16 May 2008
Location: Tech Terrace Park
Weather: Nice warm day that gave way to a cool, pleasant night. A few hazy clouds along the northern horizon, but overall quite clear. I noticed the Old Glories draped lifelessly down their poles. No wind. The dew was pronounced, and I had to let my eyepieces dry out a few minutes after getting home (at 1:15 AM)
The moon was 11 days, 17 hours old, so it was bright and gibbous. It was a bit farther along than the Day 11 maps I had from here ...
http://www.stargazing.net/David/moon/index29days.html
... but the map was still handy to have.
Equipment & Attendants: I have since found out that Travis Brown was there, though he left at 9:30. We must have missed each other by about 15 minutes, cause I arrived around 9:45. I thought the sun was still causing some lingering glare in the west when I first arrived, but I know how the sun can beat people down, and apparently Patrice & Rick Fay and Tom Heisey had quite a crowd of Lubbock High folks for a 6:30 solar viewing. Besides the aforementioned usual suspects, Scott Gillespie, Jessi & Amanda (co-workers with Patrice), Stan Smith and his wife of Levelland, a couple with their son and a Meade 130mm reflector and a number of Tech South Indian students attended, to say nothing of several passersby and the Lubbock High students. Rick and Patrice bought out the big gun, the 18" Obsession. Scott had a 114mm reflector, and Tom had the wonderful Televue Renaissance brass tube 4" F/5.6 refractor. I had my Astronomy Technologies 80mm ED. And it was good to see Rolan Pirtle there catching some sky.
By the time I got my scope aligned and set up, people were already off the moon and on to other targets, so I joined them. Saturn seemed to be the momentary favorite, so, with no cooling nor second thought, I directly put in the BO/TMB Planetary 6mm and boy! did Saturn look nice. My quick alignment was good enough to allow everyone to get a view without the planet sliding out of the field. Tom didn't have his BO/TMB 7mm with him, so after I felt people had all taken their turn, I removed the 6mm and had Tom put it in the Renaissance. Voilą, instant great view. It would be the best consistent view. The 18" actually showed more detail, but thermals in the tube and off the mirror kept the image rippling, whereas the Renaissance was consistently sharp and crisp.
But boy, did Patrice ever rectify the 18" Obsession. First, she put it on the elusive Eskimo Nebula, NGC 2392, in Gemini. I say 'elusive' because it seems I often have trouble putting it in the eyepiece. And with the moon glaring at us in the city, finding it relative to its nearby stars was that much more difficult. But she did it! And what an image, with layers of nebulosity apparent. Wow!
She followed this up with an equally impressive Catseye Nebula in Draco (NGC 6543). The central core star was quite visible to the eye, shrouded in layers of blown off gas and dust. Man, was that cool or what!?
But M13 in the 18" Obsession was up next. Wow, a bazillion stars clearly laid out and defined! This was Amanda's favorite target and I can see why. There are some things aperture just overcomes, even under a glaring moon, and this was one of them. What a sight!
On the other hand, there are other targets a glaring moon can outdo even 18" of aperture. M81 & M82 in the Obsession with the 27mm Televue Panoptic were just faint, barely interesting targets. And the Ring Nebula, M57, and Whirlpool, M51, were disappointing, not worth it. Uninteresting blots.
By this time most everyone had left with Rick, Patrice and Tom packing up their scopes. Only Scott and I continued on. I split the beautiful, colorful double Iota Cancri and followed that up with the tight Algieba in Leo. Patrice and Tom enjoyed these appealing targets as they finalized their scopes' transportation.
Scott and I stayed getting some nice views of the moon. Craters relatively near the terminator, Grimaldi, Kepler, Copernicus and Tycho were rewarding sights. After our lunatic exploits, Scott and I were tied, being Friday, the end of a long week, and past midnight -- time to call it an evening. But was it fun!
Until next time,
CDS