Plettstone 10-8-08

Greg LaFlamme

Friday morning Scott Baker and I met in Castro valley so we could caravan up to Plettstone. The drive up 140E was very nice and the rocks that jut out from the earth were all decorated with orange and yellow moss. It was beautiful and I had to stop and snap a couple pictures. As per Albert's suggestion, I picked up some doggy-treats for the ladies and handed some to Scott so we could each have gifts. The pups were nice and Pepper actually came right up to me, hat in hand even before I gave her a yum-yum. The new dog Abby is a bit of a beggar and I would only give the group treats when they were calm and didn't expect it. Ala dog Whisperer. Friday night was a skunk job the way I played it. We hit our respective "sacs' around 11:30 and called it a wash. Carter Scholz woke up at 2:30 to find a clear sky and proceeded to log 20 objects:-/ He considered waking us but because of a comment I made earlier regarding a good nights sleep, wasn't sure if he should or not. Very nice of you buddy but next time, feel free to kick my freak'n tent,,,,, hard;-) Saturday we (Myself, Carter and Scott Baker) took a drive into Yosemite Valley to see what we could see and even did some light duty 4WD'ing to get into a snowy parking lot for a pseudo picnic. I took some pictures of the various landmarks. Beautiful things everywhere you look. I had a great time with those two guys and given the chance, I'd do it all again next week.

Saturday night was nice overall and 6 in the trap was an easy pickings. The Coyotes, crickets and toads putt on a nice concert for us and as I've said before, nature sounds at night make observing even better. We had about a 2 hr time slot where the entire sky was really super sweet. Carter and I both got SQM readings (sky quality meter) between 21.58 and 21.61, far eclipsing my best readings at Lake Sonoma. This,,,is darkness! The popping galaxies were the proof in the pudding though. I tangled with some nice areas of sky near Polaris and was having a blast. In that time we were all quietly working our maps / lists, it was business. I took my logs more seriously this time and every designation that got underlined in Urano Metria was also neatly printed along with a short comment. For these short weekend observing sessions, I'm going to trade the laptop and its 65lb battery for Urano Metria, a music stand, a few DSS sheets and a red light. Being a bit of a minimalist, I really enjoy a light weight, non-driven scope that sets up in under 5 minutes. I copied Steve Gottlieb's idea of placing a small piece of red acetate under Sky Commander's clear LCD cover and that idea works really well to make the letters stand out against the dim red background. I had printed about 20 "basic log sheets" in advance just for that purpose although I only needed two of them. I logged 42 objects, here are just a few of the Highlights: NGC 2805 and its three edge on companions, NGC 2655, NGC 2336 showed some structure, I came across NGC 5907 in Urano Metria so I gave it a peek. Wow, what an object to just stumble across, it was a shock and a discussion complete with pictures ensued over that one. "Hey Scott, check out this dust lane" "I see it but I'm not convinced that it is" "Sure looks like one, like a sharp edge that's only visible in the bright area around the nucleus" "Ya, I see what you mean but that may be mottling or some aitch-tooy stuff" Scott had the Night sky observers guide and the over-exposed astrophoto seemed to suggest he was right. Either way, I love group observations, its helps me learn and keeps my feet on the ground. Had to revisit my old friend the Draco trio and all three were right were I left them last time, very nice. M81 showed its huge outer arms curling back over and under the barred galaxy and it never ceases to amaze me how much larger that sukka gets in a real dark sky. As if a personal gift to me, M51, 63 and 101 all showed there spiral arms as well, I spent about 10 full minutes with each. The grand-daddy of all kick-but galaxies, NGC 4565 was a show stopper for me and that last object of the night. I observed it for a long time at zenith using many different magnifications and found that a 16 T5 Nagler @ 118x gave the best impression for me. That dude filled my entire fov, the dust lane was prominent but what I liked the best about it was the impression of tannish color and mottling on its inclined spiral face. Like M 104, its not completely edge on. In any case, I hadn't seen that one since last year and my hearts still racing.

Thanks to Michelle and Paul for letting me come up and borrow some space in the yard, it was so appreciated:)

GML