OR-CSSP Friday night 7-25-03

Location, Cherry Springs State Park, 15 miles SE of Coudersport, PA
Present were about 50 astronomers, some of which I met for the
first time...big contingent from the Baltimore area and another
from the Rochester area. Of course all the faithful regulars
were present, Ken from Ohio, Gary Honis from Hazelton, Nick Zallar
from Johnstown, John O'Hara from Oil City, Elliott McKinley
and Tom from the Buffalo region, Dave Wymer from NY, Fran & Al
with their 25 Obsession from Chester, Steve Walters from the NJ region,
and the Mays, Gary and Scott, and myself from the Erie Area. Plus there
were others I just can't remember. (Sorry....the memory goes first).
Visibility was average, seeing was not the best...Vega was even seen to
be twinkling only 10 degrees off the zenith, later in the night.

Started the 30 inch which was in excellent collimation by trying to
split Antares in the dusk, using an 11 inch ap. stop at 388 X but
no joy...the primary was just swimming low and overwhelming the
secondary star...unfortunately we had the core of the jet stream
right over central PA for the night, with the leading edge of a
cold front coming in from the NW...the High pressure over W. VA.
was breaking down fast. (But Spruceknob W VA should have had a good night)!

Split some easys for the guests...beta Sco, beta Cyg, then over to
a reddy called V Aqu which drew some yews and ahs...a cigarette tip
at a distance.
First up was the Wild Duck, and of course the 30 inch completely
destroys the V shape pattern, even at 114 power, as do all
large light buckets. Hit most of the lovlies...M-51 next, first at 114
then 388 power, but due to crappy seeing, the 114 power (30 mm
astrosystems widescan) became the eyepiece of choice for basically the
entire night, except for the Ring near the zenith and Mars much later.
Obtained near-photo quality of the Whirlpool...but do to poor seeing,
had to use averted to see the arm extending down toward 5195. Cass
next, as some kids were present....Hey kid, come over and look at ET
looking at you. Don't be afraid of the 10 foot ladder...its stable,
at least most of the time.
Even at 114 x, 457 fills the FOV...had a request for the double open and
can just barely fit both clusters into the .7 degree FOV.
Pointed out the parachute man to the Newbies.
Next was my favorite, 7789 and a real eye popper with a 30 inch
mirror...but actually I've seen it better with better (and higher)
conditions.
Almost fills the entire FOV in the 30 inch. Dumbbell next with
the typical yews and ahs...as was 7662 and 6543, which shows
some helix structure at 388 power, in addition to no strain on
the central star. Back to low power, and
off to the south with the Lagoon, then over to 22 which
was a real crowd pleaser, even at low power. Hit the swan which appeared
to be moulting in the 30...even without an O-III filter. The Eagle
was nice, but I didn't take the time to up the power and place the
O-III on, so no-one saw the dark lane eagle itself...besides, I didn't
think conditions warranted a try tonight. (But we have seen it before).
Hit 72, 73, and 7009 while in the area...nothing to write home about
as even the ansi were just barely there on a less-than-average night.

7331 next, followed by Stephens....3 galaxies were obvious, the 4 and
5 required averted vision...that's how bad the sky was
getting...Stephen's should require sunglasses thru a 30 inch mirror!

Time for Mars with ap. stop, it was swimming but as dawn and the
crescent moon appeared, Mars settled down a little...enough to see the
SPC and the dark lane around the cap...it's shrunk down to a much
thinner band then we had even a few weeks ago...maybe it *really* is a
'melt-zone'! Also noticed that the severe gibbous shape is becoming
almost circular as we approach opposition. Just a few shadings were
noted on the rest of the surface, and since I'm not a planet lover, I
don't know what we were looking at...but I do know the side of the
planet we were seeing at 4, 5 am was very bland and devoid of markings.
Oh, also saw fleeting moments of a wedge in the SPC, but couldn't hold
it for more than a second under our conditions. Is the ice cap
decreasing in size? Appears to be melting (or sublimating-take your pick).
Went up on M-57 at 10 degrees past the zenith, upped it to 388 x and
saw the central star intermittently (about 10% of the time for age 61)
Tom from Buffalo (age 19)reported 100% view of the central star and
intermittent viewing of the "second star" inside the ring. Sigh....to
be young again. We tried upping the power to 488 (7mm Nagler) but Tom
reported that it only made it worse, so we dropped back down in power.
At this point M-13 was the next target, so we alternated between 114
and 388 powers...near photographic view of 13, with occasional
excursions over to next door 6207. 31 next but still low in the
NE showing no details at all...well, maybe one dust lane. Got on
the easiest galaxy to find....404...next...not too impressive tonight.
By then a lot of the guests had dispersed, so I wanted to hit one of
my target listings, that triple galaxy group up in Draco before it got
too low...5985, 82, 81....very nice under our conditions.
Getting late but Tom wanted to try the Helix as it was up pretty good,
and brought over a 2 inch O-III filter...it was my first view of
7293 with the 30...pretty impressive as we could detect the streamers
at the 7 and 1 O'Clock positions, had about 7 or 8 stars super-imposed
on the Neb, one of which was obviously the central star. Even looked
pretty good without a filter as it almost fills the FOV! Tom wanted
to try for some PALS, and I said forget it, to me, PAL means you need a
Palomar scope just to see them at age 61,
so we chose something we could both see...that grouping of 5 or 6
galaxies just 3 degrees south
of Beta Andromeda (I forget their numbers) but it's a horizontal line
of 5 or 6 elliptical galaxies in a row...very impressive as I had
never seen those before. Then 891 was next...direct viewing thru a
30...but tonight the dust lane required averted vision...still 891
stretched almost the entire length of FOV. 752 next went way beyond
the FOV. 74, 77, 33 next, nice views but I've seen them better on
better nights. Mental Note...Mira is still naked eye, and a pretty
reddish color.
By 5 am the dew was kicking in...most observers had
already called it a night...I took a quick peek at 253 low, but dawn
washed out all but the elongated core, and the 2 stars above it.
Gary was still doing 1 second integrations
on Mars for stacking purposes, and was even creating a 'movie' of Mars!
So us strickly visual guys called it a night around 5 am.

Unfortunately Sat night the wx was calling for complete overcast with
possible rain, so 95% of the observers had left the field by Sat
afternoon. When are we ever going to get 2 perfect clear new-moon
weekend nights in the NE US?? Haven't had one yet this year at CSSP.
Next weekend its off to a different location, maybe to break the weather
pattern, Hearts Content (where ever that is...it was John's idea)
down in the Allegheny National Forest with the Mays, John O'Hara, and
anyone else wishing to join us on Aug. 1, 2.
Clear Skies,
Tom Whiting
Erie, PA