Rashad says it's a 12 foot ladder, Jim says it is a 10 foot ladder. For the
record, it is an 8 foot ladder.
I really enjoyed the trip to Plettstone. Very relaxing. I wasn't feeling
well due to the wind chill factor from arctic storm J.A.N.E centered over
Blue Canyon the night before, so I don't have much to report.
The highlight for me, besides objects mentioned by Jim, Rashad and Mark, was
seeing the supernova in NGC 3169 and nearby galaxies 3166, 3165. I also
looked for Abell 28 in Ursa Major, but with no luck. Most definately user
error, as I was ready for bed at that point. I have been simultaneously
looking at ARP's, Abell's and Hicksons depending on the condition that
evening. I also looked at several of the RASC's best NGC objects, the
antennae in Corvus being one of my favorite. Sorry for the short report, I
went to bed around 11:00, right when things got good, planning to get up
around 2:00. But slept all the way through to 7:00.
Brian
----- Original Message -----
From: "Jim Ster" <sterjf@No-Spam>
To: "'The Astronomy Connection'" <sf-bay-tac@No-Spam>
Sent: Thursday, April 03, 2003 1:09 PM
Subject: [TAC] Pleasure at Plettestone
> After getting skunked at RWBC the night before, Jane, Brian and I made
> the trek down to Michelle Stone's beautiful Plettestone estate located
> in the foothills east of Merced last Saturday afternoon. I arrived
> around 5:00pm and found 9 other serious astronomers in various stages of
> setup. The skies were not very clear at the time, but those that had
> been there before said that this was normal for the site and would
> probably clear up considerably later on.
>
> Due to the surprisingly large group of people who had shown up, it took
> a few minutes for Brian and me to figure out the logistics of the area
> so he could set up his 30" and my newly acquired 22" Starmasters. Brian
> settled for a spot in the middle of the flat gravel driveway and I found
> a nice spot located just west of the permanent observatory structure in
> the grass. Jane had arrived a few hours earlier and was well into the
> final steps of the setup of her new 18" Starmaster, just to the north of
> my setup.
>
> Jane and Brian were both very generous in providing me with the much
> needed assistance with setting up the 22" for the first time. After a
> little difficulty with batteries, Brian and I finally got the goto
> system running properly and successfully aligned it. From that point,
> the scope NEVER needed to be realigned. It stayed in perfect alignment
> the entire evening.
>
> As this was my trial run with the 22", I decided not to make any
> specific plans for observing and simply based where I looked on what the
> sky looked like at that particular moment (or whatever lit my candle).
> As was predicted by the Plettestone Veterans, the thin high clouds
> started dissipating just before sundown.
>
> My first object was M42 with a 31mm Nagler (74x). While the view of
> this object was certainly better a few months ago while it was higher in
> the sky, the transparency was pretty darn good and I was able to make
> out six stars in the trapezium along with a lot of beautiful colors.
> The variable seeing conditions at the time just wouldn't allow for any
> steady views, but when they popped in, they were fantastic. So I was
> off to a great start. I then used a 17mm Nagler (135 x) and confirmed
> that I was indeed seeing only six stars, but the thing that amazed me
> was that I was able to see a lot of the little stars dispersed
> throughout the nebula that I had first seen only weeks ago through
> Brian's 30". This 22" has an excellent mirror.:) I decided to push the
> power a little with a 9mm Nagler (255x), but the seeing just wouldn't
> support it.
>
> I then took a peek at the Leo Triplet (M64, M65 and PGC34657) which was
> absolutely awesome. I could actually get all three in the field of view
> in my 22 Nagler (104x) and while the sky still wouldn't support higher
> powers, these low power views were really wonderful and gave me quite a
> bit of satisfaction.
>
> As I was strictly into having fun this evening, I tried Jupiter for a
> moment while it was near zenith. After seeing a few moons, many colored
> bands and blowing away my night vision, I abandoned that obnoxiously
> bright object for much more subtle ones.
>
> Mark and Rashad then stopped by for a moment and we decided to go over
> and see how Brian was doing with the 30". It was still early and the
> seeing wasn't up to snuff, but the transparency was definitely allowing
> for lots of things to be seen, although not with much detail. We
> figured this would be a chance for the 30" to show its stuff. We
> weren't disappointed. Brian swung the scope on over to M51 which was
> almost near zenith. It was rather incredible to watch the huge silent
> monster slewing quietly but quickly around from the Orion area of the
> sky to the Ursa Major area. I don't remember what eyepiece Brian was
> using at the time, but the view of M51 was spectacular. Even with the
> lousy seeing, you could clearly make out fantastic amounts of detail in
> the dust lanes, which seemed to wrap around several times. What really
> blew my socks off was how awesome its companion NGC5195 looked. The
> core was fairly well resolved and you could clearly see the dust lanes
> across the front of it. I can't wait to see this again when the
> conditions are better.
>
> Brian then took a shot at the Double Quasar. With the seeing off a bit
> we didn't hold a lot of hope for this rare beauty, but low and behold,
> with a bit of patience at the eyepiece, it would pop in and out of view
> with remarkable amounts of separation. Chalk another one up for
> aperture. After staring at it for a few moments, it suddenly dawned on
> me that I was standing near the top of Brian's 10 ft ladder and when I
> looked around it was a long way down! I instinctively grabbed a little
> tighter on the ladder rung I was holding onto. Talk about nose bleed
> seats!
>
> Back at the 22" I noticed that M57 was slowly climbing in the east and
> was hoping to get a glimpse of the central star. As it was still a bit
> too low, I took a swing over to the M97 the Owl Nebula. Wow. This is
> one of those objects that always seem to catch me by surprise with its
> detail. Those ghostly eyes were staring right at me. Beautiful.
>
> It was also apparent about this time that the seeing was becoming much
> better. In the past hour or so, certain areas of the sky had become
> absolutely pitch black and the moisture seemed to move down towards the
> southern horizon (which actually caused the light dome from Fresno to be
> accentuated more than it normally should have been). That turned out to
> be the biggest disappointment of the evening because I was hoping to get
> some views of a few Messier's in Scorpius and possibly Sagittarius if I
> could last long enough.
>
> Then it was off to one of my all time favorites, M81 & M82. NO
> disappointment here. M81 was incredibly bright and the disturbed area
> of M82 looked like it had been sideswiped by a semi truck. Incredible
> amounts of structural detail could be seen in both.
>
> Brian came over and we swung over to NGC4039 & 4038, the Antenna
> galaxies. These two objects arraigned in a "V" shape looked very
> feathery in appearance. Quite easily the best view I've had of them to
> date. Jane came over and noted similar details in the structures.
> Shortly after that, Brian wasn't feeling too good due to allergies and
> whatnot, and decided to take a short nap to see if that would help.
> Unfortunately for him, this period between 11:00pm and 1:00am turned out
> to be the best time for observing this evening.
>
> Since the seeing had settled down a bit, I decided to revisit M51 again
> to see how the view compared to what I'd seen in the 30" earlier.
> Again, no disappointment here. The seeing was now up to 7 out of 10 and
> I was getting very similar results to what the 30 was getting earlier
> on. Vast amounts of detail and maybe even a little more than I saw
> earlier. This is what I'd been dreaming of with my 12" SCT for years.
> The Whirlpool looking just like the pictures I'd seen of it. The spiral
> arms seemed to wind endlessly around the core and the details in NGC5195
> were riveting.
>
> Energized by the improved seeing (and the Rock Star energy drink I just
> slammed down), I headed immediately to Hercules for a shot of M13. I
> wanted my first view of it through the 22" to be a memorable one and I
> was not disappointed. Thousands of pinpoints of light and resolution
> like I've never seen before. Rather than a mush of white, the core had
> a grainy appearance which looked like a pile of sugar in the sky.
> Sa-weet. This object holds a dear place in my heart as it was the
> object that I used for first light in my 12" LX-200 a few years back.
> This is definitely one that I'll have to show Mags the next time we go
> out. Aperture rules!
>
> M57 was still fairly low in the east, but I figured I should check it
> out while the conditions seemed good. While it looked good, I
> unfortunately could not resolve the central star and after 10 minutes of
> staring at it using averted vision, I gave up on it for the night.
>
> Jane was working hard on nailing down Hickson 50, but the seeing just
> wouldn't cooperate for her. We even tried to find it in the 22", but to
> no avail. The good seeing was short lived and was definitely heading
> downhill again. It was just after 1:00am and I decided to take a break
> while Jane surfed around in search of her Hickson in the 22". The
> evening had gone much better than I had imagined it would and I was
> sitting there mesmerized by all of the fun I was having this evening.
> There's nothing like a new scope to pump you up.
>
> After Jane gave up on Hickson 50, I headed over to the Scorpius area to
> see what the conditions were like. I attempted to split Antares, but
> other than a green flare off to one side once in a while, I could not
> get close to doing it. I then disengaged the drives on the scope and
> did some surfing, but the seeing was going away real fast. The south
> seemed to have the most problem and you could actually see a band of
> moisture which hung over the Fresno area and caused a lot of light to be
> scattered around. I then went back to M57 for one last try for a
> central star, but it was hopeless.
>
> It was now around 2:30am and it was about this same time that Jane and I
> noticed that everyone else was crashed. As soon as I realized how late
> it was, this feeling of great satisfaction came over me and I knew I had
> another great night in the books to look back on.
>
> I'd like to say a big thanks to Michelle Stone for her generous
> hospitality and I highly recommend a trip to Plettestone to anyone who
> enjoys good company and skies. Plettestone is definitely a very good
> winter observing site, probably slightly better skies than Fiddletown on
> average, IMHO. I'll definitely be back.
>
> Clear Skies,
> Jim
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