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Jeff
Ball Observing
report for April 27-28 from Spruce Knob, WV Hello all, Let me first state that I am certainly not an experienced observer. My scope has an imaging device on the eyepiece end 99% of the time. This night, I wanted to just set back and take in the sights in real time mode. Since I sold all of my eyepieces to pay for astrophoto stuff, I am down to just one eyepiece. Unless stated otherwise, all observations were made with my AP 130EDT and a 12mm Radian eyepiece. Dave Tolley accompanied me on the trek to Spruce. As always, there are side-stories to our adventurous trip. We will share details with you as we see you in person. There were seven scopes on the Gatewood campground-observing field this night. Five dobs ranging from 20”-24”, two SCTs of 8”, and my 5” AP f8. Transparency looked to be diminishing in the early evening, but the skies just lit up with stars just after twilight ended. The dob owners were monitoring the temperature and humidity. I believe the lowest air temperature I heard this night was 36 degrees F and the highest humidity was 45%. There was no wind with just a hint of a breeze every now and then. No dew at all fell this night. Transparency and seeing were rated as “good.” It was a tremendous night for observing or photography. Jupiter and Saturn put on a very nice show. Some of the steadiest images I have seen in a few months. Tom Semrov let me borrow his 7mm Nagler which provided the best views in my AP for the night on the planets. We did try a peek at Mars early in the morning, but conditions were not good enough to do it justice. Of course, this is galaxy season, at least until early morning. I decided to use the Night Sky Observers Guide (NSOG) by Kepple and Sanner to seek out unusual and/or dim objects that I have probably never tried to see in my 130. I tried to follow a pattern of observing within a given constellation as long as there were interesting objects to go after. I fully utilized GOTO on this night. I did find Jupiter, Saturn, Mars, North America, and Veil on my own <g>, but other than that, it was all GOTO with the AP 600. I can’t endorse the NSOG more highly. It makes a rank novice like myself almost appear to be somewhat adept at deep sky observing. Throughout the night, my dob friends would kindly yell out targets for me to try. Keeping me in the 11-12-magnitude range. Canes Venatici Tom presented one of the first objects of the evening. It was NGC 4244 (m10.4). A great edge on galaxy which showed nice detail in his dob. I could just catch a glimpse of the dark lane in my scope with a hint at the extension in the galaxy. M106 and M51 were spectacular in my scope at this great dark sky site. What really thrilled me were two unusual galaxies NGC 4449 (m9.6) and NGC 4490 (m9.8). The boxy-mottled shape of 4449 was very apparent. This was one of my highlights of the night. Wispy structure of 4490 could be seen with a hint of the companion galaxy NGC 4485 (m11.9). The bright core of 4111 (m10.7) was very easy to pick up with the AP. Coma Berenices Hard to believe, but I think the only object I viewed here was NGC 4565. Tom shared with me a wonderful view of the dark lane intersecting this galaxy. I must have been distracted and did not attempt a view through the AP. Leo I skipped to Leo for the usual Messier objects. M105 has a couple of NGC galaxies (3384 <m9.9> and 3389 <m11.9> nearby that could be picked up with the 130. Another galaxy that caught my eye in the NSOG was NGC 3521 (m9.0). This galaxy had a bright nucleus with little detail in the 130. Greg P. presented some great views of objects a little beyond my 5” capability in his 20” Starmaster. I asked Greg if he had viewed a couple of galaxy clusters in Leo. The first was Copeland’s Septet. This cluster is 7 galaxies ranging in magnitude from 13.6 to 15.2. I could see 6, but could not quite bring out 7. The other cluster was the Abell galaxy cluster. Numerous field galaxies in the magnitude 12-13 range was a beautiful site. Thanks Greg. M13 Bino-baby It was about this time of night that Greg offered me a binoview of M13 in his 20” Starmaster. The binoviewers were a pair of Denkmeiers with two 16mm Naglers. This view was simply incredible. The feeling you get when looking at an object with a binoviewer is unlike any I have had in observing. The depth of the deepsky object is hard to describe. Corvus Corvus was cruising across the meridian now and others had shared nice views of M104. I decided to see what NSOG had for me in Corvus. To my surprise, the Ring-Tail (Antennae) galaxy was presented in a great Tony and Daphne Hallas picture in the first part of the Corvus section. Everyone recalls the beautiful Hubble and CCD images of this object, but I had never thought of viewing it through my scope! Why not give it a try? Keyed in NGC 4038 (m10.5) or NGC 4039 (m10.3) and poof…there they are. I was amazed. The structure of the two interacting galaxies was definitely visible with a hint a a dark lane structure in one of the galaxies. This was a highlight of my night. Very cool galaxy pair that the beautiful Spruce Knob skies made possible for my 130 scope. Now the real test would come. I checked out NGC 4361 (m10.9), 4782 (m11.7), 4783 (m11.5), and 4792. Could I see 4724 (m13.9) and 4727 (m13.0)? They do lie close to each other, so it may be difficult to see the two distinct bodies. Maybe it was just late and my imagination ran wild, but I am fairly sure that I did see the galaxy pair. This truly was on the limit of my peripheral vision. The observation was confirmed with Dave Tolley as well. I think this is a true testament to the skies at Spruce Knob. T-Lyrae It was now time for another interesting suggestion from Greg… T-Lyrae, a carbon star. I have never viewed this that I know of. Greg had a tremendous view in his 20” Starmaster. We keyed in the RA/Dec and put some power on the star with the 12mm and barlow and it jumped right out at you. The red color is so vibrant, this is definitely a city light star party target. Thanks Greg! Draco NGC 4236 (m 9.6) was actually very difficult for me. I am fairly certain I could see the extent of this large galaxy, but it was very difficult to pull it in comfortably. Another highlight was NGC 5907 (m10.3). A razor-thin galaxy that was easily seen with a hint of a dark lane. It was now early in the morning and well, there is only one thing to do…cruise the glorious Milky Way overhead. I couldn’t help but think of a suggestion John Dobson had shared recently with our local astronomy club. When you are looking into the heavens, think of it as looking DOWN into the heavens, rather than UP. It changes your perspective a little when you think of how far you might FALL into the universe. We shared views through various eyepieces with filters of the Veil, North America, Pelican, and standard summer Messier stuff. But for me, my Fuji binos cruising the dust lanes of our Milky Way is a treat I don’t partake of nearly often enough. The subtle structure and transition of the dusty to dark areas is a treat to behold. What a tremendous view! I wish to thank Greg, Tom, Eric Shelton, John Nusbaum, Bob Parks, Jay, and a special thanks to Dave Tolley for a great night under the stars at Spruce. Hears to clear skies for you all. Submitted respectfully by Jeff Ball Bob Parks John Nusbaum and I made it up to Spruce Knob for Friday and Saturday night. We had about 6 other folks there the first night and the conditions were near optimum. Lots of meteor action, primarily from the Canis Major region. I saw 30+ during a 3 hour stretch. As this was only my 2nd time out with the "Beast", (http://www.innovisionmm.com/astro/ ), I spent a lot of time visiting "old friends" on the Messier list. Later in the evening. John brought out his faint fuzzies list and we started doing some serious hunting. We did a lot of planetary nebulas, with the Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) being the best of the bunch. Another highlight of the evening was the Veil Nebula. While visible from the DC area, it has never looked as good as it did from very dark site. This is the type of object that really makes the drive to Spruce Knob worth the trip. I finally packed up around 4 AM after spending some quality time with M42 and Saturn. The conditions Saturday night were as good as it gets. 6.7+ LM seeing and the seeing and transparency were better than I have ever experienced. I started the evening in the North visiting M81, 82 and 51. Around 9:15 PM as I moved to M101, I was surprised to find the contrast seemed to be much less than just a few minutes earlier. It seems like a large city had popped up with major sky glow washing out the entire Northern horizon. About that time everyone realized that there was an aurora. It developed quickly from a overall glow to become the best aurora I have ever seen. Bill Jensen's previous post described it well: On 9/8/02 12:28 AM, "William Jensen" wrote: > Pillars shooting up, very bright, with > reddish color at times, and a wide spread of approx 50 degrees wide by > well more than 40 degrees in height. From the far edge of Ursa Major > to Cassiopeia. The "show" lasted about 40 minutes and after "comparing notes" with the rest of the group, I resumed my Messier hunt. By midnight I had "bagged" most of my favorites. I was amazed how much more interesting even the brighter objects like the Messiers have become with more aperture. I took a break around 1 AM to sit in a lounge chair and just take in the Milky Way. It is truly awe inspiring to see the fine whispy detail that is only visible at a dark site. Wrapped up around 4 AM and I can honestly say that it was the best weekend of observing in my life. If you haven't made it to The Year Long Star Party, you are really missing a unique opportunity. Many thanks to the NOVAC board and John Nusbaum for making this site available to the club. Greg P. If you have not observed from a
really dark site, I suggest you go out of your way to do it! It is a
profound experience and one that everyone should enjoy.
John Nusbaum |
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