Blast from the past.....special dark sky report Mount Barney CSIRO trip.....24/25th May 2003

Another trip down memory lane. This report has been sitting in the back-burner for the longest time as I did not know where my Mt Barney Trip Pics went. Fortunately I located them recently while backing up more digital pics. This was one of the more memorable non astro planned trips. The skies were pitch black, making observing the southern celestial gems all the more alluring. Hope you enjoy reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it......

Special report

Viewing conditions: Excellent transparency magnitude 7 skies ; Telescope 15x70mm binocs

Observing notes:

Mt Barney Report 24/25^th of May 2003-05-26

One word sums the place up....magnificent! The scenery was breathtaking (the lodge was just beside the mountain so we got some pretty terrific views) and the walks were excellent (other than the lookout walk which was more of a climb and scramble at certain steep faces!). The skies at night were unbelievable. I did not detect any light domes from nearby towns whatsoever and the skies, I daresay, were as good if not better than Leyburn (well at least better than the last time we were there as the transparency was just awesome...NGC 5128 was routine naked eye again indicating mag 7++ skies). I am just amazed that none of the campers had any optical gear at all!

So what and how did I observe? Read on. It was great to be able to duck in and out for quick observing stints between hot chocolate and a fireplace (did 1/2 hour right before dinner, 1/2-1 hour after dinner and 2 hours after everyone had gone off to bed). Started off of course with the Canis Major-Puppis-Carina region (all those brilliant clusters and the ever awe inspiring Eta Carina nebula and its dark rifts). Got some good views of the LMC and Tarantula before it got too low (LMC looked very clumpy!). Even showed a couple of happy campers from CSIRO some lovely views of the mentioned objects (plus some description of what they were. I showed them the celestial emu as well!).

I then proceeded to satisfy my galaxy lust by surfing around the Leo-Virgo-Canes Venatici-Coma Berenices region (I love my 15x70's on the fluid head tripod...so easy just cruising around). Started with the easy obvious ones in Leo like NGC 2903, the M105/96/95 trio (M96 looked most obvious!) and M65/66/NGC 3628 (M66 the most obvious while NGC 3628 appearing as a ghostly streak of light). Then surfed around the Markarian chain in Virgo (the M60/59 and the M84/86 pair the most obvious followed by large M49 and M87...intersperced with some faint ones like M58 and M90). It is interesting to note that I can now routinely detect all the Messiers in this region of the sky (from a dark sky site of course). Then onto Canes Venatici and Coma where I bagged M94 (the Croc's Eye...very bright ball of light), M63 (the Sunflower...not that impressive. Looked small probably as a result of not being able to detect its outer spiral arms) and M51 the Whirlpool (this was a first for me in this binocs...very nice view of two distinct objects and quite large too. Thought I could detect a starlike core). Then surfed on over to Coma where I looked at NGC 4565 (small but spindle shape was quite apparent), M64 the Blackeye (very distinct, large and bright galaxy) and M100. Finished off this quick session with a tough object that I finally managed to see (with much difficulty), the Leo 1 dwarf galaxy (very large and faint!).

The next short stint saw me looking at Omega (again I detected some faint pinpricks across its face), NGC 5128 (though I could see the dust lane..might have been dreaming) and NGC 4945 (nice fat silver streak not unlike NGC 4565 and NGC 3628) in Centaurus. Then some globs like NGC 6397 in Ara, NGC 4833 in Musca and NGC 6752 in Pavo. Also cruised around Sagittarius and Scorpius and looked at some old and familiar object which I scrutinized in better detail in the last observing stint. The usual globs in that region (M22 looked like it was going to resolve too with some prinpricks off to the side) and of course the small Sagittarius cloud, M8 the Lagoon (very large extent of nebulosity), M20 the Trifid (thought I could detect the dark lanes and the northern reflection portion was plainly visible), M17 the Swan (nice swan shape with extensions) and M16 the Eagle nebula (nebulosity also plainly visible).

The final stint was the longest. Scrutinized Corvus, M104 the Sombrero and surprisingly, I detected the ring tail galaxies (NGC 4038/39 appearing as a very faint and small smudge of light). Another first! M83 in Hydra was also very bright with a well defined core (sorry could not detect its spiral arms). Had a look at the globs in Hercules (M92 and M13), M27 the Dumbbell in Vulpecula (looking even better than I remember in my 3" scope from suburbia). I also was able to see NGC 6744 (rather large galaxy this one) in Pavo. But the feather in the hat for the night would have been the detection of the dwarf galaxies, Leo 1 (mentioned earlier) and Banard's Galaxy (NGC 6822) in Sagittarius with NGC 6822 being the more obvious and easier of the two. Both required keen averted vision (though I noted that Banard's was also possible with direct vision if one knew where to look) and hyperventilation!

And there you have it, my observing report from Mount Barney!