Malibu Strikes Back.......9th of August 2013

It has been coming for the longest time. We have been kept away for way too long. The weather has been totally uncooperative. Extended forecast have been giving us a reason to get excited for weeks, only to dash our hopes when the weekend drew nearer. This weekend was no different. Forecast were for excellent clear skies for Solstice Canyon, our primary observing site, for both Friday and Saturday night. Alas as the night approached, the weather report changed from excellent to very good (meaning that the skies were going to cloud over later in the evening). This night we took the chance and ran with it. Below is an account of our tale.....

Terry's scopes: 114 Powerseeker on Versa Go II mount and his new Meade 60mm alt az

So yes we came back to Solstice Canyon. Were the skies clear? Check. Did we get some visual observing? Check. Did the skies fog over? Check. So how was the session? I think there was a mutual agreement between Terry, my observing buddy and me that we were just glad to be back at our old observing spot. Solstice Canyon in Malibu does not have the darkest of skies. For that one has to drive to up to Mount Pinos. What we do like about Malibu is its closeness, and its solitude. Unlike Pinos, we don't have to content with other fellow astronomers, or hikers (and their stupid lights). One also somehow also feels closer to nature as you can hear the mighty Pacific Ocean roar over the canyon walls. This particular site is also excellent for imaging as it offers darker skies than Culver City, and it is usually very still, unlike Pinos with its gusty winds due to its higher elevation.

Tonight we had four scopes in attendance. I had with me my Celestron Nexstar 102GT and my Orion Spaceprobe 3. Terry brought with him his current main observing scope, A long focal length Celestron  Powerseeker 114 (black tube) on his Orion Versa Go 2 alt az mount, and his newly acquired Meade 60mm alt az. I don't think we both had a very specific plan. Terry just wanted to add to his growing list of objects and to test out his new 60mm under darker skies. I wanted to re-image some of the DSO's I had done earlier under light polluted skies and to hopefully add to my growing list as well. We did accomplish some of the above mention, but not without some frustration. For one the skies were clear, but at the same time not as dark as we remembered it to be. We were discussing about this and how we have not really been to our Malibu site during summer. It could be that it really does not really get fully dark, or if it was just the particular night. I attribute its lack of darkness to particulate matter and moisture in the air. There was just too much reflected light. That extra sky luminosity caused Terry to only successfully bag one new galaxy, even though he had been hunting a greater number in Serpen's. That was frustrating for him.

I too had my own frustrations. Even though most things came together and I even got to arrive at the site earlier than normal, Murphy's Law, as usual, reared its ugly head. Firstly the GOTO mount misbehaved throughout the time we were there. It would go into some "I am going to point at zenith" death slew when I chose M11. Go figure. And after imaging only M27, yes one single object, the computer battery (which was on full charge last weekend...maybe I am not remembering things as clearly as I did) decided to die on me. It was at that point that I said stuff that, I am going to do visual astronomy and enjoy the night with my Orion SpaceProbe 3.

The only DSO I shot that night...M27, The Dumbbell Nebula in Vulpecula

So did I enjoy the night? Despite all those frustrations, I had a surprisingly enjoyable night. For one I have not been out observing with Terry much or at all in the last couple of months, mostly due to the marine layer being a permanent resident over much of the coastline. I managed to squeeze in a couple of visual observations earlier in the evening and took a peek at some of the usual fare. The only galaxy I looked at that night was M51 in Canes Venatici. I was actually planning to re-image this galaxy, but alas it was not to be. Not much detail visible in the 102GT as it was getting lower in the sky. This galaxy will probably be lost to me the next time I am out under new moon sky conditions.

Since the laptop battery died, I went into visual mode. This is a much more relaxing way to spend ones time under the stars. I observed several objects through the 102GT before its battery died. Most of these were globular's in Sagittarius. All showed some level of resolution. In order of the most stars resolved: M22, M10, M12 (all three more or less fully resolved with numerous stars strewn over the fave of the globulars). Other objects observed in the 102GT included nebulae in Sagittarius, M8, the Lagoon Nebula looked the best in the 24.5 Meade SWA (41x) with the NPB filter in place. The same was true for M20 (Trifid Nebula), M17 (Swan Nebula) and M16 (Eagle Nebula). Did manage one open cluster, M11 the Wild Duck cluster in Scutum.

The headless astronomer : This is how I hunt DSO's...with my monks hood on to cut out stray light...SpaceProbe 3

When the battery started to go all weird on me, I packed up the 102GT and started using the SpaceProbe 3 in earnest. Good thing I did. Views were gorgeous in this lil' gem of a scope. I especially like how tight the stars looked and how nice the contrast was. It made everything jump out a little better. Earlier in the night, I looked at M6 and M7, two breathtakingly beautiful southern open clusters. It was a good thing too as Scorpius goes behind the hills pretty early this time of the year.

The nebulae in Sagittarius also looked beautiful in this scope. I used the same ep as I used for the 102GT, the 24.5mm Meade SWA (28x). Due to the shorter focal length, more of M8's extended nebulosity was visible in the SpaceProbe 3, in comparison to the 102GT, which had a narrower FOV with the same ep. There is just something to be said about a nice bright nebula being framed by a dark background! M20 looked better in the 102GT, probably due to its larger aperture, but M17, the Swan and M16 the Eagle looked equally stunning in the SpaceProbe 3, in comparison to the 102GT. The other objects that looked better in the 102 GT included open cluster M11 and the globulars. However that being said, this lil scope still continues to amaze me. Resolution was clearly evident in M22, in fact with averted vision, most of the stars were resolved in this 3" scope. The other two notables included M15 in Pegasus and M2 in Aquarius. Both showed some resolution on the periphery with averted vision in the 13T6 Nagler in this scope (54x).

It was then that we started to notice the marine layer slowly creeping across from the south east. Last object for the night was M57, the ring nebula in Lyra, which was slightly pass zenith. Views were nice in the 24.5mm Meade SWA at 28x, but was heaps better in the 13T6 Nagler at 54x. The celestial doughnut showed its dark center in the 13T6 Nagler. We called it a night at slightly past 12.30am.