July 18, 2009: Excellent night at Coe

Tony Hurtado

It was truly a great night at Coe last night, no doubt about that. Despite some moisture hovering off to the south, and on some occasions obscuring small portions of the sky, views were excellent.

Upon arrival ~7:45pm, Dan and I were greeted by near 90° temps and the Winds of Coe handily living up to their reputation. We were soon joined by Sean McCauliff and 4 others whose names escape me. Skies were cloudless and bright as we were treated to a lovely sunset. Ominous moisture laden clouds lined the southern horizon, the kind that had been blowing northward all day long, but very little of that muck affected us at all, just a few small really slow moving puffs drifting past around midnight. When I pulled out of the overflow lot at 2am, the temp was 83°, a t-shirt and shorts night for sure. But by the time I hit the freeway, the temp was 67°, so an inversion was in effect.

Seeing was really sharp early on - definitely the best night out I've had all year and perhaps as long ago as last fall. Saturn was a bit low, but it's rings showed razor thin, well on their way to being edge-on on Sept 4. A tiny gap of darkness could be seen between the rings and the planet. Visible banding on the planet was easy in my 18" dob, one of the best views of Saturn I've ever had. After midnight I happened upon Jupiter... Truly an awesome sight! So bright I could project an image through the EP on to my palm! Seeing gradually degraded but only subtly.. wonderful seeing declined to merely really good after ~12:30am.

Here's the rundown:

M57 7/18/09 9:53 PM 9:53 PM Nagler 5mm Extremely clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park "Holy Cow! Seeing is REALLY good! I've neer seen the Ring Nebula lke this. Almost fills the FOV of my 5Nagler. Misty translucent inner region has texture while the outer ring is distinct and almost solid. The ""pointy"" end is framented. Did I catch a glimpse of the central star? Maybe."

Saturn 7/18/09 9:58 PM 9:58 PM Nagler 9mm Extremely clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park Although it's really low can easily distinguish a small space between the rings and planet. Titan and Rhea are easy but cannot see nearby mag 14.7 Iapetus.

NGC5746 7/18/09 10:14 PM 10:14 PM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park Razor thin edge-on galaxy. Tiny pinpoint bright spot at the very core surrounded by a moderate central bulge area. Beyond that the outer regions taper quickly to extremely thin streaks of light. Curved string of 4 bright stars adjacent to the north. NGC 5740 is obvious ~1 FOV away. Nice edge-on!

NGC4900 7/18/09 10:24 PM 10:24 PM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park "This is a tough object. It's a little low and currently lost in a bit of sky muck, so it appears as a star with fan shaped nebulousity. I definitely see it, but reconizing this as a galaxy is tough. "

NGC5576 7/18/09 10:35 PM 10:35 PM Nagler 5mm Mostly clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park This galaxy is the center and brighlooks like atest of 3 galaxies almost in a straight line across the FOV of my 9Nagler. In the 5Nagler some detail emerges: looks like an almost round elliptical. Bright central region terminates abruptly at a radius of ~50% of the object's span giving way to a much dimmer and sparsely populated halo.

NGC5363 7/18/09 11:02 PM 11:02 PM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park Rather featureless roundish galaxy - must be a simple elliptical.

NGC5474 7/18/09 11:19 PM 11:19 PM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park "Extremely low surface brightness, appears large and diffuse in the 25 Plossl. A few details pop out in the 9Nagler. Looks like large sweeping coils of spiral arms around a large diffuse core area. Nothing is really bright, just very diffuse light in large but distinct shapes."

NGC3949 7/18/09 11:24 PM 11:24 PM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear I. Perfectly stable Henry Coe State Park "Elongated ~2:1 almost N-S, this galaxy is a pretty featureless oval patch of light. No discernable detail."

NGC4121 7/18/09 11:39 PM 11:39 PM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park Tiny companion of much larger and brighter NGC 4125. Looks like it might be a face on spiral - hints of spiral structure seen.

NGC4102 7/18/09 11:46 PM 11:46 PM Nagler 9mm Poor III. Somewhat stable Henry Coe State Park "Elongated roundish path of light. This area of the sky is currently partially obscured by thin clouds, so seeing is not good at the moment. Need to revisit this one, but object was cleanly detected."

NGC3310 7/18/09 11:56 PM 11:56 PM Nagler 9mm Poor III. Somewhat stable Henry Coe State Park "Easily detected in the 25Plossl, but no further detail seems to be available in the 9Nagler. Almost perfectly round. With averted vision I may have detected some wisy outer rings or arms. Need to revisit this one. "

NGC3729 7/19/09 12:13 AM 12:13 AM Nagler 9mm Poor III. Somewhat stable Henry Coe State Park "Realy low surface brightness object - very hard to detect, made harder due to glow from San Jose as it's low in the sky."

NGC4041 7/19/09 12:21 AM 12:21 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park Nearly round but has some odd deviations to it's shape. Is this an elliptical or perhaps some sort of irregular? Not enough detail to tell.

NGC5631 7/19/09 12:29 AM 12:29 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park Very small but discernable as an extended object in the 25Plossl. In the 9Nagle this galaxy grows into a fairly regularly round elliptical. Very typical and textbook.

NGC2787 7/19/09 12:35 AM 12:35 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park "Currently very low but in a fairly dark part of the sky. Depite that this object is very small and shows little detail other than to be an extended object. It is perhaps fan shaped but no other detail available, Need to revisist this on as the DSS image shows an interesting object!"

NGC4036 7/19/09 12:37 AM 12:37 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park This is the brighter larger galaxy in the same FOV as NGC 4041. Just came from there. Looks like a near edge-on spiral. Fairly bright and an easy find.

NGC3982 7/19/09 12:44 AM 12:44 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park "Almost stellar in the 25Plossl and was a hard find. No detail in the 9Nagler but does take on a circulr shape. No other detail. This one must be a very small, dim elliptical. NGC 3982, an edge-on, is in the same FOV."

NGC4085 7/19/09 12:51 AM 12:51 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park "Wow! Absolutely stellar in the 25Plossl - just a good guess at what wasn't a star! In the 9Nagler this is just a 2:1 elongated streak of light. Very small, very dim, featureless. Need to revisit form a dark site."

NGC5473 7/19/09 12:58 AM 12:58 AM Nagler 9mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park Tiny elliptical masquerading as a star! Absolutely stellar in the 25Plossl and in line with a linear string of stars. Takes on an extended appearance in the 9Nagler but no details to speak of.

Jupiter 7/19/09 1:19 AM 1:19 AM Nagler 5mm Mostly clear II. Mostly stable Henry Coe State Park Another stunning planetary view tonight! Equatorial bands were easy and solid, temperate bands and festooning were visible with a fair amount of detail at 384x. Wow! Moons were bright and crisp and have "size" as opposed to being points.

I have 10 objects left on my Herschel 400 I list. Next Wed at Montebello ought to do it. Let's hope for more nights like this.

-Tony