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

  • From: "Spencer, Darrell" <DSpencer@xxxxxxx>
  • To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Fri, 3 Jun 2011 13:55:36 -0700

Paul,

You might have been alone with the cosmos that night, and laid human
eyes on what precious few have, but we all thank you for taking us
there.

Truly one of the most evocative observing reports I have EVER read.

Thanks again for applying our frail human language, eloquently
expressed, to what you saw.   

You are a fortunate fellow.

Darrell Spencer 


-----Original Message-----
From: az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
[mailto:az-observing-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of L Knauth
Sent: Friday, June 03, 2011 1:11 PM
To: AZ Observing List
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Observing Report from Griffin Ranch May 30, 2011

Observing Report from Griffin Ranch May 30, 2011

        Last Monday night I went to Ken Sike's and Bill Van Orden'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" 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'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'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" and even twice with
the 25", 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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