YFOS Report, Orion Sampler

I arrived at YFOS around 5:45pm, maybe a little later. The skies were perfectly clear but the moon, a few days before full, was extremely bright. I knew the moon would interfere with the seeing but after Monday's disappointing visit I just didn't care. It had been so long since I had been out that I was going to set up and see what I could see.

I had prepared last Sunday night for the Monday trip by picking the 2 Orion chapters from Sue French's wonderful book, "Celestial Sampler." I usually observe with some plan, but it had always been a plan that I had put together, thinking about what I wanted, and trying to put together some kind of list. Usually I spent the entire night slewing across the sky, hoping to glean some knowledge from my newbie tour. So this night would be different, I'd have an expert guide along.

I was also anxious to try out some new equipment, first was my replacement parka, for some odd reason, my 20 year old Cabela's down pants no longer fit. They must have shrunk, that's all I can say. You know, they just don't make them like they used to! I chose the Snowy Range Suit, again by Cabela's, primarily because it was one of the cheaper ones that the sold. I also liked the reinforced knees, I didn't want to wear through a pair of parka pants.

Also being tested was the new Astro Chair. from buyastrostuff.com. As you know, Rags and I have been building Denver chairs. They are quite nice but mine is just too heavy. I live on the third floor and it is a real chore to bring it up and down the stairs.

And finally, on the equipment list, a Seibert 34mm Observatory Series eyepiece, a gift from Jeannette.

Ok, enough of the stuff, I don't usually come out with all this new stuff at once but it just sortof all built up. Having clouds for months seems to do that.

Oh wait, one more bit of stuff. Celestron recently released new firmware for their Goto scope. I bought the cable I needed (if anyone wants to borrow it, just give me a call an bring Bass Ale.) and spend about 2 1/2 hours trying to get the new firmware in the scope. I'm pretty sure that fault was in the USB-serial adaptor that I needed to use. I only have USB and the scope's cable is PC-serial to RJ-11 telephone cable. I had many Blue Screens of Death and countless comm failures. What was really nervewracking was that after a failure, the scope was essentially a GEM mount scope w/o even a clock drive, not scrap but certainly not what I was used to. I eventually succeeded.

So, back to YFOS...

I unloaded everything and got it all set up. Time for the new parka. Hey, this is nice. Legs are warm now.

Now time for the GoTo alignment procedure. The problem is that I don't know the winter Western stars! The hand controller kept on suggesting ones I had never heard of. I knew Caph so I kept on scrolling until I had that, except Cassiopeia was now upside and sideways and whatever. I pulled out my palm pilot and looked up star charts, and eventually figured it out. Hmmm, need another star, I scrolled for awhile and eventually realized that I was lost. I might as well pick one and look it up. Hamal!

Ok, now for the 4 calibration stars. This was new to me, the old firmware (I had old firmware, only accepted 1 calibration star. But the good news is that all these would be from the west.; Betelgeuse, Procyon, Sirius and Rigel.

As soon as my alignments were done, Herb showed up and started setting up. Good, I really don't like being alone in the dark. I knew this would be a good evening.

First Goto was of course to M42, Orion Nebula. I didn't need to use Goto, I can find that one myself, but hey, why not you know? Odd, it was off by about a degree. That's not good. I did an alignment on it and found that I could replace either calibration stars or the alignment stars. This is good! The old firmware would only let you replace the alignment stars. (Which means if you messed up the calibration star, you were pretty much out of luck and would have to start over.) I replaced Procyon since that was furthest from M42. I spent about 10 minutes just looking at M42 and looking around it. I had hoped to be able to see the dimmer part of the nebula. I've seen the arms reaching out encircling it, but alas, the moon was so bright nothing really could be seen. I tried my UHC filter and that really didn't help. That moon was bright!

I pulled out the book and with my mitten on my left and and a bare right hand turned to my first section, A Starry Mist. NGC2024 was up first. (Odd, I expected M42 but maybe that is too obvious.) I spent a good 15 minutes looking for it. I never found it. I placed Alnitak in the center and around the edges of the eyepiece, using the Seibert 34mm, which gave me 59x and 1.19 degrees TFOV. I tried the UHC and still nothing. Man, it was clearly bright. I forgot to try and resolve Alnitak. This is one problem with the cold. I was already getting uncomfortable and found I wanted to hurry a bit. So much for my new parka! I had a sweater on under it, but long underwear is certainly in my future.

I similarly failed on M78 and NGC2071. This was getting frustrating but in retrospect, the skies probably just didn't permit it.

I didn't even try to see Barnard Loop's yeah, right and I forgot to look for NGC2112.

I had wonderful success with NGC 2169, known as the 37 Cluster. Click the link, it is a good asterism. My problem was that I couldn't make out the horizontal part of the 7! I looked and looked, just not there. Now my view is of course different from the picture, I was rotated at least. It was until I realized that I was upside and mirror image did I see that I was looking at the wrong part of the 7. Once I saw my mistake the missing dim start jumped right out. I didn't not observe any color in the 7 but then again, I wasn't looking for it. Newbie mistake, the second of many for the night.

I failed to find NGC 2194 and NGC 2175, even with the UHC. Just too bright I guess.

So now I turn the page to get to the next lesson. Lepus? I don't remember reading about Lepus. I was too cold to mess about with the book so I figured I'd just go off plan.

The previous night, from Manchester, I found M41 and M47 with binoculars and failed to find M46, M48, and M50. I wanted to see if I could grab any of these. M41 was easy, as was M47. But M46 proved elusive. I knew it was right next to M47 so I scanned the area and wow, there it was. Very dim, very washed out. No wonder binoculars from Manchester couldn't do it!

I honestly can't remember if I found M48 or M50. I think not but I can't remember. I've started keeping a paper log but it was too cold to open it so I just don't know.

Now off to Saturn! Too low, the skies were boiling.

It was about 8:30 and I was pretty cold. The reusable hand warmers were going a good job of keeping the hand controller working and keeping my left hand warm but my rigth was freezing and my back was cold. The feet were beyond cold. But, 8:30 is too early! So it was moon time!

I put the 22.5mm Seibert Ultra in and barlow that 2x, giving me 178x power. Maybe a little high, there was some motion in the view but it wasn't horrible. (I was too cold to barlow the 34, I was staying put.) I tired to identify some craters on the terminator but it just wasn't happening. My moon atlas on my palm showed the terminator but I just couldn't match anything up. Oh well, I still could enjoy what I was seeing. I watched on crater for about 10 minutes, trying too see solar motion down the edge of the ridge as the sun rose there. Nothing. Maybe I needed more time.

During this Herb and I heard sirens, lots of them, and fire trucks with the horns really blaring.

Around 9pm Ken showed up. First thing he wondered about was why the warming hut wasn't open. It was snowed in and I didn't bring a shovel. He pointed out the shovel right by the door and started in it on it.

I was done with the moon and poked around the Big Dipper some. M51 was a failure but I did grab M82, very, very hard to see.

Then I went in to warm up. (Thanks Ken!)

I brought the Sue French book in with me. Doh! I see my mistake, I did my second section first! The one I meant to do was before it. (Now, in my defense, I actually checked this, but when I turned forwards in the book, my gloved hands slipped and turned 2 pages, which put me in Taurus.)

This looked like a good lesson, 2 degrees of the sword, but I really needed to warm up some. Ken came in and we chatted some but not too long, he needed to get out and start setting up. He just got his CPC11 that day or the day before and was anxious to check it out. I should have stayed inside more but I also wanted to finish up the lesson.

I could only get 4 stars of the Trapezium. Herb got 6 with his Starmaster but I couldn't see them even with his scope, I could only see the 5. I tried the 22.5mm on mine but that didn't help. I didn't think to try the barlow.

I could see M43 but only dimly, I couldn't make out the comma shape.

I could see the stars of NGC1977 but not the nebulosity.

NGC 1981 was an easy find, quite pretty actually.

I put the UHC in and tried NGC 1977 again, so such luck. I confirmed I was in the correct area by comparing the star pattern against the photo in the book, but no luck.

With the filter still in, I went down to Iota Orionis. I was looking for Struve 747 and Struve 745. Iota had a dramatic red/green split to it. I took the filter out since I didn't want it. I found Stuve 747 easily antd 745 almost as easily. It wasn't until I was typing this that I realized that the UHC let me see 2 of the 3 Iota stars! If I had been paying more attention to the book I would have tried to split the triple but I was concentrating on the Struves.

Back to Saturn now, it was higher in the sky. I tried the 9mm University Optics but the seeing just wasn't good enough for that, 222x. So I barlow the 22.5m again, giving 178 power. This was a good place to be. I could see one band which curiously lined up with one part of the ring, giving the illusion that ring passed in front of Saturn twice. It was hard to shack that feeling. I could occasionally see a glimpse of a ring shadow but it was difficult. 2 or 3 moons were visible. I didn't bother pulling out the Palm to see what the were.

It was 11:30pm. I was done. Cold to bone, but very happy. I had had a wonderful evening. I heartily recommend the Sue French book, Celestial Sampler for any beginner, and I'll bet it is good for some non-beginners also. The chair rocks also, very light and easy to move around the tripod, easy to adjust also. A++ on that.

I chatted some with Ken and then Herb and I started packing up. When I hit Route 9 there were 2 police cars, 2 1/2 hours after the original sirens. They had a car stopped and were talking with the driver. It looked like a road block of some sort. I asked if it was ok to proceed and they waved me on.

All in all it was a great evening.