[AZ-Observing] Observing at Vekol Friday night
- From: "Mike Mello" <mmello@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, <evac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 10 Jul 2004 11:31:58 -0700
Motivated by optimistic Clear Sky Clock predictions I packed up the Ceravolo
(216mm f/6) and headed to the Vekol Road observing site last night. I was
surprised to find no one there and literally ended up with the entire place
to myself. I'm still a bit surprised that no one else ventured out. Seeing
conditions were above average and I spent my time observing numerous objects
in the constellation Ophiuchus. I observed alone until the last quarter moon
rose sometime after 12:40AM Sat morning. There was very little traffic up
and down the side road through the course of the night and when there was
any traffic it was mainly Border Patrol which made me fell even safer.All in
all it was a real treat to get out and observe this late in July.
Even though the night was fairly short I managed to locate and observe the
following 14 Herschel objects (mainly globulars) followed by some lunar
observing.
Here are some of my notes::
NGC6235 (GC): Viewed directly this object appears as a fuzzy haze within a
triangle of 12th mag stars. However, this object jumps out at you if
observed with averted vision (look down in the fov toward lower edge of
field). And you get a real glimpse of the nucleus and outlying stars. Viewed
with 9mm and 12mm ep's.
NGC6284 (GC): spherically symmetric glow with bright core and fainter outer
shell. Couldn't really resolve individual stars. Use averted vision and note
the outer shell of the globular and how far out it extends.
NGC6287 (GC): Fairly uniform spherically shaped halo maybe 2" diameter with
uneven texture and mottling. No individual stars are resolvable. Viewed with
9mm ep.
NGC6293 (GC): Concentrated core with grainy and just resolvable stellar
outer surrounding halo. Very nice object and quite prominent within ~1 deg
west of 36 Ophiuchus. Viewed with 7mm ep. Resolved a close pair of 12 and 13
mag stars ENE from the cluster core.
NGC6304 (GC): Fairly bright and uniform spherical halo. Faint outer halo
seen using averted vision. Viewed with 9mm ep. Object appears largely as a
glowing haze with no stars resolved.
NGC6316 (GC): Uniform spherical glowing haze surrounded by 5 mag11-12 field
stars within 1-2 arc min region. Nominally uniform patch of light.. Viewed
using 7mm ep to resolve the 5 neighboring field stars.
NGC6342 (GC): Small slightly elongated haze maybe 1-1.5 arcmin in extent.
Stars unresolvable. There is a neighboring mag 10 star seen in the fov using
the 12mm ep.
NGC6355 (GC): faint spherical haze ~ 1.5 arcminin extent amidst mag 9-11
foreground stars across 9mm ep fov.
NGC6356 (GC): Very prominent globular 2-3 arc min in extent. Concentrated
core fades out into fainter outer shell. Unresolvable stars but bright, even
viewed with 7mm ep.
NGC6369 (PN): A tiny version of the ring nebula... I could detect the
annulus with the 12mm ep but it was easily seen with 7-9mm ep's. There is a
relatively bright mag9.66 star within the fov. Referred to as the "little
ghost nebula" and located within the bowl of the Pipe nebula which explains
why the surrounding field is so dark and void of stars. You get the sense
that the planetary is a bit brighter on the northern portion of the annulus.
NGC6401 (GC): No notes recorded..
NGC6426 (GC): very faint ghostly glow, and I almost almost missed it. Use
the 12mm ep and sweep slowly. Last quarter moon rising from the east now.
NGC6517 (GC): another faint gc but this one has a bit of a concentrated
core. Moon now over the horizon starting to kill the viewing..
NGC6633 (OC): very large and loose OC. Using the 31mm ep you can frame most
of it and pan around. There is supposed to be a nice triple on the northern
end according to NSOG but I didn't find it. The moon is up!!!
Brief Lunar Observations: Once the waning gibbous moon rose I couldn't
resist a peak. The terminator passed right through the crater Archimedes at
about 30N and 005 W in addition to intersecting the Apennine mountain chain
at 17.5N 005W. There were some really sharp and irregular triangular shadows
of varying length on the floor of the crater Plato (010W 52.5N). Mo Pico and
a neighboring mountain at ~45N 010W were also casting prominent shadows. I
used Lunar map Pro to help identify various other features and coordinates.
All in all I was happy to have ventured out and encourage anyone on this
list to try and get in some "late season" observing. Clear Sky Clock
suggests that conditions at Vekol should be as good if not better this
evening. Unfortunately, I can't make it out there tonight because I have a
hockey game or else I most certainly would. I guess last night showed me
that July observing is not always out of the question here in AZ. At least
not this year.. Happy observing.
-Mike
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Skiff" <Brian.Skiff@xxxxxxxxxx>
To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, July 09, 2004 10:02 PM
Subject: [AZ-Observing] Re: Saturday Night at Cherry Road
> Also, in re weather, as per AJ's comment, the NWS is doing upper-air
> soundings four times each day (rather than two), and a project is
> underway to study the monsoon onset, so the text forecasts ought
> to be better than usual. (We'll see.) The evening forecast discussions
> for both Phoenix and Flagstaff are interesting (okay, if you find this
> sort of thing interesting...).
>
> http://newweb.wrh.noaa.gov/fgz/prod_list.php?wfo=fgz
>
> \Brian
> --
> See message header for info on list archives or unsubscribing, and please
> send personal replies to the author, not the list.
>
>
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