[AZ-Observing] Re: A beautiful night in the Arizona desert

Matt -

It's possible that at least part of the "billowing extension" of the Milky 
Way that you saw was the gegenschein, which appears in this area at this 
time of the year, usually as a very diffuse area of illumination, about 
10-15 degrees across.  My first definite view of the gegenschein was in 
this location, while observing from the Texas Star Party (or more 
precisely from near Marfa, while looking for the Marfa lights!) in 1994.

- Brent

----- Forwarded by Brent A Archinal/GD/USGS/DOI on 05/25/2004 04:41 PM 
-----


FreeLists Mailing List Manager <ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
05/22/2004 12:00 AM
Please respond to az-observing

 
        To:     az-observing digest users <ecartis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
        cc: 
        Subject:        az-observing Digest V4 #140

Date: Fri, 21 May 2004 15:45:21 -0700
From: "Matt Luttinen" <mluttinen@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Re: A beautiful night in the Arizona desert

...

The last view, naked-eye, of the summer Milky Way directly overhead at
3:40am as we got ready to head home. The galactic bulge was so wide I =
could
see with direct vision the billowing "extension" (halo?) covering =
eastern
Scorpius all the way past Antares. Overall, the dark lane(s) cutting =
through
the profile of the MW were completely silhouetted from behind by =
starclouds
as I scanned northward. The "offramp" and other dark appendages were
enclosed by diffuse starlight and showed high levels of intricate =
detail.
Only at Deneb did the dark lane merge with the darkness surrounding the
disk.=20

All-in-all, an outstanding evening was had at a great desert location!

Matt

--
See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please 
send personal replies to the author, not the list.

Other related posts: