[AZ-Observing] Observing at Sentinel
- From: Andrew Cooper <acooper@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: AZ-Observing mailing list <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 21:59:42 -0700
As I had mentioned in a previous message I had decided to make a run for
Sentinel this last weekend. The prospect of seeing old friends and a
site that would be 10 to 20 degrees warmer made the decision to make a
two hour drive much easier. I was greeted by many familiar faces...
Steve Coe, AJ Crayon, Tom Polakis, Glen Nishimoto, Dean Salman, Jennifer
Keller and many others from both Phoenix and Tucson directions. Some
time saying hello to everyone and then on to setting up Deep Violet, my
18" dob, finished in plenty of time to enjoy a sandwich and watch the
sky grow dark.
I had arrived a little after four to find most of the crowd had already
arrived, I counted 18 vehicles, with many more arriving after me, I
think the final count was in the 25 area. Conditions were excellent, no
wind, seeing and transparency very good, I gave the seeing a 7 and the
transparency mag 6.5.
The zodiacal light was incredible, going well past zenith right through
the Pleiades. Serious deep sky observers were complaining they would
have to wait until it set.
Comet 2002/T7 LINEAR Had a little trouble locating the comet just off
the Square of Pegasus. The coordinates given me by Planetarium in my
Palm Pilot were about 10' off in RA, it turns out my orbital elements
were a little out of date (since corrected). So once Dean called out
the correct coords I found the comet right away. In Violet this 8th
magnitude object was quite bright with about a 7' coma and at least 20'
of tail. Just a preview of what we can expect in April before it makes
it's dive for the southern hemisphere. Must make a point of keeping
tabs on it through the spring.
The Gegenschein was easily visible as a large hazy patch between the
Beehive and the Milky Way, thanks to Steve Coe who pointed it out to me.
I had often looked for this but often conditions are not good enough to
see this effect. And when they are good enough I forget to look.
NGC3626 Your standard 12th magnitude galaxy, small, distinct core,
slightly elongated north-south, there appears to be a dim foreground
star very close to the core
I had A LOT of descriptions that read like that! But every few object a
pleasant surprise would be found in the eyepiece when I had dialed in
the coordinates...
NGC3379 An attractive trio with NGC3384 and NGC3389. NGC3379 is the
brightest of the group on the west side, round, bright core, even halo
with no detail
NGC2403 Large! Bright! irregular with no obvious core, just a general
brightening to the center, a darker zone around the core hints at spiral
structure, several HII regions visible, the brightest in the arm
immediately east of the core, several involved foreground stars
NGC2903 Big, bright, classic inclined spiral, distinct core in a bright
halo, much mottling in the halo, elongated 2:1 north-south, a trace of
spiral visible at either end with averted vision
In the end I kept going from sunset to well past moonrise, at least
until the moon became bright enough to swamp out the faint fuzzies I had
been hunting all night. What to do? Set up a webcam and take some shots
of Jupiter. The final tally showed 36 H400 objects observed and drawn,
a new single night record for me, but a long January night helps. It is
nights like these that keep me expectantly waiting for the next new moon.
Andrew
--
Andrew Cooper
Tucson, AZ
mailto:acooper@xxxxxxxxx
http://www.whitethornhouse.com
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