Well, if you like it wet, dry, cloudy and clear, then you would have
loved Fremont Peak last night!
When I arrived at Fremont Peak's Ranger Row, I wasn't certain about the
prospects for a clear, dry evening. About 40-percent of the sky was
covered with that dreaded high-stuff, and off to the west was an ominous
band of very dark clouds. Numerous contrails were visible throughout
the sky, many stretching from horizon to horizon. Temperature and
humidity were initially a matched pair: 63F/63%. With all that visible
moisture, I started wondering if I hadn't made a serious error in
judgment, and really should have joined up with the TAC-SAC crew for a
Blue Canyon evening. Well, by then it was waaaay too late, so I set up
my 18" Starmaster and waited for darkness. I was soon joined by Craig &
Elena Scull, who brought along their massive D&G refractor. Shortly
thereafter Jamie Dillon arrived with his 11" Newt/Dob, rounding out the
night's Ranger's Row crew. Peter Natscher was also in the general
vicinity, and had set up his 20" Starmaster at the east end of Coulter
Row. Approaching sunset, 75-percent of the sky was covered by various
types of clouds, so all we could do was wait and hope. Not too long
after sunset, with the clouds indeed dissipating, Ranger C.L. came over
to greet the Ranger's Row gang. After chitchatting with us for a few
minutes, and mentioning how nice the previous evening had been <grin>,
C.L. retired to his residence for the evening.
Despite the moisture issues, which certainly affected the early-evening
transparency in selected sky areas, the seeing was quite good last
night. Castor was an easy split, and the E&F stars of Orion's Trapezium
were easily visible all evening long. On a scale of one to five, I'd
rate the seeing a 4.5, with long moments of extreme clarity.
My intent for the night was to get back to my H2500 hunt in Leo, but a
substantial amount of moisture to the east made that an early-evening
lesson in futility. So I just spent the first part of the evening
viewing various showcase items, to include Jupiter and Saturn. Both
giants were very impressive last night, with an enormous amount of
detail visible throughout Jupiter's equatorial regions. Saturn's rings
were as crisp and clear as I've ever seen them, with the A-Ring's dark
broadening (the Encke minima?) very evident, and the gap (the Encke
Division?) at the outer edge of the A-Ring popping in from time to time
(323x - 7mm Nagler w/Paracorr). Despite the fine conditions, I couldn't
spot Mimas, and had to settle for a seven-moon Saturn.
Not that I want to steal his thunder, but an early thrill came when
Jamie showed us 4th-magnitude 40 Eridani (aka Keid or Omicron-2
Eridani). 40 Eridani has a companion star, 40 Eridani B, a white dwarf,
sitting just over an arc-minute away at magnitude 9.6. Better yet, this
white dwarf has a companion itself, 40 Eridani C, a red dwarf (!),
sitting 9-arcsec away at magnitude 11. What a cool triple-star system!
*Very* easy to see in Jamie's 'scope, too. Jamie pointed out that 40
Eridani B was the first white dwarf to be discovered, and noted the
unusual nature of finding both a white dwarf and a red dwarf paired
together in the same system. If you haven't seen the 40 Eridani A/B/C
system, definitely check it out!
By 7:00pm the temperature had dropped to about 50F while the humidity
has risen to about 85%. By 7:50pm the temperature was still holding
around 48F, but the humidity had risen to 94%. Although it was
difficult to see, ground fog appeared to have formed in the valley to
the SE of Ranger Row, and also appeared to be rising. In ironic
fashion, the overall sky transparency was definitely improving, with
most areas of the sky free from cloud cover. Save for my primary,
secondary and eyepiece, everything around me was extremely wet, and we
were all complaining about the conditions. Taking a break from my
showcase stuff, at 8:00pm Jamie and I wandered up past the observatory
to see if we could spot Canopus due south. Jim Bartolini and I had
attempted this viewing two weeks earlier, but without success. This
time, scanning with binos, Canopus was pretty easy to spot. Nekked-eye,
however, Canopus was barely discernable on the horizon, twinkling in the
haze, sitting just above the lights of Gonzales, and probably within a
half-degree of sinking into the western coastal range. Without the
binocular siting, I probably would have missed the star.
Following our success with Canopus, Jamie and I wondered over to check
on Peter Natscher, who was entertaining a group of overnighters with
bino'd-views of Jupiter through his 20" Starmaster. Through Peter's
'scope, the detail on Jupiter was just outstanding, with the GRS just
having rotated into view. Coulter's humidity, by the way, was
noticeably lower than that of Ranger's Row.
About a half-hour after wandering back to Ranger's Row, a very light
breeze started to flow and the humidity started to drop. In relatively
short order, the humidity was unbelievably back into the 60% range, and
all our gear started drying out. All sign of the valley ground fog
completely vanished. From time to time, long, sharply-defined
contrails were still visible overhead, but with the sky quite clear
immediately to either side of them. The Milky Way, from the border of
Gemini/Orion south through Puppis, developed that granulated sugar
appearance, and by 10:30pm, the temperature/humidity was 46F/48%. How
quickly things can change at the Peak!
It wasn't long before I (finally!) hit Leo ... and immediately ran into
a problem: NGC 3645. According to _TheSky_, the Dryer description is:
"Pretty bright, small, extended, brighter middle." Hopping a few fields
from Sigma Leonis, I quickly located nearby "big n' bright" NGC 3640,
paired with much fainter 3641. 3630 (also pretty bright, although
considerably smaller than 3640) sits in the same field, so field
orientation was very easy. Rotating _TheSky_ to match my eyepiece view,
I identified the location for 3645, along with nearby 3643. 3643, while
very faint, was pretty easy to spot next to a 13th mag star. 3645,
which _TheSky_ lists as mag 14.2, should just have been a few arcmins
away, but I couldn't find it. 3644, also in the field, was pretty
faint, but I didn't have any trouble spotting it. So what's my trouble
with "pretty bright" 3645? Jamie looked it up in his Uranometria 2000
(Vol 3) Deep Sky Field Guide, which puts 3645's location close to where
_TheSky_ sets it, but describes it as: "Stellar; a faint, small
anonymous galaxy..." Okay, something is obviously wrong here; the two
descriptions aren't even close. Personally, I think this is another
misidentification problem with _TheSky_, with something possibly wrong
in U2000, too. Still, at 251x (9mm Nagler w/Paracorr), I thought I
would have been able to spot a "stellar" item. Is 3645 just extremely
tiny and dim, and did I just miss this thing? Has anybody else logged
NGC 3645 before?
I spent the next couple of hours in Leo, with no further identification
problems (well, nothing major), calling it quits just after Moonrise.
My last view of the evening was of NGC 4565, as beautiful as ever.
After a bit of socializing, and just before heading back down San Juan
Canyon Rd., my last check of temperature/humidity was 41F/41%.
So despite the early-evening conditions, it turned out to be a fine
night at Fremont Peak.
...Bob...
Bob Czerwinski