued me about this object was that you could fit a galaxy(UGC 330) into the same field (18' @ 242x). It was faint, but discernably elongated. I've always enjoyed those images of M-13, with NGC 6207, and IC 4617 in the same field:

http://deepsky.astronomie.info/Her/m13/m13_dss.jpg

Observing G1 from Earth, may be akin to looking back at M-13 in our own Milky Way Galaxy from the vantage point of NGC 6207, with a galaxy beyond ours in the same field ... a reversal of the pov of this image. There's the Mind Candy aspect of looking at these objects.

Jamie Dillon appeared out of the dark, and so I pointed the scope back to M31 and handed him charts to pick some globs out of the field. He had them in short order. This is a good warm up for Pease 1. Maybe I'll wait til next year for that one. No rush.

Comet 17P Holmes:
I studied this early on, and much later in the evening. This large and bright object is a visual treat, showing all sorts of structural character. To my eyes there appeared to be a color temperature shift in the coma. The darker area N. of the stellar "nucleus" looked to be warm, compared to the brighter elliptical glow that wrapped around the nucleus and spread out to the S., which appeared cooler and 'bluer'. I don't know if this is a contrast effect in my eyes, or real, as most images are being processed to show faint detail, not subtle color temperature shifts. The field outside the comet had a clear value shift. SE to SW was noticeably brighter than the rest of the field.

David Kingsley borrowed Rob Hawley's comet filter and showed me the outer halo, which wrapped entirely around the comet, doubling its apparent size. In looking through his binoculars, I could also see the halo.

I spent some time trying to see IC 349, a bright 'knot' in the Merope Nebula in the Pleiades. Though several of the stars in M45 were clearly showing surrounding nebulosity, I could not pick this one out, due to its proximity to the star Merope. I was hoping to see it without an occulting bar eyepiece, but I think I'll have to make one and give it another try. Alcyone, the central star in M45 looked particularly striking with it's nebulosity (Vdb 23) and adjacent triple to the NW.

NGC 7662 PN And.
The blue snowball. As the seeing permitted high magnification, I dropped in my 4 mm Burgess planetary, and tried to get a good read on the planetary as it skated across the field. Brilliant turquoise color. At 545x, it was a bit soft, but structurally reminded me of the old CBS logo, showing a dark central ellipse with pointed ends, surrounded by a turquoise ring. The ring itself had some mottling, but I couldn't decipher it beyond that, as the motion of the object in the field kept me from extracting more information. (Hook up your drive, Bill)

NGC 40 PN Cepheus
I revisited this one as Greg LaFlamme had mentioned it earlier in the evening. We had looked at it through my scope at Lassen, and both saw a warm cast to the shell, and the central star. "Ruddy" was the term I used to describe the color in my notes. The view of this from Dino was markedly different, as the shell was far less apparent with no filter. Averted popped out the shell around the star, but it appeared cool. Huh? With an 0III filter the central star appeared red, while other field stars did not dramatically change color. The fact that the shell was far less apparent with no filter makes me think transparency must be playing a role. I'll try this a few more times under different circumstances. I do know the view at Bumpass was much better than Dino for this object. At Lassen I could see a colored shell with direct vision and no filter.

It was a nice night. Warm weather, good folks all around in the dark, either voluntarily secluded, or chatting it up.

Jamie to Mark:

"What's the minimum aperture you can see that object with?"

Mark:

"12 inches."

You had to be there.

Observed with an 18" f4.2 Plettstone w/Paracorr. Eyepieces used were 24 and 15mm panoptic, 11 and 9 mm Nagler, 4mm Burgess.