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Viewing Notes
August 18, 2001
Kitt Peak (Southwest Ridge)
Obsession 20" f/5 reflector
Last night was our local astronomy club's star party event at Kitt Peak. Kitt Peak National Observatory boasts the world's largest number of optical telescopes. This star party is to support the University of Arizona Optical Sciences Center new graduate students orientation. The viewing area was at the picnic grounds on the southwest ridge of Kitt Peak. This is just south of the 24 meter VLBA radio telescope. I think this may actually be quieter than a Meade telescope when slewing! There was a good turn-out, with about 9 telescopes and about 40 to 50 visitors. A great dinner of fry bread, chili, beans, and salad was graciously provided by Tohono O'odham Native American volunteers. People started arriving around 5:30 or so, but the sun wasn't even beginning to set. I took some pictures while there was still enough daylight left.
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Clouds were present, with the southern sky remaining relatively free from cloud cover. Southeastern Arizona is still in summer "monsoon" season where afternoon thunderstorms are an almost daily occurrence. Being able to get in some viewing was going to be a long shot, but you never pass up the opportunity to view on Kitt Peak. As it turned out, the skies cleared up beautifully and we were able to get in some tremendous viewing. There was some intermittent haze but that passed fairly quickly.
Mars was high in the southern sky, about 25 -30 degrees above the horizon and was the first object in most every telescope. The current dust storm that's ravaging the planet has obliterated most of the surface features, although some dark areas and the polar cap were discernable. Here's an image showing the phase at the time:
I offered up the usual fare:
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. Conditions were not great for viewing this object. It was twilight and we were looking over the picnic area where a couple lights were burning brightly as the meal crew was packing up. Still, the scope pulled in enough photons so people could actually see the spiral arms. I spent about 15 minutes on this with perhaps 10 people taking a peek.
M13 was as magnificent as ever. Positioned very near zenith made for some excellent seeing, resolving stars almost to the core.
M57, The Ring Nebula, was also very high in the sky. The central star was visible only with averted vision. I should have tried using higher magnification to coax out its feeble glow from the ring's brightness.
NGC 6300, The Veil Nebula The clouds dissipated during the time we were looking at M57 so I spent the remaining time alternating between M51, M13 and M57.
M8, The Lagoon Nebula in Sagittarius. Very nice, lots of structure and very huge (unfiltered).
M17, The Swan (or Omega) Nebula. I pushed the magnification to 245x with the OIII filter and the result was very impressive. I wish I had tried 500x.
M16, The Eagle Nebula. The OIII filter brought out the central dust column. I'd never really seen this before, but TAAA member Tom Peck showed me that it was possible.
NGC 6302, The Bug Nebula, a planetary nebula in Scorpius. This planetary has an unusual shape but still has the typical blue color of a nebula (unfiltered). The shape and hints of structure were apparent at 245x.
M22 in Sagittarius had to be just as impressive as M13.
B86, The Ink Spot, a dark nebula and its neighbor, the open cluster NGC 6520, also in Sagittarius.
NGC 6553, a globular cluster north of B86. This globular looks more like a galaxy than anything else, in part because it is set against the backdrop of the dense star field of center of the Milky Way.
M31, The Andromeda Galaxy, and it's companions M32 and NGC 205. Always a crowd pleaser, especially with its huge size and prominent dust lanes.
Unfortunately, we had to be off of the mountain before midnight. I'd love to be able to spend an entire night viewing from this location. Kevin Bays, another TAAA member and I went to the Tohono O'odham reservation near the town of San Pedro and continued viewing using his 8" dobsonian. We wrapped up around 4 a.m. knowing we were fortunate to get in some viewing during a new Moon in the middle of monsoon season. Lots of meteors were witnessed. I couldn't really detect a pattern so I don't think this was left over Perseid stuff, but it could have been. A couple were pretty spectacular, leaving a visible "smoke" trail.
