After a long hike with the family yesterday, I decided to wimp out and set
up in my backyard rather than loading all my gear in the car. So I put my
12.5" Dob out to cool down before sundown.
Though I regretted losing the darker skies of the Peak or Coyote (my original
intention) it was a surprisingly good night for the city - I don't recall
ever seeing less light pollution from my backyard (Almaden Valley).
OR for Feb 1, 2003 - Almaden Valley (San Jose)
Time Out: 10:30 PM
Time In: 12:45 AM
Very dark (for the location), very transparent, but extremely poor seeing -
Saturn appeared to be swimming in the eyepiece at 76x; I immediately gave up
any notions I might have had about planetary observing went for my deep sky
list. Since I was feeling lazy, it was a few old favorites I wanted revisit,
sprinkled with a handful of new targets. Dew was annoying, but bearable.
M1 - very obvious and bright; never seen it better from SJ; substantially
better than my last Coyote session (with rather poor transparency)
M38+NGC1907 - just a quick peek since I was in the neighborhood. M38
isn't my favorite OC, but still pretty nice, and NGC1907 is one of
my private tests for transparency since it washes out fairly easily.
M36 - Well, it's an open cluster. Looks nicer (by comparison with its
neighbors) in smaller scopes.
M37 - The nicest of the three for a medium to large scope. I like the
richness compared to M36. Not (IMHO) as nice as M35, but close.
NGC2022 - PN in Orion. Small, but very easy to find - just a couple of
degrees from Orion's "head". Burnham has it (I think) at 12 mag -
seems brighter, probably due to the small size. Appears rather
elongated to me - an oval, not a disk. This was my first attempt
at it and I was surprised how easy it was - I'll try this in my
6" next time I'm out.
M78 - Again, very easy tonight - nicer than a few weeks ago at Coyote.
Quite bright, and the detached portion was easily distinguished.
NGC2023/2024 - First disappointment of the night - apparent, but not very
clear. UltraBlock filter did not help at all, so reverted
to naked optics. Nebulosity was there, but I've seen more
structure on other, less promising, nights from the same
location. ??? Panned down towards the Horsehead but not even
a hint. Oh, well.
NGC2264 - The "Christmas Tree" Cluster. Nice, but although the associated
nebulosity was easily seen I wasn't able to distinguish the Cone
Nebula, my real reason for dropping in.
M42/M43 - Beautiful, with a lot of structure. Seeing still not good, but
at 76x a fifth star kept popping in and out of clear view in the
Trapezium. And enough eye candy to make up for the last couple of
mixed results.
NGC2352 - The "Eskimo Nebula" in Gemini. A favorite and easy target, but
showing a lot of structure - the dimmer outer halo was easily
visible at 76x but much more apparent at 169x. I've never seen
it nicer from this location (becoming repetitive, here). Seems
odd, given the mixed results on 2023/2024 and the Cone, but
the "Eskimo" structure (if not clear details of the "face") was
quite apparent.
NGC2415 - Galaxy on the Gemini/Lynx border. Glimpsed it a few weeks ago,
but transparency was sufficiently dodgy then I couldn't confirm
it. Nailed it this time - pretty small and dim. At lower powers
would look more like a fuzzy star; at 76x visible as an extended
object, but only barely. Better at 127x. Fairly bright core
surrounded by a faint haze - too dim to confirm any structure but
appears fairly symmetrical. Burnham's has no entry for it (looked
in both Gemini and Lynx lists) - I suppose it's time to break down
and buy the NSOG. Anyone have any info on it beyond "Well, it's a
galaxy?". Observed while star-hopping my way to -
NGC2419 - The "Intergalactic Wanderer" GC. Pretty easy target, really, but
if I didn't know it was a GC I'd have taken it for a face-on galaxy
- it looks more like one than 2415 did at first glance. Fairly
large even at 76x, round, brightening smoothly from a dim outer
haze to a fairly bright core, but no hints of resolution at the
highest power I tried (OK, 169x isn't too high). Neat object; if
I want to observe a more distant GC I'll need to start going for
the ones in M31.
M50 - Just a whim - I realized that I'd never visited it except when doing a
Messier survey. Fairly nice OC when not in a rush - somewhere between
M38 and M37 in richness and apparent brightness. I spent some time
playing connect-the-star-chains before putting the scope up.
Not too bad a session for a lazy, in-town, night!
Dana