Observing Night:  28 December 2008

Location:  Emma, Crosby County (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~txcrosby/emma/cemetery.htm)

Participants and Equipment:

Val Jordan         Meade ETX 80AT

Scott Gillispie    Meade 114mm reflector

Don Fritz           10” F/4.6 custom dobsonian, Ethos 13mm, 1.5x 2” Barlow

Jerry Hatfield    10” F/4.7 10” XTi, Orion 16 & 27mm Edge On’s, 5mm Planetary Edge On

                        Orion 4” Maksutov on an iOptron mount

Collin Smith       4” Orion Premium Refractor, 6mm BO/TMB, 19 & 24mm Panoptics, 11mm Nagler t6

I picked up a first-timer, Val Jordan, at her house and got the pleasure to see a mural-ette in her kitchen, against the cabinet wall a very intriguing rendering of a great historic figure well-known to my wife.  I extorted “Mahatma” and her husband, Matthew, approvingly affirmed.  Her style is kind of hard to describe.  I thought of it as circular Cubism, or Circle-ism.  Val identified this particular of hers more with Warhol Pop Art, and certainly there are elements, but the actual drawing was uniquely of the artist’s rendering, not a photo touch up.  Their beautiful two-year old, Emma, stayed behind for her bath.  Val piled her ETX 80AT in the backseat and we were headed east to a different Emma.

We arrived about 7:30, followed almost immediately by Jerry Hatfield.  Don Fritz showed up about 15 minutes later and I’d say Scott Gillispie showed up about 30 minutes after that.  It was great to see Scott out again after such a long time.  Val would be our Mark Twain, catching the first and last shooting stars of the evening.  We busily set up our scopes and caught Venus before she set.  She was barely gibbous, just a bit over half full, with lots of color and shimmering given her very low position to the horizon.

The skies were not spectacular, and some unsteadiness was evident, but the twinkling was still not nearly as bad as it could have been.  Mercifully the wind was just about non-existent.  The temperature was cold, but given the lack of wind, quite endurable if properly attired.  Don’s neoprene shoe coverings from Gebo’s, “neos” as I was educated by Utah winter-raised Val, made me envious, but helped guide me to the sensible conclusion of leaving when I did about 11:00 PM or so.  With a pregnant wife at home, being sensible about returning gains importance than when single or empty-nested.

After setting up and catching Venus, the skies were pretty dark, and the Double Cluster glowed attractively in the north.  So on to it we went.  I liked it best in the Pan 24 in the Orion Premium refractor, in all honesty, though certainly more stellar detail could be found in Don and Jerry's 10 inchers, 13mm Ethos and 27mm Orion EF, respectively.  Of course, it all depends on what one is after.  Often, it's better to study their cores in big dobs, then run back to a refractor with a wide field to achieve that “ah, that's what it's all about” feeling.  Personally, I was least interested in the 4” Maksutov's image, mostly because I prefer the exacting detail huge 254mm aperture affords or the widefield abstractness a refractor helps the viewer to behold.  A Maksutov is the least well suited to this type target given its tight field and lack of overwhelming aperture.  However, any telescope gives a person the ability to explore these clusters in ways the naked eye cannot (and with more detail than handheld binoculars afford).

NGC869/884.  A rose by any other name. It is truly surprising that the Double Cluster isn't a Messier Object (or perhaps, Objects).  I'm sure Charles was very aware of the Double Cluster's existence under the pristine French skies of the late Eighteen Century, and so didn't bother to catalog what any self-respecting comet hunter already knew was most certainly no comet.  On the other hand, it isn't like M44, the Beehive, would have been unfamiliar to any good late Eighteen Century comet hunter either.  So we get NGC 869/884 for the Double Cluster and a respectable M44 for the Beehive?  Take a look at the Beehive and the Double Cluster sometime and compare them.  The Beehive is a series of triangles (mostly) with a few rectangles thrown in to minimize the monotony.  In short, it's positively Puritanical in its iconoclasm.  But the Double Cluster, with its horned devil-man and sacrificial bull, why you can almost hear Edward G. Robinson bating “Where's your Moses now?” as the surrounding stars dance about in bacchanalian abandon.  So Chuck, where were you, dude?

(Perhaps for the above reason?) off we headed to Taurus and M1.  For History's sake it's important to see just where Patriarch Messier's great work indeed began.  Here, Don's 10 inch-with-Ethos and Jerry's 10” with Orion Edge-On Planetary, the effect of aperture became VERY apparent.  Although the view through my Pan 19 in the 4” ED was quite distinct and clear (and well framed with PLENTY of surrounding space to help the nova remnant stand out), through Don and Jerry's scopes it was clear why it's called the Crab Nebula.  The crustacean-like mottling to the dust clouds was evident.  Man, was that cool or what?!  Photons, people.  Sometimes it's just about collecting those puppies and throwing them into the ole pupil.

We couldn't resist M35/NGC 2158 after that for something different.  Besides, out there at Emma with averted vision, one can grasp its ghostly form naked eye.  And did the scopes help disrobe the mysterious clusters, aye!  One of the more fascinating aspects to these was the use of high power in the big dobs, again.  Although M35/NGC 2158 with the Pan 19 in the 4”-er was indeed spectacular, the vista unfolds another mystery, with NGC 2158 glowing to the side, but through the big dobs, even NGC 2158 gives up its stars.  The two clusters are clearly open clusters, not one open cluster with an enigma beside it.

As usual, M37 shows its glory in just about any good telescope.  This has got to be one of the best open clusters ever.  I know that Tom Trusock thinks so ...

http://www.cloudynights.com/item.php?item_id=432

... and I agree.  I see the large orange central star as a Viking Chieftain, surrounded by his loyal blue thegns.  But whatever you see, you're bound to enjoy its magnificence and beauty.

Of course, we picked off M38/NGC 1907 in similar fashion to M35/NGC 2158.  I put M36 into my scope briefly and Val and Scott bothered to peek at it.  Not sure Don and Jerry did, but it is the weakest member of the Gemini-Auriga four Messier Musketeers, its spidery form crawling between its more visually inviting Aurigan Cluster brethren.

About that time I remembered that, duh, the autumn constellations are preparing to head into the western sky muck here at Emma, thirty-five some miles east of the city.  All scopes quickly took aim at the M31/32/110 Andromeda Galaxy set.  Dust lanes a plenty in the 10”-ers.  If you could see the dust lane in the four inch ED refractor, it was only because it was easy to notice after standing out so clearly in the big dobs.  Man, that Ethos of Don's really can perform miracles on these galaxies.  Verily, all three could immediately pick up their pallets and walk home from that moment.

While in the neighborhood, Don suggested we try after Mirach's Ghost, the irregular spheroidal galaxy just 7 arcseconds from Mirach, Beta Andromedae.  In Don's dob it was quite evident.  Jerry followed suite.  Staying local, I decided let's split Almach, a colorful double.  In my refractor, Almach was almost at zenith, and about as much fun to find in a refractor as being water boarded.  But in Don's 10” dob, it was easy to put it in the Ethos, and VERY easy to split.  Jerry again followed suite, splitting that one easily with his big dob as well.

I guess we lingered a bit long at Almach, perhaps contorting myself trying to put it in my 4” refractor?  But Jerry wasted no time putting M46 of Puppis in his 10”-er and revealing the internal planetary nebula, NGC 2438, contained within its region of sky.

Since most of us were still in the Andromeda region, I thought, what the heck, let's see if M33 will be any good tonight.  So we went to other side of M31/32/110 to try and pluck out M33 in Triangulum.  We all had a bit of difficulty.  M33 is plenty dim, and it wasn't popping out at us.  Jerry found it in his binoculars and that put him straight on it.  Don and I followed suite.  I've got to say, however, that it was well worth the trouble.  Not so much in a four inch refractor, the mottled arms splayed out like this ...

... in the 10” dobs.  It was SPECTACULAR!  Arms and all.  10” dobs are incredible!

By that time, it was getting late and Ursa Major had risen enough to make M81/82 reasonable targets.  I found NGC 3077 trying to get it into Don's big dob (having abandoned my refractor at this point).  Ironically, Jerry did the same thing with NGC 2976, so we both showed how to get to M81/82 from these more far flung galactic neighbors.  Of course, M81 with its cigar shaped M82 orbiting about it are just one of the best galaxy pairs up there in the great blue yonder, and they didn't disappoint this night, either.

Jerry then put M97, the Owl Nebula, a planetary, and the somewhat edge on spiral galaxy M108 into the same field with his 27mm Orion Edge-On.  This is another wonderful pairing of Messier Objects and one we would certainly have missed if Jerry hadn't jumped on it.

It was pushing 11 PM and we decided to finalize the evening in Orion, by now quite high in the south.  We first went after the Flame Tree, NGC 2024.  It was even visible in the four inch refractor, but stood out clearly in the 10” dobs.  Both again did a great job.  Jerry tried an Ultrablock filter, and I tried my h-Beta in Don's dob with the Ethos.  Both got somewhat unpleasant reactions from Don, Val and Scott.  They preferred the unfiltered views, and thought Jerry and I did NOT catch the Horsehead, but rather, wishful thinking.  I honestly can't say, but for some views, I think we did see the Horsehead through the h-Beta filter in the 10”, but it wasn't a super-pronounced image, more of an averted vision thing.  I think they thought it was averted vision alright, averted off the eyepiece.  Oh well.

M42/M43 gave a great ending to our evening, as would be expected.  I put the Pan 24 into the 4”-er for a widefield view.  Jerry's dob, with his 5mm Edge-On Planetary, delivered the goods, however, picking out the E and F stars of the Trapezium.  My 6mm BO/TMB in Don's couldn't quite put them in the eyepiece.  E would come and go, but Jerry got all six.

We began to pack things up, but Jerry couldn't resist picking out M78, and gave me the privilege to see the parting nebula for the evening.  It's a mysterious beast, for sure, and it was again that evening.

Val caught the last meteor as we finished putting the scopes up.  Except, I couldn't find one of my Panoptic eyepiece caps.  Where could it be? Just before I started crying, Jerry found it on my new Vixen Porta Mount, which had mostly just sat there all night unused (the working 4” was on my AstroView mount with clock drive).  Boy, Jerry sure did put my mind at ease while saving me some embarrassment.  As Val & I drove west, I asked her what her favorite object had been.  She went “hmm” and concluded we had seen a lot of nice things, but finally decided the arms of M33 could possibly qualify for the best.  I concurred.   At her home, she quietly walked her gear up to her porch and got in the house.  Then I was off to mine to tell Neetu all about where we'd been that evening, 12 million light years and back.  Heck of a way to spend a Sunday night, pursuing the heavenly.  Amen.