Crascent Valley, 8/11/07

by Shneor Sherman

The horizons here are excellent. There's a slight ridge to the east, but Ken's property is aat least as high; there's a slight ridge to the north, maybe taking up 3 or 4 degrees, a ridge to the west, about 15 degrees, and a clear south. Ken's property is generally covered in very low vegetation, which was very dried out. There's a cleared-out area where Ken has his pier, but the ground is still somewhat uneven. (When I complained mildly about the uneveness of the ground, Ken threatened to put in 10' by 10' concrete pads.) The uneveness of the ground only affected my ladder placement slightly.

There are two miniscule light domes to the west, mostly hidden behind the ridge, a tiny dome to the east, and a small light dome to the south. Once it's dark, there is also a string of lights to the southeast (must be the main street of the village), which are not bright enough to create a dome of any kind and don't interfere with observing.

Despite the smoke in the air, HIP76530 was visible around midnight (this is a star in Ursa Minor), at magnitude 6.9. Seeing was average to better than average - I used my 4.8 Nagler on 7331 and M57 (and also my 2.3mm X-Cel on M57) to good effect when it was close to the zenith and seeing appeared to be good. The central star was intermittently visible with the Nag.

At dusk, the east was almost opaque, but the south and west looked good. Nonetheless, I stuck to eye candy, partly because Ken hinted that he'd like to see certain objects - this was after he had set up his imaging for the night. We had an excellent view of the Veil, using my NPB flter, with strands running through, and then the witch's broom as well as inner parts of this object. A spectacular view of M8, followed by M17 and M16. I removed the filter and we viewed M22, M80, and swinging to the east, M15. Also nice views of Stephan's Quintet (the eastern sky had cleared up by now) and the 7331 group, as well as 5 galaxies in the group opposite Stephan's (the other side of 7331). Later on, we viewed M31 and M110 (which showed excellent structure), as well as M33 and M101 (even though it was low in the sky). Ken commented often that he could see stars on the horizon. So could I.

We also saw quite a few early Perseids.

Ken went to bed about one; by 1:30, heavy smoke returned with a vengeance, and I hit the sack at 2.

This looks to be an excellent site. I don't know the potential limiting magnitude, but given how good the sky appeared even with a smoky atmosphere, I'd say 7.5+ at least. Maybe Ken will put in those concrete pads...

The drive home was difficult, once back in California, with numerous instances of stop-and-go traffic (on Sunday afternoon, of course). I finally got off I-80, took 5 north to Woodland and 113 to Davis and got home after 7 hours in the car. Still, it was worth the drive just to check out the site. Generally, I prefer not to head too far north because you can then see less of the south; so Ken's site is reasonable for me. I hope for no fires next time.

Clear skies,
Shneor Sherman