[AZ-Observing] Re: Observing Report from Griffin Ranch May 30, 2011

From: "Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)" <mrgalaxy@xxxxxxxx>
To: az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 21:21:16 GMT
15480 Empire Rd.
Benson, AZ 85602
hm ph: 520-586-2244

Paul, 

That was a wonderful account of your observing night. I hope you have many more 
opportunities! 

I, too, have a 25-inch. It's always a treat when the weather cooperates and 
gives stable enough conditions to let the telescope perform to its capabilities 
so that we can enjoy the wonders the universe has to offer.  

Clear skies, 
Wayne (aka Mr. Galaxy)


---------- Original Message ----------
From: L Knauth <Knauth@xxxxxxx>
To: AZ Observing List <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Observing Report from Griffin Ranch May 30, 2011
Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 13:10:52 -0700

Observing Report from Griffin Ranch May 30, 2011

        Last Monday night I went to Ken Sike&#65533;s and Bill Van 
Orden&#65533;s little knoll just northeast of the EVAC Griffin Ranch site to 
specifically take a look at the goings-on toward the core of our galaxy.  The 
night was calm and incredibly clear with a SQM-L zenith reading of 21.67 around 
10 pm.  I chased galaxies on my observing list while the horizontal Milky Way 
above the eastern horizon rolled up toward the meridian.  When Antares finally 
culminated, I put in a new 21 mm Ethos on the 25&#65533; Obsession and began a 
journey into the spiral arm of stars, dust, and gas between us and the galactic 
core.  Little did I know that it would yield the most emotionally overwhelming 
observing encounter in the 55 years I have been scouring the deep night sky. 
        After marveling at M4 where loose star chains give the impression of a 
great unwinding caused by some disrupting influence, I slew east toward the 
dark interstellar clouds and faint steely gray obscuration that starts just to 
the east.  Tiny globular cluster N 6144 is the last peep at something distant. 
It looks to me like its eastern side is dimmed by the encroaching murk and the 
field stars largely vanish as I scan eastward.  Chasing the meridian along its 
intersection down the slanting length of westward moving Scorpius, I make 
repeated diversions to admire clusters and even get a fascinating high power 
view of the intricately detailed Bug Nebula.  The seeing is so good tonight I 
can stoke up the power even at this low altitude. 
        Around 2 am, the galactic core reaches the meridian and I throw off all 
pretense of observing catalogued objects systematically.  I pull off the drive 
clutches, grab the truss and just sweep slowly, field by field with the Ethos 
21.  I am startled to see an immense glowing veil of background stars appear, 
each a little infinitesimal point of light.  They are so numerous that there is 
hardly space between them.  It isn&#65533;t just the amorphous glow typical of 
this region that you get in a smaller scope or in a brighter sky; it is a glow 
made up of uncountable discrete points of light that I have never before seen 
as such. Against this background of blazing pinpoints, the brighter, closer 
stars form a separate and noticeably less numerous population.  But the 
astounding thing is the dark stringers, elongated patches, and discrete blobs 
of jet-black obscuring clouds of all sizes and shapes silhouetted against this 
luminous curtain.  We&#65533;ve all seen the big ones in binocs, but here i
 s telescopic field after field of stringy jet black filaments, swirls, and 
patches sharply delineated against the stellar multitude--all spangled with 
pinpoint foreground stars of various brightness and subtle colors.  The 
intricate boundaries and shapes of the dark clouds are beyond comprehension and 
certainly beyond verbal description.  Just when you get your breath from one 
view, the next one moves in with even more spectacular, infinite detail.  It 
goes on and on, field after field.  The number of stars seen in one gulp 
continually astonishes.  Then, obscuring strands appear that have that steely 
gray sheen indicating they are reflecting starlight or actually glowing in H 
alpha.  They are especially noticeable when they appear in contrast with or 
grade into jet black counterparts in the same field. For nearly an hour, I can 
only marvel, gasp, and exult over what I am seeing.  I put in a 13mm Ethos and 
find even more detail in these dark networks!  Unbelievable!  I have s
 wept these areas a hundred times with my old 12.5&#65533; and even twice with 
the 25&#65533;, but never with eyepieces like these or on a night like this.  
This is all new and glorious. For an interval, I feel like I am on top of the 
Mount Everest of amateur astronomy.  Even of human existence. How many human 
eyes have seen sights like this?  Who even imagines it is possible?  I think 
this might even choke up a person without a soul.  All the effort to acquire 
the biggest transportable optics, to bleed bucks for the best eyepieces, to get 
everything working, and to opportunistically travel to distant dark sky 
locations when conditions are right is here yielding a payoff beyond what 
dreams are made of.
        M7 moves into the field and I see it in palpable 3D in front of more 
distant innumerable stars seen around and through this brilliant cluster. The 
uniquely ring-shaped dark cloud Barnard 294 floats into a 13mm Ethos field with 
the background stars shining in the middle hole with undiminished intensity.  
What vagaries of history led to this shape?  Peculiar star cluster NGC 6451 
with its big vacant lane running down the middle appears.  The ambient 
background stars are absent in this band, and it has a barely visible gray 
sheen relative to some of the inky black clouds in the vicinity.  This all 
gives a visceral impression that the lane is not an absence of stars but rather 
obscuration by a thin dark filament floating somewhere between here and there.  
And so it goes.
        At length, the climax along the meridian is over. The low-lying 
galactic center is now rapidly sinking into the southwest and more long-lived 
Milky Way skies are rotating into view.  I do the usual peeks at M8, the 
Trifid, and M17.  All are mind-boggling views, but I am exhausted and still 
reeling from the ecstatic stellar drenching just passed.  It is coming up on 3 
am, the sky is already brightening, and I am too old to continue on, great 
night that it is.  I wake up around noon to wind and clouds.  Still seared and 
shell-shocked by cosmic views of unsurpassed splendor, the afternoon drive back 
through Globe and into the Phoenix Valley is bewildering,
        I have been searching deep photos of these regions on the web tonight 
and am astonished at the inadequacy of how they represent what you can actually 
see at higher magnification.  While the photos certainly indicate the star 
density, the stars are little blebs and clots typically touching one another. 
Ugly. The dark clouds loose much of their definition and the small delicate 
filaments are lost in the overexposed clutter.  It is altogether different and 
vastly more spectacular in reality.  Seeing is believing.  I now burn to repeat 
the experience at an even darker, higher site and under even better skies.  
North Rim?
        There is no evidence of any obscuring material in NGC 6451 in the 
tiresome photos I have seen tonight.  There is, however, an extensive, linear 
black cloud extending right up to the edge of the cluster.  I remain suspicious 
that there is more to this cluster than stars.  AJ Crayon has a nice sketch in 
the DSOG and Steve Coe devotes a page in his DSO book to this cluster with its 
peculiar dividing raceway. 

Videmus Stellae!!

Paul Knauth--
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[AZ-Observing] Re: Observing Report from Griffin Ranch May 30, 2011

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