Clear and Dry at Farrington

I arrived on 2/16 at about 5:30pm for a night of solo observing. It was cloudy most of the day, but the sky cleared out between 5-6pm. It was very cold, getting down to 27F by the time I left at 2:10am. It was also incredibly dry. At 2:10am, the humidity was only 57%! There was no dew at all. The only real problem with the weather was the wind, which would occasionally shake the scope a bit. It mostly wasn't a problem.

After getting setup (including very careful collimation), I snapped the attached picture and then started into the pizza I'd brought along. Soon it was dark enough to observe.

I went for the Orion Nebula right off the bat, and even while I was still focusing, I immediately saw 6 stars in the Trapezium. It wasn't even dark yet, and the air was incredibly still. I knew I was in for a great session.

About this time, a car passed by, turned around, and came back. A guy got out, and rather than give the typical "Hey, is that a canon?" question, this guy was also an amateur astronomer. "John" was a member of the Raleigh Astronomy Club apparently a long time ago, has some experience building scopes, and was very friendly. I encouraged him to get on our email list and come out for an observing session some time.

I had a LONG list of objects to find, so I didn't take detailed notes on everything. I tried to focus on whatever was high in the south - west quarter of the sky, since that seems to be the darkest area at Farrington. I tried to go with objects that the "Night Sky Observer's Guide" said would be visible in an 8" scope and had a rating of 3+ stars. It was amazing how many of those objects I couldn't detect at all in my 18" scope.

I started around Triangulum and worked my way up into Perseus and Taurus. Here we go:

Venus: incredibly bright, despite being maybe 40% illuminated. After dark, Venus was producing a lot of light pollution in its part of the sky. I stayed at least 20 degrees away from it until it set.
M31 Andromeda Galaxy: bright as always, with the major dust lane on the left side very visible.
NGC 672: very faint galaxy. I could only see the central bar. I could not see its companion IC 1727 at all.
Cr21: A very bright, nice cluster in the shape of an ear. I stumbled on this while star hopping my way to NGC 672.
NGC 925: another faint galaxy, no detail detected.
NGC 1023: small, but bright galaxy. Very nice!
M33 Triangulum Galaxy: no detail visible
M34: impressive open cluster. The clarity was amazing.
Double Cluster: wow! Again, the clarity was really impressive. I put a lot of effort into collimation, which combined with the exceptionally dry air to make this view incredible.
NGC 891: a relatively faint, but large edge-on galaxy. Interesting to see, but there was no inner detail to be had.
M76 Little Dumbbell: excellent! I pushed this up to 410x, and it still looked great! I could see the "dent" in the top of it and the nodes on the sides. If you have the "Night Sky Observer's Guide", my view looked just like the picture on p297 of volume 1, except obviously not as bright.
NGC 957: cute open cluster, but not very bright.
NGC 1245: faint, dense open cluster with lots of unresolvable stars. I had about 121x on it, so if I'd gone up to 200 or 300x, it probably would have cleaned the image up. I just didn't have the interest to bother on this object.
IC 2003: tiny reflection nebula in Perseus. At 121x, I couldn't distinguish it from a star. At 293x, it was obviously a bright disk.
NGC 1514: this planetary nebula in Taurus was stunning at 205x with an OIII filter. A central star was obvious with a ring of sense nebula around it.
NGC 1491: small emission nebula in Perseus that was faint, but obviously shaped like a triangle. Two sides were dense, with the area in between just a faint cloudiness.
NGC 1513: Small but bright open cluster. This was shaped like a backwards comma.

Now I jumped over to Orion and worked my way up into Gemini.

NGC 1528: large open cluster that is both bright and dense. It was shaped like a long wedge.
M78: this nebula was very nice at 205x, but an OIII filter actually made it worse.
NGC 2022: small, bright disk at 293x. This is a nice object in Orion that probably gets overlooked too often.
NGC 2261 Hubble's Variable Nebula: small, but very nice with great detail at 293x. The air was still very steady.
Σ953: a stunning double star in Monoceros. I stumbled on this while looking for NGC 2261 and needing a star to adjust focus on. This was the closest star in my finder of appropriate magnitude. These two are about even brightness, one being very yellow, and the other very blue. Quite a gem!
NGC 2264 X-mas Tree: Not much detail here. I couldn't see much nebulosity, but the star cluster was nice.
M35: huge open cluster that is very nice to observe. Bright with lots of stars, but not particularly dense.
NGC 2158: a companion to M35, this open cluster is much smaller and fainter, but very dense. I wrote in my notes that it must be much farther, and sure enough, it is about 5 times farther from us than M35.
M1 Crab Nebula: large, very imposing nebula. its non-circular shape seems somehow menacing. I spent a lot of time on this object at MASP, so on this evening I didn't linger.
NGC 2266: beautiful! This is a very dense open cluster that sits in an already very heavily-populated star field.
NGC 2392 Eskimo: very bright ball of nebulosity with a central star.
NGC 2420: Beautiful little open cluster that is very dense.

At this point I jumped to a group of objects that were in Puppis and Hydra, both low in the sky.

NGC 2467: this nebula was very low in the sky. I could have been kneeling while looking through the eyepiece. It was very interesting, but seeing a picture now, I missed a lot of it. I saw a fair amount of detail at 121x with an OIII filter. I sketched a donut-shaped nebula with an obvious hole in the middle, and a knob of some sort on the left side.
M93: very bright open cluster- spectacular!
M47: this open cluster was bright, but not particularly dense.
M46: this is the open cluster with a small ring-shaped nebula superimposed. At 121x with a UHC filter, this was breath-taking. The filter didn't dim the stars hardly at all, but really brought out the contrast and gave the nebula a bit more definition.

My final jump was to Cancer and Leo, which by now were high in the SW sky. Orion was setting!

NGC 2683: WOW! this is a very bright edge-on galaxy that looked great at 205x.
M44 Beehive: this open cluster is too big for my scope. I think binoculars would have been much better.
M67: big, dense open cluster that is very bright.
Abell 31: despite a recommendation from Sky & Telescope's March issue that this nebula was visible in a 10" scope in "semirural skies", I could not detect it at all, even with a UHC or OIII filter.
NGC 2775: this galaxy appeared small, but with a bright and dense core.
Saturn: By request, I paid special attention to Saturn. I saw four moons: Dione, Titan, Rhea, and Tethys. I knew where Enceladus was supposed to be, but I could not see it. I pushed the magnification up to 410x, and the view was still very clear! If I'd brought my barlow, I would have gone for 600x. The rings mostly looked like straight lines extending from the sides of the planet, but in moments of exceptionally still air, I could see dark space through the rings on either side of the planet! I doubted myself at first, but I was able to repeat the observation many times. In those moments when I could separate the near and far parts of the rings just before they crossed the planet, the rings themselves looked incredibly thin. There was a distinct band across the planet, about 25% of the way from the equator to the north pole. I felt like I was on the verge of seeing some detail in the southern hemisphere, but it never materialized. There was also a very distinct but thin shadow, which appeared to be immediately under the rings where they cross in front of the planet. The planet and rings appeared bright yellow.

Farrington Observing

I arrived a few minutes before 6pm and started setting up on soggy ground. There was a smattering of clouds, but it soon began to clear. Mark South, Robert Nielsen, and Kumar Pandya attended. Kumar actually just slowed down and pointed his telescope out the car window for a few seconds, setting a world record for the shortest observing session away from one's own residence.

Overall, the evening was quite clear, save about an hour. From about 9:30-10:30, the sky was completely clouded over. It got quite cold. Frost was accumulating by 9pm.

The list:

Venus- not quite half lit.
Moon- incredible. The air was very still, which is a treat especially so early in the evening. Long shadows on the surface made for great contrast and stunning terrain.
Andromeda Galaxy- very nice, but a bit of a let-down after the "religious experience" at MASP, as someone called it.
Orion Nebula- 6 stars in the trapezium easily visible, and lots of detail in the nebula.
Flame Nebula- barely visible with either UHC or OIII filter.
Triangulum Galaxy, M33- core and surrounding fuzziness, but no real structure.
NGC 604- a small companion to M33, with a brighter core than M33. (Robert, Mark, and Kumar- this is the smudge I saw below M33. Check this link out for details)
NGC 1360- Nice nebula with a fairly large disk of even brightness, but impossible to see without a filter (in this case, UHC).
NGC 2362- Nice open cluster with a small nebula around the bright central star. Beautiful!
M46- Gorgeous open cluster with a small ring-shaped nebula superimposed. Stunning, especially at 200x!
M36, 37, and 38
NGC 1907
Rosetta Nebula/ NGC 2244- Average open cluster, but a very nice ring of faint nebulosity around it. A UHC filter made it possible to see the nebula at all, but an OIII really brought out some detail. Even still, quite a bit of it was missing.
Crab Nebula- initially almost no detail. UHC filter brought out maybe 5%, and then an OIII about 20%.
Owl Nebula- Hindered by light pollution, but nice at 200x with an OIII filter. I could see the dumbell-shaped dark area in the center quite clearly.
M108- Bright edge-on galaxy with a relatively long body. This was in major light pollution, but held up well.
M109- Face-on galaxy with only the core visible.

I departed shortly before 1am. My new dew prevention system worked beautifully! (Dewbuster with home-made heating strips for finder and eyepiece, plus a secondary heater that finally has power). After over 6 hours of use, my 33Ah battery was still at 85%! I noticed that the heat put off by the eyepiece strap also warmed my nose while looking through the eyepiece.

MASP Final Thoughts

What an amazing week. We had 6 absolutely clear nights and tons of fun. Roughly 250-300 people had shown up by the end.

I think our club's setup had a big impact on the fun factor. We had a central scope area where we could conveniently talk, compare views, share equipment, etc. while observing. Our tents were setup around the scope area. Having that well-defined perimeter helped us keep an eye on each other's stuff and have a bit of privacy.

The big accomplishment for me this week was learning what my scope can do. This was my first time using it anywhere besides Farrington, and the difference was remarkable. I had an opportunity to compare it to a Starmaster 24 made around the same time and with a mirror from the same maker. The 24's views were a bit brighter, but there was no overwhelming difference. I looked at a handful of objects, and I didn't notice much more detail in the 24. Comparing views alone, I don't think you would ever guess that one had 78% more light gathering ability. Based on what I've been told, I think the limiting factor is the sky conditions in NC. It seems that the 18 really is at the edge where diminishing returns really kick in. In any case, the 18 exceeded my expectations and performed really well all week long.

Speaking of equipment, I learned that I need active dew prevention. I was fairly successful at preventing dew by keeping caps on everything until the moment I looked through, but it still became a problem each night around 1-2am. I will invest in something like a Dew Buster soon to heat the secondary, finder, and eyepiece.

I counted three vendors (including Big Bang and SE Camera), none of which set up shop before Thursday. I managed to leave them with only $40 of my money, which got me a head-mounted red light and the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas. I can't say enough good things about that atlas. I had previously been primarily using the finder charts in the Night Sky Observer's Guide, but those are small and often too cluttered to compare with the naked-eye sky. Now I look things up in the NSOG, but then use the atlas to actually find them. It is very handy to fold the atlas backward and carry it up the stepladder, using it to navigate right at the finder. This is how I hopped around the galaxies in Pegasus quickly and easily. I will try to remember to bring my copy to the CHAOS meeting on 11/11/08.

After seeing the Horsehead, I think Robert and I are both in the market for a Hydrogen-Beta filter. Otherwise, I left quite satisfied with my equipment situation, save the dew prevention. I had an opportunity to compare a couple of other Pentax XW eyepieces, but didn't feel very strongly about them. I think my 10mm might be the best one in the line, and hits that sweet spot of 200X for my scope.

It was a bummer not having on-site food service, but I think we did fine without it. There was a nightly club outing at 5pm to get food at a local establishment (usually Carolina Fried Chicken). I brought a bunch of snacks plus 6 burritos of varying types, and generally downed a burrito as a late meal around 11pm each night. It was nice to take a short break and warm up inside the building while getting some food.

In general, we mostly stayed in our own area at night. Robert and I were both too distracted with our new toys to spend too much time browsing the views in other people's scopes. I think most of us wanted to take advantage of the great conditions to put in some good time on our own equipment. Plus, we had enough heavy artillery in-house to provide variety at very high quality. In particular, Robert's Tak and my Starmaster complement each other very well, each excelling in different areas. Our eyepiece collections are also very complementary.

I was surprised by how much fun we had with two wide-field Orion 4" F/5 refractors. I didn't realize how well they could perform under reasonably dark skies. We got the entire Veil into one field of view, which was breath-taking! The only problem we had was dealing with the weight of a big diagonal and big wide-field eyepiece.

I am so glad that I went to MASP, and I can't wait for the next star party. We have a really great group of folks who are an absolute pleasure to observe with. I learned a lot, saw tons of amazing views, and left completely satisfied.

MASP day 6

Six clear nights in a row. Wow! My girlfriend came down for the evening, so we toured a lot of the highlights from the week. After 5 nights of hunting down obscure and often faint objects, I was happy to take a mental break and go for the tourist traps. I did manage to get in a couple of weird objects though toward the end, as I took my first tour through Auriga with the Starmaster.

The public came out in large numbers. For a while, there was an out-right crowd waiting to see Jupiter and other things through our scopes. It died down quickly though, so we got to go after more interesting things. All told, I think we had 9 CHAOS members tonight, making 10 for the week (Mark having left on Thursday).

Today I purchased my own copy of the Pocket Sky Atlas and a red light to strap on my head. Both made the evening far more pleasant.

I met a member of RAC, Chris Waldrup, because I saw him driving a Honda Fit (I recently bought a 2009 Fit specifically to haul my Starmaster around). It turned out that we was a member of RAC, and was seriously considering buying a Starmaster 16 or 18, but wasn't sure if either would fit in the Fit. I described how I fit my stuff in my Fit, and later shared some views through my scope. By the time we were done, I think he was pretty sold on the 18.

Robert's scope has been attracting lots of attention all week. The steady parade of admirers continued this evening with all sorts of gawking and the usual questions, followed by high compliments on the views. It was actually quite nice for me, because I think a lot of the attention my scope might normally have gotten from passers-by was diverted to Robert's Tak, leaving me relatively undisturbed.

It was 2:30 or 3am when the last of us finally turned in. As with most nights, my secondary mirror eventually dewed over, which I took as the sign to hit the sack. I think we were the only group still doing serious observation past midnight.

My list:

M13
Ring Nebula
Dumbell
M71
Veil
Triangulum Galaxy
Andomeda Galaxy and friends
Crab Nebula (very tough to see any sort of crab shape, although an OIII filter brought out internal structure)
M36
M37
M38 (stunning open cluster, especially being right next to NGC 1907)
NGC 1907 (small but very nice open cluster)
NGC 1931 (very small planetary nebula with bright central star)
Barnard 26-28 (a fairly large dark region in an otherwise dense star field)
Pegasus I Galaxy Group (a dozen or more tiny and faint galaxies in one field of view, at 121X)
Orion Nebula
Flame Nebula

MASP day 5

What a great evening. I borrowed a copy of the S&T Pocket Sky Atlas and cruised Pegasus and Eridanus for galaxies, especially in pairs. I also spent a bit of time hitting the highlights of Aquila.

There were a lot more people on-site, being the weekend finally. Some Boy Scouts came through early in the evening, but didn't linger. After a marathon evening the night before, staying up past 4am, I decided to turn in a bit earlier (1:30) to prepare for a long final night. Keep in mind that I've been getting up early every morning to go play with the NC Symphony, so sleep deprivation is becoming a real problem.

I did most of my observing tonight with my Pentax 10XW, which puts me at 205X magnification. Under these skies, it seems to be a sweet spot of contrast and detail, especially on these small objects. Other than that, the vast majority of my observing is with a Nagler 17 T4, which comes out to 121X. It's been pretty easy to hop around with my finder and the star atlas, landing right on objects and thus being able to keep the high power in all the time.

It wasn't quite as cold as the past 4 nights, which is a welcome change!

My list:

M13
Ring Nebula
M92
NGC 6772 (planetary nebula)
NGC 6781 (planetary nebula)
NGC 6760 (small but nice globular)
Veil Nebula
Dumbell Nebula
NGC 6940 (open cluster)
NGC 7339/7332 (very nice edge-on galaxy pair)
NGC 7789 (open cluster)
NGC 7448 (galaxy)
NGC 7454 (galaxy)
NGC 7436, 7437, 7438 (galaxy group)
NGC 7469 / IC 5283 (galaxy pair)
NGC 663 (my favorite small open cluster- highly recommended for scopes of any size)
NGC 7479 (face-on spiral galaxy)
NGC 7625 (galaxy)
NGC 1535 (small, bright planetary nebula)
NGC 1232 (face-on spiral galaxy)
NGC 1325/1332 (galaxy pair)
NGC 1400/1407 (galaxy pair)
Sculptor Galaxy (lots of detail to be seen, and very expansive- the view is almost 3D, as if looking down at an angle at the face of the galaxy)

MASP day 4

We saw the horsehead! With an OIII filter, it looked like a slight darkening in the area where we knew the horsehead should be. Upon borrowing a hydrogen-beta filter, the horsehead jumped out clearly.

The Dynascope was a lot of fun. Even with only so-so collimation, it performed beautifully on many objects. I was particularly impressed with the view if the Veil. The scope didn't draw as much attention as I expected, but perhaps that will change after people have more of a chance to see it during he day.

I went after a lot of obscure objects. Conditions were truly ideal, so what better time for some faint fuzzies? However, around 1:30, dew became a serious problem. Everything on the field got covered in a hefty layer of frost, which looked particularly wintry when I got up at 7:30 the next morning. I finally turned in when my secondary frosted over.

My list:

M13
Ring Nebula
NGC 6894
Crescent Nebula (saw the entire ellipse!)
Veil Nebula
NGC 6891 (small planetary nebula)
Blue Flash Nebula
NGC 6956 (small galaxy)
NGC 147 (large, faint galaxy with small but very dense nucleus)
NGC 185 (small but fairly bright galaxy)
NGC 252 (small galaxy)
NGC 404 (beautiful view of a galaxy next to mag 2.1 yellow star)
NCG 6939 (open cluster)
Triangulum Galaxy
Flame Nebula
Horsehead
Abel 262 Galaxy Group
NGC 759 (small galaxy)

Criterion Dynascope arrives

One of the CHAOS Dynascopes arrived this afternoon with Jayme. It
looks brand new, mirror included, after an extensive refurbish. I
can't wait to see what it can do tonight!