This is a question I have had for a while.
How dark is the
-----Original Message-----
From:
utah-astronomy-bounces+pjohnson=xmission.com@mailman.xmission.com
[mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces+pjohnson=xmission.com@mailman.xmission.com] On Behalf Of Jim Gibson
Sent: Sunday, February 15, 2004
9:29 AM
To: Utah Astronomy
Subject: [Utah-astronomy] Party
Trained
I was in training last night for the upcoming Star
Party. I am now party trained. As the sun was low in the sky last evening I
noticed it had cleared up considerably. I got the sudden urge to view bright
objects in a sea of darkness. I loaded up all my gear including cold weather
gear and head out for the Rush Valley site. Wish I could have given some of you
other die hards (no relation to Chuck Hards) notice. I would love to have had
company. Even if I did, I would
probably be the only idiot out there.
I knew I was going to be standing in the snow and sure
enough there has been little melt-off in the valley. Undeterred (which comes
from lack of several things including experience, and brains) I set up my Chuck
Hards Weightless mount upon which sat an Orion 80mm ED. Securely affixed
to the scope is a 9X50mm right angle finder scope. This is interesting –
a 50mm finder scope for a 80mm scope, oh well – moving on. Well dressed
for the occasion with snow boots, insulated coveralls, gloves and hat I went
right for the juggler, the comet T7.
Ooh how beautiful dark skies are. I could not get over
how black looking the sky was.
Having seen the comet T7 the night before I quickly
found Gamma Pegusi in relation to Venus. Looking along the corner of my star diagonal
I pointed the scope toward Gamma Pegusi. Peering through the finder scope
revealed the comet in the same field as the star although the comet was only a
faint haze. With a 13mm Nagler type 6 (46x) the comet was plainly visible but
not as good a view as I had through my 12.5” Dob the night before, but
none-the-less still a great view.
I spent some time on this object, using averted
vision, and just staring at it for a long time. I think because I had seen it
so well the night before I could see things I would have missed if this were
the first time looking at it. The head was harder to see but I could still
remember where it was and as I concentrated on it I could detect a
concentration of brightness inset in the round broad wake at the front; the tail
broad and short.
Satisfied with that and looking around my mind and
hart ran wild with all that there was in the winter sky. Not to belabor all
that there is to see, I will just mention a few highlights. Nothing
extraordinary you understand, just things that surprised me.
First off, I really liked the way the Weightless mount
and Orion ED work together. I found myself quickly finding Messier objects left
and right with the method already described although a red dot finder would
have been nice.
I could not resist the call of M42/M43. With the 13mm
Nagler the nebulosity clearly exceeded the filed of view, although I
couldn’t quite bring out the 4th star in trapezium. I replaced
the Nagler with a 9mm UO (University Optics) and that 4th little
star came out sharp as a tack. That was cool.
I remember in a previous post I prided myself on
finding M44 from my front yard in Pleasant Grove while Cancer was in total
blackness. Now I could see M44 naked eye. Of course we had to stop there and I
had to reminder myself where the beehive is, at least to my mind.
I also stopped at m33, but I didn’t have enough
optics to see NGC 604, and even though I know about where it is, I
couldn’t see enough structure to guess where it was. I spent some time just
trying to detect structure, but all I could see was a pretty little fuzzy.
Although I brought a thermometer, I didn’t
immediately check it because temperature was not a concern at first. After
about an hour and a half my hands started getting cold, so I check the
thermometer and it was 6 degrees, then 5. I figured that I had been party
trained enough for one night. I packed up and left with satisfaction glowing in
chest and a smile on my frozen lips.
Jim
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