Cottonwood report, TV76, 7/23/04

Date: Night of Friday, 23-July-2004
Location: Cottonwood Spring, Joshua Tree National Park, California
Equipment: Tele Vue 76 (3" f/6.3) refractor and Nikon 10x42 SE =
binoculars

Nice night camping and stargazing at Cottonwood. Arrived about 8pm and
setup in the upper loop. Maybe about 6 sites were occupied is all. The
skies are good but not great as a bit of monsoonal moisture is moving
in. Earlier in the week the air had been very dry. Figures it would
change by the weekend.

Caught a quick peek at Mercury just before it set. The star Regulus
was right above it. Missed seeing Mars as it must have set just before
i arrived. Higher in the sky Jupiter and its bright moons were very
symmetrical with 2 moons visible on each side of the planet. Quick
glance at the moon and then i napped a bit until after the moon had
set.

Getting up around 11:30pm i started with the comets. C/2001 Q4 NEAT
low in the NW in Ursa Major. Too low in the sky and too dim to see
much of anything. C/2003 K4 LINEAR up in Bootes is much better. Easily
visible in 10x42 binoculars. I was hoping to see a bit of tail but the
comet is competing with quite a bit of skyglow from the west. No tail
visible.

Cygnus is well placed just east of the zenith with the North American
nebula looking nice. Probably looks best with the binoculars. Through
the TV76 lots of dark knots are visible. Tried for the Pelican nebula
but even with the UHC filter it's very difficult. Don't think i can
see it with the binoculars. The Veil nebula is however visible in the
binoculars. At least the eastern portion is. Through the TV76 both
portions just fit on opposite sides of the 16mm Nagler field. With the
UHC filter contrast is much improved with interesting details visible.
Also in Cygnus is little planetary NGC 7027. Hard to tell from a star.
Even at higher powers still looks pretty much like a star. Last stop
in Cygnus is open cluster M39. Triangular shape. I think i like it
best through binoculars.

In Andromeda the "Blue Snowball" planetary NGC 7662 is bright and
star-like at 30x. With the 3-6mm Nagler zoom it looks much more like a
planet. Can't say that i can see any color however. I should try this
one from home.

Revisiting the "Pacman" nebula NGC 281. From here without UHC filter
looks about how it looked from home with the filter. But even using
the UHC i'm still not seeing the Pacman shape. Will try again later in
the night when it's higher in the sky.

Down south also revisiting NGC 7009, M73 and M72. They all look about
the same here as they did from home a couple nights ago. Sometimes i
think my home skies are better than i give them credit for. Also
tonight's conditions aren't the best. It had been dryer earlier in the
week.

Found the Helix (NGC 7293) easily without the UHC. At 30x with UHC and
averted vision can glimpse the central hole. But i think my favorite
view tonight is through the binoculars where it's easily seen as a
ghostly glowing ball floating in space.

I printed some planet charts tonight to find Neptune and Uranus.
Neptune isn't bright and definitely needs the finder chart to locate.
Even at high powers can't tell it's not a star. Uranus is much
brighter and at higher powers can see a small disk. Both planets are
visible in binoculars with Uranus even visible to the naked eye with
averted vision.

Back in Andromeda M31 is huge stretching from edge to edge in the 16mm
Nagler's 2=B0 field. Companion M32 is easy to see as is M110. Also in
Andromeda NGC 404, Mirach's Ghost, and it does look very much like an
optical "ghost" of the bright star. Best at 80x but can just glimpse
it at 30x.

North of Andromeda in Cassiopeia are three little galaxies... NGC 185,
147 and 278. 185 is fairly easy but could not see 147. Surprisingly
278 is visible. Very small, but unmistakable in the 10mm Radian at
48x.

At 2am trying the Pacman nebula again now that it's higher in the sky.
With the 16mm and UHC filter i can see the Pacman! Barely. Maybe it's
time to get that TV102!

Galaxy NGC 7331 overhead in Pegasus. I'm sort of surprised i could see
this so easily from home the other night. It doesn't seem that bright
tonight.

By 2:30am or so i'm getting a bit worn out but made quick visits to a
few Messier objects... Galaxy M33 in Triangulum is big and quite
bright. Very slightly brighter toward center otherwise no real
structure seen. The Little Dumbbell, M76, with 10mm Radian and UHC
filter almost shows it's dumbbell shape a bit. Open cluster M34
somehow doesn't look that much better here than it did from home the
other night. Either the sky just isn't very good or i'm too tired. Or
both. Galaxy M74 in Pisces isn't at all bright but it is just visible
in the binoculars. And galaxy M77 down in Cetus is really too low to
count but i did see it in the TV76.

At 3am it's getting a bit breezy so time to stop. So i put the
eyepieces away, closed up the charts, and climbed into the sleeping
bag in the open bed of the truck to fall asleep under the stars...


-Florian
Stargazing.com