[AZ-Observing] Fantastic Saturday at Vekol

I left Chandler at 8:30 for Vekol. It was obvious even in the urban
moonlight that transparency was excellent. Seeing was poor however.

An hour later I was at Vekol with Mike M. The moon was still up but
it was still very dark. I finished setting up my new (many years old)
16" dob with moonlight to spare. I've modified it a bit and
refinished parts of it since my modifications trashed the finish. I
still have more work for finish, but it is a lot better than it was
the previous week in Sentinel. 

The first new-to-me object I spotted was J320 a tiny but fairly
bright planetary in Orion. I couldn't use much magnification as the
seeing didn't allow it. But it was clearly non-stellar at about 140x.
Blinking with a UHC filter helped me confirm the object.

Mike suggested I check out NGC1232 in Eridanus. This is a nice large
face on spiral with a stellar core. 

I then moved on to Columba. Burnham's has 6 object for it and the
NSOG has a couple more. Mike had this constellation on his list as
well.

For me the best objects were a bright pair of galaxies 1792 and 1808.
This pair reminded me of M81/M82. These were easy in my scope.
NGC1808 was a nice oval shape like M81 and 1792 was more irregular
like M82. 

NGC1851 is the other showpiece of the constellation. It is a large
bright globular. It is extremely concentrated with an amazingly
bright core. It is a nicer object than M79 even though it is much
lower in the sky. 

These objects also looked great in Mike's 12" dob as well. Observing
with two scopes and two pairs of eyes definately adds to the
experience. Mike did a fantastic job starhopping with his Rigel unity
power finder. I don't have that skill, but I can find just about
anything using a telrad and a finder. My scope has a fine 11x80
University Optics finder with erect image as well as a telrad. 

One interesting coincidence was that many of the Columba observations
in the NSOG were done by George De Lange with the very scope that I
was observing with. 

I finished seeing the other objects from Burnham's in Columba as
well. These were galaxies ranging from a tiny dim spot to a diffuse
elongated edge on spiral.  

Columba is a small constellation below Lepus but it has a few nice
objects. 

I then moved on to Lepus. I wanted to see IC418 and M79. I have seen
these before, but wanted to see them with more aperature. 

Mike suggested checking out 1888/1889 in Lepus. This pair of galaxies
looks like an forshortened spiral (1888) with a wart near the central
bulge (1889). 

I then moved on to a few objects that I hadn't seen before in Orion,
mostly open clusters. Of note was 2174/5 which is an open cluster and
nebula. I also reobserved some of the brighter objects including the
Flame Nebula. It really showed a lot of structure with the 16" scope
as conpared to the view I was used to in my old 10".

Since I was in the area, I also reobserved IC443, a supernova remnant
in Gemini. It was easy in the 16" scope. The last time I saw it was
in my 10" scope at Vekol in 1999. It was barely visible without a
filter. 

After this, I looked at some new-to-me objects in Monocerus. I
observed about a dozen open clusters and a couple of nebula. 

The most amazing object i n Monocerus that I hadn't seen before was
IC 2177, also known as the Seagull Nebula. This was clearly visible
in the 11x80 finder! It was so large that it was difficult to spot in
the main scope. It was seen as brighter and darker fields as I swept
across it. A UHC filter helped it a bit. 

I was also impressed with Hubble's Variable Nebula. It was much
brighter and more detailed than the views I had in my 10" scope. Also
noteworthy was how large and bright the Rosette appeared in the
finder. 

I ended the night by sightseeing some of the brighter early spring
galaxies including M81/M82, M65/M66, M51, M63 and a few other
showpieces. Of course, I checked out Saturn and Jupiter as well. Poor
seeing didn't allow great views of them. 

By this time it was 3:30am and Mike was finished observing. I
disassembled the scope, packed up and left. I reached home and got to
bet at about 4:50am. 

Darkness and transparency were superb. I have observed at Vekol about
30 times since 1998 and I can't recall a darker or clearer night.
Seeing was lousy, but it didn't matter much on many of the objects I
was observing. It was very cold but Mike and I were well prepared. He
had new high tech cold weather gear, while I made due with many
layers. The views made the cold bearable.


Joe Larkin 
 

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