November 14, 2009: Lake Sonoma

Mark Yates

So, I took the plunge and purchased the 12" Orion truss dobsonian and I gave it a good work out last night at Lake Sonoma. First, let me just say--great scope! I really love it and I'm sure I haven't even begun to explore the full extent of what it can do. Mostly I used Nagler eyepieces from 11mm to 16mm. I tried a 5mm on Jupiter, but the conditions weren't even close to good enough for 300X.

Conditions were pretty good in Sonoma, but not perfect. The seeing was just ok and the transparency was not great at first, but it got better after 9 or 10. At first, I had some issues getting used to the new scope, but I got them worked out after a while, especially with the help of Bob and Greg (I'm sorry, but I don't remember their last names). I started with a couple of my favorite objects, just to get some reference on how it performs in comparison with my 8" SCT. The Ring was great--it's always been one of my favorites--and I spent some time on M27, which was quite bright and I could make out quite a few stars shining faintly behind it. M31, 32, and 110 were a lot of fun and, when I looked at M33, I could make out faint but unmistakable spiral arms. Very exciting. The highlight of the evening, however, was the Veil, specifically, NGC 6995 and 6992. I've seen it before, but never with that level of detail. With the aid of an OIII filter, I saw, not the faint streak that I've seen in the past, but a very sharp and detailed filament, twisting across the sky, with an almost flame-like tail. I had hoped that my new dob would give me that kind of view and it did not disappoint. After that I bounced around a bit--I checked out the Crab and the Helix, M81 and 82, and then I spent a lot of time on spectacular M42. I got four stars in the Trapezium, but couldn't quite pull in the fifth. Bob said he saw it just for a moment.

I suppose for the more experienced folks all of this is just "eye-candy," they aren't the most challenging of objects, but for a relative novice like myself, it was a really great night. As always, it was a lot more fun because of the very nice people who were there. I can't wait to get out again!

And speaking of getting out again--I have some free time coming up and I would love to get out to a really dark site. Does anybody have recommendations on a site that would be within a reasonable day's drive--6 to 8 hours--from San Francisco?

Mark