The drive there was pretty uneventful. Traffic was nice and light at this hour and I had just added new movie soundtracks to my iTouch. Blasting the music while driving is definately recommended as I got pumped just listening to my playlist. My new fave new tracks include Transformer Prime and the new Batman Rises theme song. Got to love Brian Tyler and Hans Zimmer!!! Music really makes for a good companion whilst driving on the road and flying solo. I was in pretty high spirits, right up to when I got closer to my exit. Where did all this fog come from!!!!!! OMG I was freaking out. I had to get gas and a drink so I stopped at my usual gas station. But man oh man was the fog was thick. As I filled my car up, thoughts were racing through my head...should I turn back, should I head to Malibu, should I just give up and go home? Thankfully I decided to press on. As I drove towards the summit, the fog lifted. Whew. I ended up pulling over at the very same spot Terry and I found the last time we were there. I did not feel like driving all the way up to the summit. This was a much shorter drive, plus I get a un-obscured views of the southern sky. No pine trees to block my view!!!!! The only drawback to this site is the frequent passing cars and their pesky headlights. Well I was just glad to be out there ;)
First order of the night for me was testing out the new GOTO scope and to see if I can get the DSI to work with it. After unpacking the car (in a hurry too as I was keen to get stuff underway). Got the dob out first and checked its collimation. Then turned on my wifey's PC laptop, unpacked and set up the NexStar, connected the handset and the battery pack. This is when the frustration started to kick in. Did the two star alignment, as usual. NexStar read alignment success. Used the GOTO....big FAIL. It was slewing to the wrong spot every time. I realigned the GOTO, selecting different alignment stars this time.....NexStar read alignment fail. Tried auto two star alignment...FAIL, 3 star alignment FAIL. Dammit. At this point I was getting really pissed off. I have read that the batteries had to be fresh to get he GOTO to work properly. Since I had done about 2 1/2 hours on the 8 Duracell AA batteries, I figure it would still have some way to go (some sites on the internet state that 8 AA batteries can last up to 10 hours...I was being more conservative and cut that time in a half). Well that was not the case. Looking back I was wondering if the cold had anything to do with this. It was cold that night. Got down to about 0 degrees Celcius! Will have to test the batteries again when I get home to a warmer climate!
Not wanting to waste anymore time (the center of our milky way was long gone by then, even when I pulled up to the observing site ), I decided to do what I do best, manual star-hopping and visual observing. I was keen to at least sketch one new object tonight, and check out some other DSO's that I have not seen for a while (or not at all). Got good views of the usual suspects. Started off with a tour of the summer planetaries. First stop was M57, the ring nebula. Then turned to M27, the dumbbell nebula. With the 10" extra resolving power, I got excellent views of NGC 6826, the blinking planetary in Cygnus. Internal detail easily visible at 208x with the 6mm Radian. Also looked at M76, the little dumbbell in Perseus, a bipolar planetary. It is interesting to note that from a lower elevation, the DGM NPB filter made these nebulae stand out better. This was the same case for the Veil Nebula in Cygnus and the Helix Nebula in Aquarius. Speaking of the Helix Nebula, this is the first time I am seeing it from northern skies, and with my 10" no less. The views were pretty spiffy, with whispy detail visible in the nebula with the NPB filter in place.
Also looked at some pretty open clusters, the most outstanding being the double cluster in Perseus and M45, the Pleiades. Scrutinized some galaxies too, such larger galaxies as M31/32, the Andromeda Galaxy, M33, the great spiral in Triangulum, M76 in Pisces, M77 and its surrounds in Cetus and finally, I looked at NGC 253, the Silver Coin galaxy in Sculptor. This remains my fave southern galaxy after the LMC and SMC. The views were heaps better from dark skies. Mottling was very evident in the 10" and the spiral structure was evident (not as evident as from oz, but heaps better than from say Malibu). Wanted to give NGC 55 in Sculptor a go, but this was hidden behind a hill when I went for it. Oh and yes I sketched NGC 772 in Aries the ram. Not much detail visible.
As the night progressed, it got colder and colder. The wind chill did not help either. I was getting chilled to the bone and the winds keep up its buffeting of my monks hood. I was kinda glad the GOTO did not work. It would have been impossible to keep the images from jumping around. Ended the night....and my Pinos run for 2012 with a gorgeous view of M42, the great nebula in Orion. Never get tired of looking at its green/subtle pastle colored visage at low mag in the 10". I actually prefer the views of M42 from a dark sky site without the NPB filter screwed in. My plans for the next few months would probably be focused on getting some imaging down from my light polluted playground as I attempt to master my GOTO scope and Meade DSI CCD camera. I might take an occasional trip out to Malibu but we will see what happens. The call of dark skies can be pretty hard to ignore......
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