Viewing
Notes
May 30 - June 1, 2003
6th Annual
Northern Arizona Star Party
Obsession 25" f/5
reflector
Viewing Notes
May 30 - June 1, 2003
6th Annual Northern Arizona Star Party
Obsession 25" f/5 reflector
I had the opportunity to attend the 6th Annual Northern Arizona Star Party, hosted by the Prescott Astronomy Club. This year's event was held east of Prescott, AZ at a site called Cherry Road in the Prescott National Forest. I got a late start out of Tucson on Friday and managed to get stuck on I-10 for about 1 1/2 hours waiting for an accident to clear near Riggs Road, east of Phoenix. I resigned myself to showing up late on Cherry Road and having to set up in the dark. Skies were fairly clear up until Black Canyon City and then I started to get a good idea of what may be in store at Cherry Road. By the time I got to SR 169 it was raining pretty hard and there was no clear sky - anywhere. There were about 10 people there when I arrived at NASP and we spent most of the evening chatting. We all turned in around 11 PM and I set the alarm for 1:30, convinced that this stuff was going to blow off. I got up only to see some very small sucker holes and light sprinkles. Back to bed for a good night's sleep. I woke up the next morning to sprinkles and overcast skies. This weather was definitely unusual for this time of year. That, and the fact that there was a another star party going on about two hours north east of us, I'm certain had an impact on the low turn-out for this event.
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| West view | East view | South view |
The sun didn't make its first appearance until about 1 PM and then the exiting cloud layer dissipated and was being replaced by a huge storm cell to the east. The rest of the skies looked promising so we fastened everything down and waited for the cell to hit. Fortunately, nothing but a bit of wind and then it basically traveled north.
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| Bernie, Lucille, and Jacob | Doug, Glen, and Rich |
The skies cleared up by 7 PM for some substandard Arizona dark sky viewing, but
given the previous night's record nobody complained. Seeing was about 4 - 5 and
transparency was about the same, becoming a little worse past midnight. Several
more brave souls showed up and viewed with us for the evening. Not a great
night for viewing, but the company was good and I at least got to set up the
telescope and do some viewing.
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| The observing field takes form as telescopes are set up in anticipation of clearer skies ... | ||
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| Mark and his 10" Orion XT | Mark lending a helping hand to Doug | Doug and his 10" Meade |
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| Mark checking out Doug's 10" Dob | Waiting for the evening to start | Glen and his 12.5" Dob |
| These pictures are courtesy of Mark | ||
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Bernie rolling out his big 20" Obsession Dob with Lucille and Rich looking on |
A shot of the 20" Galaxy primary | Bernie setting up the 20" Obsession |
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| Looking down the business end of the 20" Obsession |
Sam looking for the best spot to set up his 25" Obsession |
Bernie looking on while the 25" Obsession goes up |
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Bernie wondering why Sam doesn't have his scope set up yet |
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| Getting ready to break camp. Notice what a difference a day makes with respect to the sunshine and the heat. | ||
A special note of thanks to Richard Leon (and his wife Linda). Rich did a great job of playing host: tracking down a port-a-potty, keeping the gate closed, making sure we had enough water to drink, and even playing B&B chef in the mornings.
The viewing was not great compared to what we typically are accustomed to here in Arizona. I did not attempt to check of some Herschel objects because the transparency was so poor. Even so, I did manage to help Marilyn Unruh catalog a 15th magnitude planetary (IC 972) in Virgo. The rest of the evening was spent admiring some of my favorites. Most memorable views of the evening...
NGC 4565 using the 17mm Nagler. The central dust lane ran the entire length of the galaxy, with the central core being brighter on one side. The 12mm Nagler was also a great view, with the galaxy extending the entire field in the eyepiece.
M13, The Great Hercules Globular Cluster. Three dimensional and stunning. This was much brighter than I've ever been used to and can honestly say it blew out my dark adaptation in my left eye. Wow!. The nearby spiral galaxy NGC 6207 was also easily seen, as was MCG6-37-2, another spiral galaxy at mag 14.8. I did not notice MCG6-37-1 (mag 15.5) next to this, partly because I did not know it was there to be seen in the first place. Also, I am not certain the transparency that night would have allowed for something that faint.
M17, The Omega or Swan Nebula. The view in the 17mm Nagler with the O-III filter was fantastic. Even greater structure could be seen when the 12mm Nagler was used, but the 17mm Nagler provided the best overall view. I actually had the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I first peeked at the view.
M101. This face on spiral was fantastic. The view through the 17mm Nagler was fantastic, with several H2 regions jumping out at the outer regions of the spiral arms.
M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. This was my first opportunity to try using the BinoVue on a deep sky object and I was not disappointed. The view using 32mm Celestron Ultimas was comparable to what I've been able to see with the 20" Obsession using a 17mm Nagler. Viewing this object with the 12mm Nagler (no BinoVue) was the best view of all.
