FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Stoneman Lake this past weekend

[AJ Crayon <acrayon@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

This past weekend I wanted to do a two nighter and decided to take up 
the Sirius Lookers invite to Stoneman Lake at approximately 7600 ft 
(2280m).  The weather appeared, note appeared, to want to cooperate so 
the 2 hour 15 minute drive was with lots of expectation.

I arrived at the site and found the hosts Thom and Ellen Walczak already 
setup along with several others.  Later we were joined by Joe Goss.

After setting up the 14.5" (368 mm) and dinner, cooked by Thom, we 
turned to observing.  My list included Comet NEAT, Hickson 68 and 
Hickson 61.  The comet wasn't a disappointment with a nice bright 
nucleus, slightly fan shaped coma and about a two degree tail.  Its 
proximity to M44 made a very pleasing view in binoculars and the 9X50 
finder.

Hickson 68 was a nice grouping of five galaxies at 220X that included an 
orange and blue star, in the field to the west.  The brightest galaxy is 
NGC 5353; faintest NGC5358 at 14.6.  Ignored and 0.5 deg to the 
northeast was the brighter NGC5371.

The four galaxies comprising Hickson 61 were even more interesting, 
especially at 220X; they consist of three edge-on and one almost face on 
galaxy.  The edge-ons have a very interesting formation; two are end to 
end in the same position angle and the third is perpendicular to the 
other two and dividing the other two unevenly at about 1/4 to 3/4.  The 
fourth galaxy is positioned to make all appear as a Box, in fact the 
nickname for them is the Box!  Don't miss the petty site in Coma Berenices.

If you get a chance put these on your observing list.

Unfortunately, around 11:30pm the clouds rolled in and put a stop to our 
enjoyment.

The next day found it cloudy and windy and near sunset Bill Ferris and 
Brent Archnial arrived.

Fortunately the clouds broke up just enough to create sucker holes, 
especially around Comet NEAT.  We made several observations with the 
14.5" and binos.  I just recently received a comet filter from Lumicon 
and we tried it out.  All seemed to have positive opinions, mine being 
that is made the coma a little larger and the tail more distinct.  As 
far as the comet itself, it had the same bow shock and a darker area on, 
I believe, the southwest side.  All of us had our own descriptions of 
the comet.

Once the clouds chased us off from here we did a tour of some Messier 
galaxies.  Yes, there's an vested interest here for obvious reasons;o))  
We meandered along viewing M105, M104 and M5 before I decided to move on 
to The Owl.  Without saying anything I slipped in the UHC, without 
saying anything, at 220X and quickly noticed a very uneven illumination 
and no eyes.  Bill immediately detected the UHC - can't slip anything by 
on him!

Next was a review of the M101 - M102 controversy but before completing 
the equatorial platform reached the end of its 80 run and I had trouble 
trying to realign the Sky Commander.  Moving the telescope around 
quickly and trying to reposition the ladder at that altitude took me 
breath away and with the clouds closing in more we called it quits.

Despite the fact it wasn't as good an observing session as expected, it 
was very enjoyable and provided a break from the warm deserts of Phoenix.


AJ Crayon
http://www.saguaroastro.org/


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