July 3/4, 2009: Morningstar Lake, near Foresthill

Jim Varley

I wanted to share my experiences this past weekend in some pretty dark skies, though as another TACo mentioned, the moon obscured it from being really dark. I won’t know how dark the region really is until I actually get to visit sometime when the moon is not so bright, but I can tell the conditions were better than anything I’ve experienced at home here in Pacifica. I am convinced now that I will just be stuck with having to deal with turbulent skies from my backyard.

Anyway, I digress on a little vent/rant about my typical observing location…

Morningstar Lake in the Sierra’s, approx 4000 ft elevation (by car GPS and Google Earth, though it sure didn’t feel like I gained so much altitude on the drive in…), gave me some of the steadiest skies I’ve observed in to date. Granted, I don’t get out much, so maybe I just haven’t experienced the best the Bay Area has had to offer, but it was sure better than my trip to Coe over this past winter (and I thought THAT was a good night!)

I also was able to share my scopes with upwards of a dozen children, teens, and adults at the campgrounds, so hopefully my outreach efforts will help inspire some of the next generation of observers.

I decided to setup in the middle of the campground next to my tent, which really limited my Northward sky due to the proximity to the tree line, but it gave me the advantage of leaving my mount setup aligned all night and through the next day so I didn’t have lug my CGE to the beach at the Lake and tear down and re-setup for the two nights. Also, it gave better access to the other campsite folks in the area and the first night I had a pretty constant trickle of folks looking at everything I showed them.

First stop on the first night, since I knew I was going to be doing mostly outreach, was to hit Saturn before it set. I had my CGE setup with my NP127 and 9mm Nagler. The skies were steady enough to easily get a sharp image on the planet, see three of the moons quite clearly and with a hint of banding (Saturn was low enough in the sky though that not much more detail was visible). The real treat was actually the Moon. I had the adults and the older teens “ooohing and aaahhing” with wonder at the detail visible. One adult even mentioned that he won’t see the Moon as just a bright whitish-disk anymore. One of the best general views was actually through the finderscope (a 9x50), it gave a really nice contrasty view of the Dark Mare and brighter sections. But I could really crank up the magnification and get pleasing details on the moon. Only a hint of heat-haze at the terminator was visible, and no signs of atmospheric turbulence to distort the views (something I haven’t experienced at home).

After the moon, I gave the entourage of visitors a general tour of the constellations, mainly as a distraction to get their vision more dark adapted before I showed them anything else. The kids, of course, loved the Green Laser but I think I scared the crud out of the teenagers when I discussed the appropriate use of the laser as a tool and not as a toy. Next up, I showed them M13, followed by M57, the Double Double, Albiero and then we tried for M51. M13 was pretty small in the NP127, so I told them to come back the next night when I’d setup my C925 to really bring in the view. Most saw the fuzzy grey blob of M57, but none were patient enough to see the “ring” structure of the nebula. I played some visual games with the Double Double, and the little kids just liked the act of seeing through the telescope, the older teens and adults took on the challenge of really trying to find the quadruple star arrangement. I think only two of the adults found it, and I think focus was the main issue for those who couldn’t see it. I could see some faint hints of extended structure in M51, but most of the group saw the two fuzzy stars and that’s about it. The moon was doing its best to wash out the views and I warned them this would be a tough target on this night.

The group loved the color difference between the components of Albiero, and I got an almost never ending set of questions concerning star formation, birth, death, reasons for color etc from the teenage girls. The teenage boys just wanted to know how much I paid for my gear…

The outreach came to a natural conclusion, and then I started hunting for some nebulae: The Swan, Eagle and Trifid (I completely forgot about Lagoon! How could I!). The Swan looked quite distinctive and the OIII filter really separated it from the sky background, though the moon definitely washed out the finer details. The Eagle was barely noticeable and the Trifid lacked any detail (both were pretty close to where the moon was located in the sky). And since I was exhausted from all of the outreach (the margaritas we had surely had nothing to do with it!) I packed up the OTAs, EPs and such and covered the mount and went to bed. The second night was mostly a repeat of the first, but using the C925 instead of the NP127. I was completely impressed with how much I could push the magnification. Much more detail was present on Saturn and the banding was much more noticeable. The moon was phenomenal as well. I really pushed the magnification by using my 3.5mm EP, bringing the magnification to ~670x. Focus was tricky, but doable and the details were just spectacular. I wish I knew more of lunar topography, as I was seeing tiny craters within small craters, but didn’t have a map to figure out what I was showing to people. The crowd had a hard time getting the focus dialed in with the 3.5mm, but backing it down to a 9mm (~260x) made things much easier for folks. I wish I had my cameras and laptop with me, I would’ve been able to capture some excellent regions of the moon…Alas, hindsight is 20/20 right?

Since it was the 4th of July, the night ended a little bit early as folks went back to partying (myself included), but I think it was an enjoyable outing for all involved. I didn’t look at anything “new,” but I was pretty caught up in the moment of outreach which was enjoyable all by itself, and did see a lot more “new” details on the moon.

I hope others have had nice experiences over this holiday weekend,

Jim