Great time at Plettstone

Richard Navarrete

I left at 10:30 a.m. to enjoy the day and my friends at Plettstone, just outside of the small Sierra town of Mariposa. The weather was wonderful with temps in the 90's. A big crowd was expected, including a contingent from TAC-SAC. I never counted, but there were over 20 people and even more scopes. I brought my TV-101 on a new-to-me Skyview Pro goto mount (thanks, Shane!) and an 18" Obsession. It was wonderful to be able to relax in the afternoon with my friends before the excitement of a night of observing.

There were a number of people taking photos, and I hope they get them posted on the TAC Flickr account.

http://flickr.com/groups/tac/

I spent the evening working on the Herschel 2500 list with the 18", and objects from Mark Wagner's September observing list with the TV 101. I must confess I enjoyed working with the GOTO mount. It was fun to compare views in Mark's 18" and then in the TV 101. The change in magnification really put objects in context, and some objects benefited from the high contrast and low power of the 4" refractor.

Alvin Huey was kind enough to share some of his eyepieces with me. At one point he brought over a 5mm Tak and a 5mm monocentric. We were comparing the views of M13 between those two and my 5mm radian. The eyepieces with the fewest elements had better contrast and more stars seemed to show. Very instructive. Multi-element wide field eyepieces are great to use, but to pull out the faintest of objects, low element eyepieces can make a difference. Alvin also let me use his 13mm Ethos eyepiece as well. That eyepiece was a joy to use. When I went back to my 20 Nagler I felt like I was looking through a straw! The wide field and higher power of the 13mm made finding faint galaxies easier. I may have to start saving my pennies.

Most of the objects I observed were galaxies with the description of 'small, faint (very faint)' and I logged 26 new objects. I ended the evening on Abell 262 in Andromeda. I observed this group last year at Lassen. It's found in an area between Triangulum and Andromeda. A great chain of four small galaxies very close together with the brightest member at 13.7. There are more galaxies in the eyepiece and I managed 12.

Another great observing session. Thanks again to MIchelle and Paul.

Richard Navarrete