I was stoked...and I mean stoked! Have not been out under dark, transparent skies in more than a year. Given our huge move from the southern skies in Brisbane, Australia to its northern counterpart in Los Angeles, California, the birth of our firstborn, my lil angel in June, I guess I can be excused for not being able to get out a whole heap sooner. Now I have checked out some of the northern sights that I have been itching to see, but under less than dark suburban skies. So this was a treat for me. I initially had apprehensions going there by myself, but as it turned out, my fears were unfounded. I met some wonderful and friendly neighbourhood SoCal astronomers :) And the site, Mount Pinos was every bit as good as my southern dark sky site in Leyburn, save maybe the tall pine trees that obscured much of the southern horizon...well they pretty much obscured all horizons. Was also worried about the temperatures this time of the year as it got down to below freezing the weekend before, and the weekend after I went. As it turns out, Pinos really is that cold at night. Imagine my surprise seeing snow on my drive up. Yup there was still snow up on Mount Pinos....in early May! Oh well.
Arrived at the parking lot in Pinos relatively early as I was worried the area used by a whole heap of astronomers in summer would be there. As it turned out, I was the first one there (most people started pulling up at 6pm...and there weren't even that many of them 5 groups to be precise, some of them campers and only one serious amateur). Scopes in attendance included a Meade 12" goto SCT, a 5" Celestron Nexstar goto and a 8" Orion SkyQuest dob. Since I got there early, and I had never been to Pinos, I decided to do some bushwalking to the summit of Mount Pinos, which was only about a 2 mile walk one way. Needless to say it did not take me very long to walk to the summit. The views were breathtaking. The walk up was okay. Had to stomp my way through some pretty thick snow (and got my hiking boots wet in the process). It was not as cold as I thought it would be (I only had a single thermal layer on and a long sleeve tee and jeans!). Saw some chipmunks and squirrels on the way up. Totally worth the walk up.
Astronomical twilight only descended on us closer to 9pm. We kept ourselves busy looking at the rather new moon (took some afocal shots but my steady pix mount kept unscrewing itself...sheesh!) and Saturn. I only had with me my C6 f/5, my 20x80's on my Orion Paragon tripod and my 76mm Celestron Firstscope (first maiden dark sky voyage for the baby dob, which I used on my car boot and bonnet ;) Once the skies got dark enough, I pushed forward onto the realm of Ursa Major's galaxies. This is one of the constellation that was too far south in good old oz to explore. Galaxies galore...and big and bright ones too. First stop M81, Bode's galaxy and M82. I have seen this pair of galaxies from suburbia, but the views from Pinos were heaps better. M82 showed intense mottling and the dark rift down the middle. Not that much structure in M81, but I though I could make out traces of its spiral arms. Next stop M97, the owl nebula and M108. Both were easy catches as they are close to the bottom of the panhandle. At high mag I started making out traces of the dark owl eyes, with one more prominent than the other. Then it was onto more galaxies. M51 the whirlpool easily reveled its spiral arms as well as traces of the bridge in my C6, appearing much more detailed than I have ever seen, even when viewed in my 10" f/5 from oz. I guess its much higher elevation in the skies made the difference. My final stop was M101, the huge face on spiral in Ursa Major. This galaxy is an impossible catch from bright suburban locations due to its large size and low surface brightness. But it is a sight to behold under dark, transparent skies. Again spiral arms were pretty obvious in the C6.
After tackling target objects (and sketching them), I slowed down my pace and leisurely took a stroll through some of the more famillar constellations. Starting in Corvus, I revisited some old friends like M104, the sombrero galaxy (dust lane obvious at high mag), the Corvus planetary NGC4361. Moving onto Leo, I scrutinized the Leo trio M65, M66 and NGC3628, then moved onto M95, M96. This wetted my appetite for the multitude of galaxies Virgo-Coma cluster. Started my journey in Virgo, first port of call M59 and M60, and then worked my way past M87 and into the markarian chain (M84, M86, etc.). After taking some time to soak in some faint galaxy photons, I moved into the Coma area and began my tour of this region, starting with the pencil thin edge on NGC4565, appearing as a thin needle of light bisected by an even thinner dust lane. Also the black eye galaxy, M64, showed its dark eye.
Now the temperature was dropping rapidly, to the point that I started to shiver. Also as it was getting later, people started going home. David, the first astronomer I met, who owns a Meade 12" SCT, came over and we chatted a bit and we decided to look at some stuff using his goto mount. Revisited some of the galaxies I mentioned earlier. Also took a look at the cat's eye planetary (never seen this one) NGC6543. Nice envelope within envelope detail. He wasn't using a very short focal length eyepiece, but I guess SCT's have a much longer focal length so no worries there.
Now the winds that were strong earlier on seemed to be getting stronger. David was packing up and then finally left at 11.30pm. As the summer milky way was rising, I decided to stay a little longer (original plans were to stay all night...but then with the dropping temps, the howling winds, and me being there by myself...I decided to drive home that same night...not a very long drive from LA, approximately 1 1/2 hours drive). Went back to the C6 and had a good look at the globular M13 in Hercules. Propelar effect was very obvious in Dave's 12", and definately visible in my C6 too. The ring nebula (M57) in Lyra was awesome as was M27 the dumbbell nebula. These are my two absolute fave planetaries. They look good even from light polluted skies! That was when I realized there was a still another couple around. They came over and I showed them some of the sights. Started packing up the scope at 12.30am, and then used the 20x80's and the Firstscope 76 to look at the wonderful sights in the Sagittarius-Scorpius region (M6, M7, M8 the Lagoon Nebula, M17 the swan nebula and M22 the crackerjack globular). Started driving down the mountain at about 1am. All in all an excellent night. Will I be back in the summer? Most definately.......but I will be driving home ;)
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