This fall’s “No Frills” star party hosted by the Delmarva Stargazers was another great one. We had perfect weather. Not a cloud in the sky for the entire event! Congrats Delmarva for another successful event.
Thursday
I arrived Thursday evening after work. Just in time to set the trailer up, roll the scope out, and snag an amazing pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich from Mrs. Dee(she’s the BEST). The skies looked great as the sun set and remained very transparent throughout the night. Seeing wasn’t at it’s best but it was observable at low power. There were periods throughout the night when the seeing improved temporarily. I began the night observing planetary nebulae then turned the scope over to Pisces for some galaxies. Comet Hartley and Tempel 1 looked great on this night. I was in bed shortly after 2am to return to work Friday. Due to the number of log entries, here are some of the highlights and accomplishments from that night.
PM 1-333: This is a fantastic object and most certainly bright and large enough to be an NGC. I first observed this in Roy’s 18″ scope down the field. In his scope the PN was egg-shaped with a possible inner filament detail similar to NGC3242. In my scope I can see an elongation in the surface but no filament. Great response to an OIII filter. Sits in the same FOV as the famous red Herschell’s Garnet Star.
He 2-441: Very pretty! Visible as a tiny blue disk at 92x. Very bright. Looked the same but larger at 330x, kept it’s color. 884x was a total wash out from the seeing conditions. Responds very well with an OIII.
M1-5: Faint and stellar unfiltered. Good response to blinking a filter but not great. Difficult to pinpoint at first. Rich starfield.
M2-55: Small but large for a Minkowski planetary nebula. Faint but detectable as a grey disk at 123x unfiltered on top of 2 bright stars. Responds great with an OIII filter. Bright and easy filtered. It looked annular at 123x filtered. At 201x it appeared dumbell shaped and mottled but no annularity. 330x was too much power.
M 1-58: Tiny, stellar at low power. Literally invisible without a filter. Very bright while blinking an OIII. Bright non-stellar grey disk at 330x. Responds exceptionally well with an OIII filter. Mildly with an Ultrablock. A neat “mouth” of stars sits above it, looks like it’s hungry.
Sp 4-1: I did not expect this to be so easy. Very bright, tiny, almost stellar at 92x. Blinked very well with an OIII filter. Appears star-like and steady at 330x. Sits right above a bright 10th magnitude star.
Ba 1: Quite small, round, and very faint. Requires averted vision and a nebula filter to see it. Appears as a ghostly diffused disk. Responds the same with an OIII and Ultrablock. I prefer the OIII. Invisible without a filter.
NGC 151: Large, elongated, and very bright. Oval shaped. High surface brightness. Hints of spiral structure and a bar at the core. Possible HII region embedded.
NGC 7332: Gorgeous pair of edge on galaxies. Very pretty against the rich starfield. This galaxy is the brightest. It’s very bright, large, and thin with a bright core region. Surface brightness is like 10th magnitude. Very high surface brightness! Sits next to a bright star.
Friday
I pulled back in the field sometime after 6 when I was off work. Dee had just finished cooking tilapia, scalloped potatos, and stewed tomatos. She knows how to feed hungry stargazers! Friday night was probably the best of the event overall. The transparency and the seeing were both great early on. The seeing degraded unfortunately later in the night. Sometime around 1:30am my battery died on my telescope and my optics dewed up. I swapped the battery but couldn’t revive my secondary mirror so I had to call it a night early. I did manage to see some pretty neat objects. I mainly focused on nebulae on the beginning of the night. Here are some of the highlights.
IC 1318: Huge and faint nebulae unfiltered that’s involved in a bright rectangle of stars. Weak response to an OIII but strong response with an H-beta. Bright with a filter. There is a large bright chunk of nebulosity inside the rectangle with a bright knot. On the left of the bottom 2 bright stars there’s another piece of nebulosity that’s not as bright but near the same in size. Confirmed by Kent Blackwell. Later observed in Roy’s 18″.
Sh 2-101: Large, faint, diffused nebula. Visible unfiltered as a slight background brightness difference. With an OIII the brightness difference turns into very faint nebulosity. Under 2 bright stars there’s a somewhat bright chunk of nebulosity. I have to position the bright stars in the edge of the FOV in order to see it better. I don’t see any significant response with an H-beta.
Sh 2-104: Very faint. On the edge of averted vision. Visible as a round dim glow surrounding a couple faint stars. Perfectly round.
WR 134: Very large and bright. It makes a “swoop” shape. It stars off narrow on the bottom of the FOV and by the time it gets to the top it broadens and fans out. Some motting visible with a filament on the left edge. Great object. Responds very well to an OIII. No response to an H-beta.
M 1-1: Faint and stellar at 123x. Blinks mildly to a filter but it confirms it’s existence. Visible as a faint grey disk at 330x with a slight brightning in the middle.
Saturday
Saturday was a day for me to chill out and sleep in late. Dee cooked us up a western omelette with bacon and ham…boy was I full. I left the field to visit my girlfriend and make a withdraw at the bank. Why would I mention the bank? Well I purchased an LXD-75 from the morning “Swap Meet”! It’s a fine mount and holds my 5″ F/8 refractor with no sweat. I’ve been wanting to buy a new mount for it for a long time. It’s about time I did! Saturday was a wet, dewy night. The transparency was excellent but the seeing was mostly poor. The fog rolled in early and took out most of the telescopes in the field, including mine since my battery died again(realized it was no good anymore). Kent suggested a great idea that brought my secondary mirror heater closer to the mirror and it worked great. After several minutes my optics cleared right up! I spent most of the night looking at galaxies and learning my new mount. It was pretty accurate with the rough polar allignment and goto’d objects almost center of the FOV at 150x. I was pretty happy with it. As soon as I mounted my camera on the back for a quick exposure, the optics dewed up literally instantly. DARN IT! Well, here are some highlights(if you didn’t get that by now!)
M 1-80: Tiny, faint grey disk unfiltered. Requires averted vision to be non-stellar. Responds very well to blinking an OIII filter. At 330x it remained as a grey disk with no characteristic detail. It sits only arc seconds away from a bright 10th magnitude star.
MCG 12-3-1: Quite big, elongated, faint. Diffused and ghostly. Low surface brightness. Slight brightening in the center. Rich starfield.
NGC 1032: Small-medium sized galaxy. Tight bright core. Surface is bright around the core then quickly fades. The surface grows with averted vision. Surface seems somewhat brighter to the left of the core.
NGC 1337: Large and long edge on galaxy. Bright, the surface is brighter on the bottom than it is on the top. Surface brightness is low for it’s magnitude. Hints of mottling detected.
