[AZ-Observing] GCSP Day Five from Jim O'Connor
- From: Andrew Cooper <acooper@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: TAAA Forum <taaaforum@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, AZ-Observing <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2006 21:52:46 -0700
For those of you asking for more...
Andrew
--------------------------
Night Five was more compressed, but still interesting. I had some goals
for the night, but didn't really get around to much of them. Still,
another winner night.
I parked the truck early in the morning again, in a slot that I thought
would give me a better shot through the trees at Saturn and the
Virgo/Coma Berenices galaxies. The plan worked for the galaxies, but
Saturn was speared by a different tree than last night. It looked like a
Christmas Tree ornament, though, and that was kind of cute.
I arrived on-site at about 5:45 in the afternoon and found a majority of
the observers already set up. Susan and I unloaded the truck and she
parked it over in the reserved area. There were four or six new
additions to our gang at the end of the line. Two of the new arrivals
were a couple of impressive C11s, equipped with multple controller pads,
refractor finder/guidescopes, GPS locating, probably more. There were
also a couple of tube dobs, maybe more. We were quite cozily crammed in.
On the opposite side of me was Steve with his C11, one of three
co-workers who made the trip up to GCSP from Tucson. Nick is still here
as well, while John is now up at the North Rim. Just past Steve's C11
are large binocs on a parallelogram mount, a Meade 8" SCT, and another
Meade. I'm feeling lost in high-tech perdition with my 18th century
newtonian! The five of us are in three and a half parking spaces. It was
a little crowded with all of the visitors, but it worked out OK.
Much the same as last night, except that the newcomers are giving great
presentations to the visitors. Folks are getting a fantastic exposure to
the sky! We start bagging planets about 20 minutes before official
sunset. At one time in our area, we have scopes on Mercury, Saturn,
Mars, and Jupiter. Susan is helping crowd control at my scope, and doing
her most excellent Earth Science teacher informal talk with the visitors
as the queue up an observe. I'm spending most of the time on Jupiter,
since at 250X+ it's a huge image in the eyepiece. The line at the C11
showing Saturn is pretty long, so when my crowd slacked off I spun over
and showed it. Even at the low elevation in the west, with the sun now
barely down, the image is again large and crisp, with Cassini easily
detectible. It's very convenient for the kids and "average" sized
adults, since it's so low. But at 5'10", my neck sure doesn't like the
bend down and twist to see it!
I was lucky that the crowd had a break as the sky became dark. I was
able to align without interrupting the viewing. Polaris and Spica have
been good to use, since both let me stand flat footed and line them up.
I spent most of the time on the Ring. The lines were generally about six
to ten deep. I was able to realign on the Ring, then I was able to
hand-track it off platform; no need to interrupt the line. This allowed
me to give the Planetary Nebula story; how the label came about, what it
is, how it compares to our Sun's future, the white dwarf at the center
providing the light. Large and beautiful, quite a crowd pleaser. Never
did get over to the Dumbbell!
During a lull in the crowd movement, around 10:15 or so, I spun it over
to NGC 4565, Berenice's Hairclip. I think one of the C11's was showing
the Sombrero, but that one was, by now, too low. But the Hairclip was
optimal; the shortest folks needed one step on the ladder, most of us
could just stand and enjoy the full field span of the galaxy and it's
mottled dust lane. After a while, another TAAA member Paul came up. Paul
is the best observational astronomer I've ever met. A piano teacher by
trade, he seems to know the entire NGC/IC catalog by location, size, and
features! Paul and I have been setting next to each other for the last
three years in the Pit. Paul brought up a new 12.5"
newtonian/equatorial. Paul said his mount takes so long to set up and
take down, that with the Pit being occupied by construction equipment he
can't use the upper lot. Instead, he has his scope permanently set up in
the campground.
Paul showed me several galaxies that were new to me, but if anything
were larger than the Hairclip. Like oversized M82s. But I lost the NGC
numbers! Hope he's there tonight to make me smarter.
Although I had plans for some serious observing as the crowd evaporated
after 11PM, my mind wasn't in it. Probably Sleep Deprivation
accumulation. I put the scope on M51, and once again it was fantastic.
Six of us who remained at our end of the line braved the ladder ascent
and enjoyed the full-field show of the pair. As I was relocating on
Jupiter (with a GRS time of about 1AM local, GRS and Jr. should be
visible on the limb), I noticed it getting noiser at the end of the row.
Almost like a school of fish, everyone was packing up. Lots of latches
clacking on cases. Then, Steve behind me started breaking his down. And
it seemed like a great idea! As they finished loading up, folks came
over to take a peak. Due to the lowish elevation and ever gusting winds,
it was hard to pick them out. Two of us could get brief moments of
clarity and see the bulges, but it was tough. Tonight will be better;
with a GRS meridian crossing predicted for around 8:40PM local, whe
should get about two hours of good show.
Although I showed the crowd much less in numbers, I think the quality of
their experience is improving. This is sure fun!
Three nights left...
--------------------
Jim
A Bad Night With A Telescope
Beats A Good Night Doing Anything Else
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