Observing report, 4" f/6, 2/14/2004

Date: Saturday evening, 2/14/2004, 7pm to 8:30pm local PST
Location: Cottonwood Spring, Joshua Tree National Park, Calif.
Equipment: 4" f/6 Orion refractor

Drove up to Cottonwood this evening. Arrived at the trailhead parking
lot about 7pm. There were quite a few cars and i at first thought maybe
there would be a bunch of stargazers set up. But turns out only Stephen
and Bruce were there. Not sure why so many cars at night. Maybe
backpackers or maybe overflow parking from the campground. (I didn't
drive through the campground but i think it was full this being the
3-day President's Day holiday weekend.) My primary goal for the night
was to see comet C/2002 T7 from a darksky site before it got too close
to the sun and lost in the twilight. I only brought the 4" f/6 Orion
refractor plus 11x70 and 10x42 binoculars.

Comet C/2002 T7 - Comet easy to spot near mag 2.8 Algenib in Pegasus.
Nice round coma with just a short little stubby tail. The nicest view
was with the 11x70 Fujinons handled with my arms propped up on the roof
of the truck. The comet was also easy to see with 10x42 Nikon
binoculars. The Zodiacal Light and skyglow from Coachella Valley cities
interfered however. I tried to spot the comet naked eye but could not.

M74, EG, Pisces - This sure is one of the faintest Messier objects. Just
barely visible in the 4" and the 11x70 binos. Very faint.

2237, DN and cluster, Monoceros - Rosette - At 30x in the 4" takes up
half the field. Using the UHC it's quite easy to see. Sort of like a
large Helix neb. The side preceding the central cluster is larger. Looks
more like a nebula here than it did from home where it was just this
weird dark gray nothingness. The neb is noticeable in both 11x70 and
10x42 binoculars. Can almost tell there's something there with naked
eye.

Ranger visit - A park service ranger came by checking out the parked
cars. He came over to me and we chatted for a while. I pointed out some
constellations and planets for as well as Venus, Mars, Saturn and
Jupiter were all visible across the sky from west to east. Also pointed
out Canopus, the second brightest star in the sky, was visible along the
southern horizon. It never hurts to be friendly with the rangers.

2261, DN, Monoceros - Hubble's Variable neb - I can't find it! Very
strange. I was able to see from home a couple of nights ago but i can't
find it tonight. I see heaps more stars than i can see from home but
can't pick out the neb.

Horsehead neb - Trying really hard to find him with the 4". I'm just not
sure. Sometimes i think i can see a faint neb with a bit of notch in it.
Other times i don't see anything at all. Trying with and without UHC.


-Florian (at) stargazing dot com
Palm Springs, Calif.

The 11x70 binoculars mentioned in my original post are actually 16x70mm =
Fujinons. Also in some of my recent posts i've been mentioning comet =
C/2002 T3 when i really meant T7. I seem to be making a lot of typos =
with numbers recently. ;-/

-Florian

The 11x70 binoculars mentioned in my original post are actually 16x70mm =
Fujinons. Also in some of my recent posts i've been mentioning comet =
C/2002 T3 when i really meant T7. I seem to be making a lot of typos =
with numbers recently. ;-/

-Florian