This past weekend I went down to Portal, AZ to do some new moon observing with my good friend Jerry. If you have read my previous posts regarding visiting and observing in this area, you already know that the skies are some of, if not THE, darkest and transparent skies in the United States. We were joined this trip by our friends Bill Gates, Jerry and Debbie Hyman, and Christian Weiss. In estimating the quality of the skies, we looked to stars of known magnitudes, and each of us was able to detect stars as faint as magnitude 7. Before I share some of my observing highlights, I do want to mention what a great group we had.
Bill, is the master observer of "things that are not really there" objects. He is a remarkably skilled observer who spent a fair bit of time hunting down some of the faintest nebulosity you can imagine...these areas are so faint that many of them do not even have catalog designations. Bill finds them by downloading images from the
Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS) and enhancing them on his computer to the point that he can see these faint clouds of gas. He then hunts them down in the eyepiece. Bill is observing objects that in all likelihood have never been observed visually by others...Both because they are virtually unknown, and also due to his incredible eyesight. It is safe to say that while we use the expression "eagle eyes," eagles refer to themselves as having "Gates eyes." Bill was able to identify stars as faint as magnitude 7.4 naked eye! 7.2 was the best I could muster...Of course, I was distracted by the bright zodiacal light and the
Gegenschein, a phenomenon I had heard of but never seen...
Jerry and Debbie are friends that we have come to know through various "all Arizona" star party events. They are quite passionate about amateur astronomy and spending time observing with them is always a treat. I learn a lot from them, and the crisp wide-field views through their binoculars were simply stunning (not to mention the new 8 inch Celestron Edge HD they brought!).
Christian has been visiting Tucson while completing the research for his Masters Thesis in optics. He is modeling the optics for Giant Magellan Telescope (I hope I have that right Christian!) and soon will return to Switzerland where he will graduate. Christian is the type of observer who inspires each of us with both his passion and skill. I know we will all miss him. It is so refreshing to spend time with a group like this who appreciate observing all types of objects and sharing the experiences with each other.
I am only going to post a few of the highlights from my two nights in Portal, beginning with Comet 103P/Hartley. You can
read about this comet that I have been observing over the past month in some of my earlier posts. What was amazing was that the comet was visible to the naked eye as a fuzzy spot in the constellation of Cassiopeia. It has brightened considerably and while still diffuse, sports a bright nucleus and extensive coma. The comet is now appearing to move swiftly, approximately 5.8 arceseconds per minute during the time I was making the sketch...that translates to about 2.5 degrees of sky per day! The sketch was made on the night of 10-10-2010 through my LX200 12 inch SCT and a 13mm Ethos eyepiece, yielding a magnification of 234X and a field of view of.4 degrees. The comet's distance from the earth was approximately .142 AU, and its distance from the sun was 1.093 AU (one AU = 93 million miles).
With Christian leading the way, I observed several planetary nebulas over the weekend. One of the benefits of having a telescope with 12 inches of aperture is that I can now begin to see subtle detail in these nebula that was not available to me with lesser aperture. The sketch to the right is of
NGC 7009, commonly known as the Saturn nebula, due to the extensions on either side the nebula that resemble Saturn's ring structure. This nebula is obvious in most scopes at magnitude 8.3 as a small disc of uniform brightness. Magnifying this cluster with a power of 305 reveals the outer halo and extensions. Careful observation also revealed some subtle darkening toward the center. This nebula is approximately 2900 light years away in the constellation of Aquarius.
To the left is another large but faint planetary that flies through the sky low in the south in the constellation of Grus (the crane).
IC 5148 is large, approximately 2 arc minutes in diameter, yet faint at magnitude 11. Using a 20mm eyepiece (152X) and an Ultra High Contrast Filter (UHC) the nebula appeared to have a rift running through it, alomst separating it into two distinct objects. The east half was marginally brighter than the west half, and the entire rim was brighter than the center. I also observed this object through Christian's 16 inch Dobsonian, and he tells me that this object is actually designated twice in the IC, as object 5148 and 5150. Either way, this is a very unique planetary and one well worth observing if you can see it from your location. In Portal, it was perhaps 18 degrees above the horizon.
Finally, I'll share with you a sketch I made of
NGC 246, commonly referred to as the Skull Nebula, haunting the constellation of Cetus. This object was simply stunning from the dark site as it revealed several bright arcs along the perimeter, as well as dark cavities within the nebula itself. the 12th magnitude central star was easily seen as well as a few other stars superimposed on the nebula. NGC 246 is large, twice the apparent size of IC 5148 at 4.1 arcminutes in diameter. It resides approximately 1300 light years away, and is estimated to be about 15,000 years old.
Of course, none of this would be possible without Jerry- From sharing his property to sharing his food, no one hosts a better star party. I have been to star parties in Colorado, California, Arizona, and even the vaunted Texas Star Party and can honestly say that there is no better place, and no better host than Jerry. I have mentioned before that he is my mentor in observing and all the sketches above are due in part to observing and learning from him. Thanks my friend.
In mid November, observers around the world began to take note of what has been termed the SEB Revival. There is an interesting article on NASA's webpage that details much of what has taken place since the SEB's disappearance in the spring, including many spectacular infrared images. Two nights ago I opened up the Lost Pleiad Observatory just at sundown to begin to let the telescope acclimate to ambient temperature. There was a bit of high level cirrus hanging around and I noticed that Jupiter was blazing through the thin cloud layer. Visual observers know that often a slight bit of haze can actually improve views of Jupiter by cutting down on the brilliance and allowing for greater contrast- so I decided to put dinner on hold and take a peek at the king...and I was not disappointed! I was treated to a steady view of the SEB revival. While the sketch to the right does not do the eyepiece view justice, you can see that there was a distinct dark band in the south, that included a bright knot on the central meridian. The band appeared to curve up toward the equator on the proceeding limb (left in the sketch). Utilizing my TEC 140 refractor at 196x, the sketch was completed at 0043 UT on December 9th (5:43 PM local time on December 8th).
Rather than try and write a long post to capture it all, I'll just provide some brief details and some photos and hope that your imagination is as great as the real events were! The All Arizona Star Party (AASP) is an annual event, that was held this year at what is referred to as the Antenna site...basically about 2 miles south of Interstate 10, and about 80 miles west of Phoenix, AZ. I attended with my friend Jerry Farrar, and we camped next to Kevin and Brian from Lunt Solar Systems. This was quite a treat as they brought the entire Lunt arsenal of scopes and filters. I had a chance to double stack the new 60 front mounted etalon on my scope (to the left) and it was awesome! Not only were the views of surface features rich with contrast and detail, but we observed an M 5.4 class solar flare on Saturday morning. Below is my sketch of the sun, including the flare in region 11121.
If you have read my blog over the past many months, you know that Portal, AZ is home to Rancho del Farrar, one of my favorite places on earth to observe. Jerry invited me out for a quick trip with some of his family and friends. While the observing was pretty laid back, we had a great time and the company was excellent. Prior to leaving Portal, Beth and Ian and I went on a short hike in Cave Creek Canyon to a small cave that can be explored in about 10 minutes. Enjoy the photos of our trip!
One of the things that I enjoy about working at the Mount Lemmon Sky Center are the incredible experiences that only happen on a mountaintop. We had a small cadre of guests earlier this week who decided to come up despite stormy weather that would preclude use of the new 32" Schulman Telescope. As part of our "cloudy night" program, we headed over to the west ridge of the mountaintop to see what view, if any, we may have of sunset. I think that these pictures speak for themselves....(and one thing they tell me that while the point and shoot camera is convenient, I may have to invest in a DSLR camera)
Finally, this pictures was taken several nights later when we went up to do some adjusting of the polar alignment of the mount. You can see how massive the scope is in relation to the computer desk to the right. This scope is the largest scope in the State of Arizona dedicated solely to public outreach and education. One of the reasons I have been spending so much time at the MLSC of late, is that in addition to the typical volunteer duties assisting with outreach programs, I am now training to begin conducting the SkyNights programs! It is very exciting and quite a bit of work. While the telescope is impressive, it is simply a tool that we use to provide guests with an opportunity to learn and experience the night sky in ways that they never have before. Mount Lemmon is a fantastic location for this program. Just as satisfying as hearing a guest exclaim "WOW!!" when seeing a globular cluster for the first time, is the contemplative silence of guests as they appreciate that their own shadow being cast on the ground is actually blue and not grey or black. I can say that I learn as much as the guests each time I am there. As evidence, take a look at the picture below. This picture was taken just prior to sunset looking opposite the sun in the sky, to the east. In it, you will see a mountain range in the distance, as well as what at first glance appears to be a second, higher mountain in the background. Look closely and you will see that it is not in fact a high mountain in the distance; Rather, it is the shadow of Mount Lemmon being cast on the atmosphere. This is just one example of something that can be experienced at the MLSC, something that most people have never seen before.
Cometary update! I had a chance to get out last night and take a look at this comet again (see the previous post). It seems to be slightly brighter than my previous observation, as I was able to hold it in direct (as opposed to averted) vision. The coma appears to be a bit brighter to the north, however, there is no central condensation to the comets nucleus that I could see. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory maintains a website where one can generate orbital diagrams for this comet, and they indicate that the comet is currently .317 AU from Earth, and 1.244 AU from the sun (and getting closer!). The comet is moving approximately 1.67 arc seconds per minute across the sky, so it does not yet appear to move that far from night to night. I estimated the comet to be between magnitude 10 and 10.5 and it is in the constellation Andromeda. The sketch was completed at 0508 UT on 9-11-2010, which was 10:08 PM MST on 9-10.
So far I have sketched two objects observing through this instrument. For my first light sketch (to the right) I decided to attempt M27, the Dumbbell Nebula. This was the first planetary nebula discovered by Messier and is one of the showpiece objects of the summer sky. This nebula is approximately 20,000 years old, a baby in astronomical time. I observed this nebula with and without my Baader UHC-S filter to bring out some of the nebular extensions. The magnitude 13.9 central star illuminating the nebula was easily visible as were about 10 other stars within the nebulosity. 
Planetary nebula are fuzzy objects, and typically hold up well to higher levels of magnification than other targets. I was observing NGC 6818, the "Little Gem" nebula in Sagittarius and decided to pump up the magnification and see if what was a small, circular, light blue fuzz-ball at 234x may reveal structure at 609x! Typically one would not use magnification that high, but decent seeing combined with excellent optics transformed the nebula from a featureless disc into a nebula reminiscent of M57, the Ring nebula. To the left is an image of this nebula, while below are my sketches of this "Little Gem" at 234x and at 609x. For reference in the high power sketch, the stars to the NW and SW of the nebula are magnitude 12.5, while the star to the east of the nebula is magnitude 13.5.
Anyway, Sunday morning I was fairly tired from the events, but the sky was as clear as it had been in two days and I decided to pull out my solar scope and make a sketch of the sun. My sketch was completed at 1535 UT (8:35 AM MST). While there is a mildly active region in the southwest (AR 11100) that includes two dark filaments, I was rather impressed with the large prominence in the northeast. Of course, my sketch to the right does not do justice to the ethereal nature of this prominence. Fortunately, a solar observer named Michael Buxton in California made a time lapse video of the prominence and posted it on you tube. Check it out!
