FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] 2006 Sentinel/Schwar Stargaze

["Steven Dodder" <sdodder@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

   Rosie and I attended the 2006 edition of the Sentinel/Schwarr Stargaze 
held just the other side of the middle of nowhere, Arizona this weekend 
past.  The weather was absolutely glorious, with daytime temps in the mid 
80?s and lows mid 40?s.  I was very excited in that I brought along the 
?new? scope my brother in law gave to me.  It?s a very old 10? F/6.6 Newt on 
a GEM mount marked, ?Coast Instruments?.  Steve Coe tells me Coast was 
bought by Meade in the early 70?s, so the scope must be at least that old.  
It has some neat built in bells and whistles, such as a wooden box for 
eyepieces and an apparent DC/AC converter.  Unfortunately, I haven?t tried 
the converter yet, and the modern ones I did try didn?t work.  I spent the 
weekend just star-hopping without setting circles, and still managed a 
mini-Messier Marathon, plus whatever looked cool on the charts.
  The observing targets were many, so I?ll just give a list and describe 
some of the highlights.  Messier objects included, in no particular order, 
1, 27, 31, 32, 110, 33, 35, 36, 37, 38, 29, 39, 81, 82, 44, 45, 67, 57, 13, 
92, 74, 77, 71, 15, 103, 93, 46, 47, 97, 108, 79, 42 and 43.  Saturn was 
observed when it rose and at intervals thereafter until it actually looked 
good, as did Comet Swan.  Some of the NGC objects I observed were, 6888, 
6960, 6992, 6995, 6811, 253, 584, 586, 1035, 1042, 1052, 596, 600, 309, 255, 
884, 869, 281, 3227, 2392, and 2903.  There were also a number of variable 
stars, dark nebulae and just general poking around the Milky Way.  Jennifer 
Polakis asked if I?d seen the G and H stars in the Trapezium, so we poked 
around there, too.  E and F were easy, G was intermittent and H was not 
seen.
  The highlights were M82 with Sam Herschak?s 4.7mm EP.  That gives about 
357X.  Comparing it to the view in Sam?s 20?, the only real difference was 
the brightness.  All the dust lanes and mottling seen in the 20? were 
present in the 10?.  This kind of comment was typical throughout the night 
from source after source.  Mike Spooner, Bernie Sanden, Tom Polakis and 
others pretty much said the same.  I did enjoy Tom?s particular tome when he 
said, ?Long focal length Newtonians are best for everything.  Except tube 
length.?  Anyway, I tried M82 later with my 4mm Plossl, giving 415X and saw 
about the same as the 4.7mm, although focus was trickier.
  Ngc 6888, The Crescent Nebula was a pretty amazing view.  Bernie and I had 
tried it in his scope from Grand Canyon, but failed to see it.  Could 
recognize the star field, but not the nebula.  May have been lack of 
experience on my part, but now with a more trained eye, I was able to see 
the whispy clouds.
  M33 was also a highlight.  Was able to see some details in the spiral 
arms, where in the C8 I could just make out it was a face-on galaxy.  M79 
was resolved enough to tell where the core began and the outer edges 
converged.
  That?s the way it went pretty much both nights.  I?m told it got cold, but 
I couldn?t tell.  It seemed to be getting late once, but I ignored it and 
went on.  Of course, I stopped for a moment when I got hungry-around 1am or 
so.  Great night.  Great SCOPE!


Steve and Rosie Dodder
sdodder@xxxxxxxxxxx
Visit my web site at http://www.stargazing.net/Astroman

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