Enter the realm of the galaxies Part 1.....Saratoga Gap Deep Sky Imaging Report 14th Feb 2015

"NGC 4567/4568 Siamese Twins Virgo"

As winter gives way to spring, the weather warms up and the bright constellations of winter begin to fade into the west, while a different set of constellations emerge from the east. Winter is great for visual observing as it holds some of the brightest and most interesting DSO's (M42, the great nebula in Orion; M45, the Pleiades Cluster, and the double cluster in Perseus immediately spring to mind). That and plus the longer nights and clearer and steadier skies. Now that I have imaged most of the brighter fare, and re-imaged a lot of the more popular objects with my Meade DSI II OSC camera, it was back to the books time for me to do research on some of the other DSO's I have not imaged, which are attainable with my equipment. The advantage of imaging over visual is that a lot of the minute detail that is lost with observing with smaller apertures from less than perfect skies become an easy catch. Therefor my plan was to make a list of bright (relatively speaking!) spiral galaxies, seeing that we are now just about ready to make the hyperspace jump into the realm of galaxies. Leo, the lion rises earlier and earlier in the night and can now be comfortably observed at about 10.30 pm. The forest of galaxies in Virgo-Coma Berenices comes up a little later. By 12 midnight, most of these galaxies are high in the sky!

"M58 Virgo"

"M61 Virgo"

For this purpose, I needed a reference that had black and white images of galaxies and technical data on the objects. Maps wasn't a pre-requisite as I was going to use the GOTO on my NexStar mount anyways. The book I pulled from my DSO library was Robert Allen Thompson's Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders. This book was reviewed in my last blog so I will not go into the details. This book fulfilled all my requirements. With that I set out to make a list. I focused mostly on the constellations covered by the realm of galaxies, namely Virgo, Coma Berenices and Canes Venatici. As I had imaged some of the galaxies in this region, I had to go back and forth with my list to make sure there were no overlaps and if these galaxies have been imaged with the DSI II. My plan is to image the brighter Messier's before delving into the NGC and IC galaxies. The list I came up with for phase 1 included M58, M61, M88, M90, M91, M98, M99, M100, and at the last minute I added the Siamese Twins NGC 4567. Seeing I had just procured a brand new high capacity battery for my HP Pavillion DV2000 laptop, I have now effectively stretched my mobile imaging time by double (meaning at minimum, if the battery works as promised, I should get about 5 hours worth of imaging!). That's plenty seeing how the last battery only lasted at max 2 1/2 hours.

"M88 Coma"

"M90 Virgo"

"M91 Coma"

Fortunately for me, the GOTO worked pretty well right off the bat. I think the trick to getting your GOTO to be more spot on is to select a alignment star that is as close to your targets as possible. That is unless you are targeting objects that cover the entire sky. Thankfully that time has passed for me and I am now narrowing down my imaging window to just the Coma-Virgo region. Things progressed rather smoothy and in a little under 2 1/2 hours I had imaged all my targets, and threw in a few repetitions such as M49, that bright elliptical in Virgo; galactic smiley face M84/M86 group; as well as M60. I was a real happy camper at the end of the night. Having bagged all my objects, plus a couple of others, and even did two hours of visual observing while waiting for Virgo and Coma to rise higher in the sky. So yes the next couple of post you see from me will probably be galaxy images as I slowly, but surely, make my way through the throngs of island universe in this part of the neighborhood. Peace out!

"M98 Coma"

"M99 Coma"

"M100 Coma"

Book Reviews Part 3

Deep Sky Wonders By Sue French

This is yet another book destined to go down history as one of the compediums that is a must have for deep sky aficionados. As the title suggest, this book is a collection of articles from the deep sky column in the Sky and Telescope  magazine. You must be wondering why this book shares the same name as another Sky and Telescope publication of the same moniker. The reasons for this is simple, this book is the modern version of its older counterpart. The column used to be penned by none other than Walter "Scotty" Houston. When he passed on, the heavy burden of writing this column came to fall on the shoulders of Sue French. Fortunately for us, Sue is just as eloquent and experienced as Scotty was. Her column is one of the reasons why I still read Sky and Telescope today. Her pieces are a mix of history, astrophysics and anecdotal notes from her own observing diary, as well as quotes from other astronomers. What I particularly like about her columns is that she uses scopes of different sizes, from small refractors to large dobsonians, so she has descriptions that can be used by observers of all levels. She also includes her own sketches of some of the objects in the article. This book is split into seasons and, unfortunately is printed on glossy paper and is more suitable as a coffee table book, rather than a field guide. It is also not very thick.

Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky by Roger N Clarke

"Visual Astronomy of the Deep Sky"

One of the very hard to get classics for deep sky collectors, I recently chanced upon a reasonably priced copy on Astromart (I have seen this book go for over a $100!) and got it just in time for Christmas. The hard cover is a fairly nondescript yellow, with a black and white photo and sketch of M51. There is a reason why M51 was chosen as the cover DSO. There is a whole article on visual observing of M51, and the analysis of surface brightness versus optimum magnification for detection of minute details. This book also happens to read a whole lot like Stephen O'Meara's Deep Sky Companion Series. Indeed the format of this book is very similar to Stephen's works, with the focus mostly on visual deep sky observing and ferreting out minute details under different sky conditions and magnifications. The text is not as through as O'Meara's tomes as he does not delve into the astrophysics and lore as much. He also happened to do the bulk of his sketches from Hawaii! The meat and potatoes section of the book are the description and detailed sketches of 90 deep sky objects ranging from open clusters to galaxies and nebula. Some of the more famous objects are given star treatment, meaning they have more than one sketch to depict the effects of differing sky conditions (seeing and transparency) and magnification. Three examples of these include M42, M51 and The Veil Nebula in Cygnus. Overall a great book, and a must for collectors of all things deep sky!

Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders by Robert Bruce Thompson

"Illustrated Guide to Astronomical Wonders"

I got this book because I enjoyed Robert's book entitled Astronomy Hacks so much. That book was an excellent book for tinkerer's as it was a compilation of hacks (or shortcuts) from a variety of sources that were directly applicable to astro related gizmos (i.e. improving the smoothness of the azimuth on dobsonian bases using washers fashioned from old CD's and milk jug cutouts!). The book reviewed here is like a hack of sorts, but for visual astronomers. It has a brief intro about equipment (i.e. telescopes, eyepieces, filters), but does not delve too deeply as this topic has already been covered in his previous book. Still what's presented here is sufficiently detailed for a newbie astronomer. What is presented in this book is a rather comprehensive selection of deep sky objects arranged by constellation. While there are no sketches in the book like a lot of the other deep sky guides, this book is very complete in terms of the number of objects covered and the visual description of what can be seen in each (with garden variety 50 mm binoculars, a 50 mm finder and a 10" dobsonian, Robert's scope of choice). In terms of maps, this book has the best I have seen by far for star hoppers. Deep maps are included in the book and the objects are segregated by constellation, a format I prefer over the grouping by season which some guidebooks seem to like. A table also accompanies each constellation with the data on the objects such as the magnitude, size, celestial coordinates. Due to the sheer volume of objects, this is a rather thick book. Pros is that is is printed on rather light paper so the softcover book is rather light in comparison to some of the other books. Cons there are no color pics (but then again the black and white pics are closer to what you might actually see through your eyepiece!) and the paper is not glossy and therefore is not very suitable to be used out in the field. A great book for planning your observations!

The Urban Astronomer's Guide by Rod Mollise

"The Urban Astronomers Guide"

If the name sounds familliar, it is because this book is written by none other than Old Uncle Rod, SCT aficionado and frequent contributor to astronomy magazines. Uncle Rod also writes a weekly blog (updated every Sunday and not to be missed as his writing style is very whimsical and engaging!) and  also another book on SCT's. Here he gives us the run down on what is visible from light polluted skies, with the objects split based on the seasons. Yes urban astronomy is alive and yes you can spot quite a number of deep sky objects from your light polluted playground, quite the contrary to what most people believe! Most city and suburb bound astronomers resort to observing only double stars, open clusters and inner solar system objects. This greatly limits the number of objects to scrutinize. Uncle Rod highlight the objects visible from less than pure skies. As Uncle Rod puts it, better to observe more frequently than to hold out for that one dark sky weekend a month, that sometimes does not even materialize due to the vagaries of the weather. The convenience of being able to stroll outside, set up a scope and just observe cannot be beat. Uncle Rod encourages you to even try some grab and go astronomy on weekday nights, something that is just not possible if you had to drive an hour or more to get to the site. That way you get out more and observe more. Uncle Rod outlines what you need for a successful observing session in the suburbs. I have owned three books now on urban observing, one from Sky and Telescope and this book is by far the most comprehensive of the three. Highly recommended for urban dwellers who don't have the luxury of traveling to darker sites, and for those looking to expand their observing to include backyard astronomy. Detailed notes are accompanied by at the eyepiece sketches from Uncle Rod. Highly recommended!

Books reviews Part 2

Astronomy Magazine Presents:
"Deep Sky Observing with Small Telescopes" by David J Eicher
"The Universe From Your Backyard" by David J Eicher
"Stars and Galaxies" by David J Eicher

I am going to review all three of these books in one fell swoop as they are similar in many ways and were all published in the mid to late 80's by current Astronomy Magazine edition David J. Eicher. David has been a prolific writer and editor, and has been writing for Astronomy since as long as I can remember. He is most famous for his sketches in the early Astronomy Magazine spotlights on deep sky objects, by constellations, and also for his work on Deep Sky Magazine, still viewed by many as the definitive source for all things Deep Sky. I don't have the entire collection, but I tried to get as many of the copies as I could (some of which I got directly from David himself at Astronomy when he was selling extra copies of the magazine!) All three of the books above are collections of articles from the very pages of Astronomy magazine itself, and the now defunct Deep Sky Magazine (which is now available in its entirety in pdf format at Astronomy Magazines Online Store).

"Deep Sky Observing with Small Telescopes"

One of the books that remain as one of the most used books in my visual deep sky observing arsenal is "Deep Sky Observing with Small Telescopes". I first came across this brilliant deep sky guide in the Physical Sciences/ Engineering library at the University of Queensland while doing graduate school. I continued to renew the book over and over again for quite a while. Surprisingly no one else booked the book. I even made copies of some of the more relevant parts of the book. I now finally have a copy of this brilliant book. Got it off amazon.com for an amazingly low price. This book features excerpts from Deep Sky Magazine and basically categorizes deep sky objects by class (open cluster, globular clusters, nebulae, galaxies) and starts off with an introduction into each class. This is then followed up by detailed examples of some of the better members of their groups (complete with eyepiece impressions, black and white photos and descriptions of what you can see at the eyepiece in different sized scopes, up to 6" scopes). All of these usually end with a sampling of the harder objects in their respective classes. The book also comes with a list of objects at the end of the book that list the object's magnitude, size, celestial coordinates and short notes. The one drawback to this guide is the lack of maps, but this can be easily remedied by using this book alongside a chart, say Wil Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0.

"Astronomy Magazines: The Universe from Your Backyard "

Astronomy Magazine used to be my definitive source for visual deep sky observing when I first got into the hobby of amateur astronomy in the early 80's, simply because of one column/article, their monthly spotlight on a single constellation and all the interesting objects found in each constellations. This was a good jumping off point for me as they featured brighter (as well as sometimes dimmer) fare. The articles were pretty detailed and provided physical data on these objects (apparent magnitude, size, coordinates) in the form of a table, as well as detailed descriptions on their appearance through different apertures, color astrophoto's of these objects, as well as my absolute fave, eyepiece impressions from Dave himself. This was the main reason I hung onto all the Astronomy magazines I bought throughout the 80's and 90's. The good people at Astronomy magazine probably knew how many people were ardent fans of this column from way back. So what do they do? They compile all their monthly constellation articles into one book entitled "The Universe From Your Backyard". Now I have all the articles in one book booyah. This book does one up on the former in that it also has a simple map showing the relative positions of the objects in relation to the constellation. Unfortunately this is no longer in print and is only available now on the used market. I bagged a excellent copy on Astromart. The book does pops up from time to time on amazon.com.

"Astronomy Magazines: Stars and Galaxies"

Other than the monthly constellation spotlights, Astronomy Magazines also ran observing articles spotlighting different type of deep sky objects by type from time to time. These articles were less predictable as they were not run on a monthly basis. The advantage of these articles however were that they were written by accomplished deep sky observers. These articles usually contained a table of objects covered with physical data. Most of these were very descriptive in nature so they were extremely helpful. Objects covered including observing the local galaxy group, observing galaxies with binoculars (yes it is possible!), observing the planetaries of summer. Occasionally you got articles on observing more obscure fare such as observing summer's dark nebulae. These articles were a lot harder to collect as well due to their random nature. I was so happy that Astronomy Magazine came through again and compiled and published a book featuring all these articles, entitled "Stars And Galaxies". Again this is only available on the used book market but it is worth hunting down in my opinion. A great addition to a deep sky observers library.

"Deep Sky Wonders" by Walter Scott Houston

"Deep Sky Wonders: Scotty Version"

This is one of my all time favourite deep sky books, written by the late Walter Scott Houston. There are two versions of this book now, one published in hardback and the other a paperback version. My observing buddy Andrew Durick was the one who introduced me to this book. After reading it, I knew I had to add this to my library! The book was named after the column in Sky and Telescope. Way back in the day, Scotty, as he was fondly known as used to pen a small column simply entitled Deep Sky Wonder's. It was the one column that held wonder for me as a teenager starting out in the world of amateur astronomy. This article was a like a breath of fresh air in a sea of technical articles, which comprised the old Sky And Telescope magazine. Scotty was here to teach, inspire and even challenge us as deep sky observers to push the boundaries of visual observing. His tools of the trade was a 5" binoscope. This book is a collection of his columns, that in later years blossomed into a full page article. The layout of the book is such. Unlike O'Meara's Deep Sky Companion series, the book is not split by objects, rather by seasons. Due to the nature of the columns/articles, you may sometimes see an object mentioned more than once in different articles. But Scotty always kept it fresh, infusing his articles with extra information, so the overlap was welcomed! Scotty was also not afraid to go against the norm and challenge visual observers to push the boundaries, and then write back to him if they succeeded. A fitting tribute to a great visual observer, this highly readable book is a must for visual deep sky observing enthusiast!

"Cambridge Messier Deep Sky Album" by Jack Newton

"Cambridge Deep-Sky Album"

This is one of the books I discovered whilst browsing in the Physical Sciences/Engineering library at the University of Queensland, and it was one of the books that was on constant loan by me for years. I only recently acquired a mint condition used book off amazon.com. I just had to add this to my ever growing collection of books on deep sky objects!  This "old school" hard cover book, published by Cambridge Press and authored by Jack Newton and Philip Teece would probably feel out of place and dated with all the new fangled sophisticated imaging equipment currently available. Most of the current CCD and DSLR images of deep sky objects available on the internet and in magazines now give newbies a false impression of what is actually visible at the eyepiece! Technology has come so far in that astrophoto's captured these days rival those taken by professional observatories! This is the unique part of this book. The photos taken by Jack Newton, a renowned astrophotographer, reflected the level of detail you could see in a smallish scope from dark enough skies (minus the colors of course). To me that was one of main draw cards of this book as I worked my way through all the Messier Objects with my 76mm and 150mm newtonian reflector from suburban and rural skies above Queensland, Australia. It was fun to compare my sketches with Jack's astrophoto's to see if I had detected spiral arms in a brighter galaxy, or even detecting one of the fainter ones in a star spangled starfield! The photos also had accompanying text and physical data about the objects like the size, type and apparent magnitude of the objects. What is even more helpful is that all the objects were imaged with the same gear, and they are all therefore to scale with one another, another plus. What this book will NOT do is help you starhop to the Messier's, so if that is your goal, look up Turn Left at Orion, another very highly recommended guidebook that I might add to my library someday.

"Touring the Universe with Binoculars" by Phil Harrington

"Touring the Universe Through Binoculars"

Another tour de force by veteran astronomy writer Phil Harrington of Star Ware fame, this is one of Phil's classic books. Many beginners are not aware that garden variety binoculars (i.e. 7x50 to 10x50 mm binoculars) can be used for serious observing. In fact a lot of veteran observers suggest starting with binoculars for astronomy, rather than purchasing a christmas trash telescope that comes with inadequate mounts with the consistency of a wet noodle. Phil's love for two eyed observing is very evident throughout the book. There is something to be said about observing with two eyes as opposed to monocular observing through telescopes. Sure for high powered views of planets and the moon, one needs a telescope. However the use of both eyes for observing brings with it added benefits. The comfort factor for one. Also studies have shown that there is a marked increase in how deep one can see using two eyes as opposed to one. In fact it has been shown that there is a 20% improvement. In effect, it is almost like using a larger aperture. For instance using a 80mm giant is akin to using a 100 mm telescope. I have personally compared the two side by side and I can say that the approximation is fairly accurate. The book covers over 1000 objects including inner solar system objects. If there there is a con with this book, it would have to "again" be the lack of finder charts. Its a good book for indoor observing program planning, not so much for in the field use.

So concludes part 2 of my book review. I still have several other deep sky observing books that I will review in upcoming blogs. Stay tuned for more....

Comet Lovejoy Q2 and the Seven Sisters, 19th of Jan 2015

On the 18th and 19th of January, Comet Lovejoy Q2, at its brightest at magnitude 3.5, passed very close to the picturesque Pleiades Cluster (M45), also known as the seven sisters, in the constellation of Taurus. Since the skies were clear from San Jose I though I head out and shoot the comet with my Kodak Z990 bridge camera operating at ISO 1600 f/2.8 on my Orion Paragon HD-F2 photo tripod. With its backlit CMOS chip, I usually get fairly decent shots at the lower end of the zoom range. Even when focused at infinity, the camera sometimes has problems focusing on dim stars. With that in mind I went with the lower end of the zoom range and took 8x16 second shots with the 10 second timer to eliminate camera shake. The images were then resized in photoshop, stacked in MaxIM DL and processed in PS. Here are the results...enjoy..

"Comet Lovejoy Q2 is the fuzzy green object to right side of M45, slightly lower than the seven sisters" 

Saratoga Gap Equipment Testing-Observing-Imaging Run 23rd Jan 2015

My second trip to the new semi dark rural sky at the Saratoga Gap site since moving up north from Los Angeles. I am still getting used to not being in such a bustling area such as LosAngeles-Santa Monica-Malibu. It really is quite quiet up here, which I guess is a good thing for nature lovers (not much else to do up here too). I noticed that they have a much better lighting ordinance here in San Jose, with full cutoff light shields on lights, as well as the use of low pressure sodium (LPS) lamps. as they only emit in one single color at a very narrow wavelength, that are easily filtered out by light pollution filters. As such I had more success using my light pollution filters for imaging here than in LA. The presence of Mount Hamilton's Lick Observatory that overlooks the city of San Jose is the main driving force behind good lighting. This is an excellent summary of the effect of good lighting in San Jose.

"M108 in Ursa Major" 

Anyways my plans for this session was mostly to do some visual observing, just to chillax and enjoy the night sky. I also had plans to try out some new gear that I had just acquired from Orion Telescopes, now only a stone throws from where I live (READ: dangerous lol). I had with me my usual imaging rig, 70mm Celestron Travelscope and NexStar GOTO mount with the Meade DSI II/laptop combo, the 102GT refractor OTA, as well as my C8 with 2" diagonal and the all new Orion VersaGo III Alt-Az mount and Orion 2" 42mm DeepView eyepiece. The reasons for the purchase of the 42mm Deep View was two fold. Firstly I wanted wider and lower powered views in my C8 as it has a very long focal length (2000mm f/l). My lowest powered eyepiece up till now has been my Meade 24.5mm SWA which gives a magnification of 81x, much too high for the larger, sprawling objects. Secondly I had tried a focal reducer on the C8, and while that worked, I just didn't like putting more glass in the focusing train as that impacted on image brightness. Also from experimenting with different scopes, I generally found that my cheap Kellner and MA eyepieces, with fewer elements, tended to give brighter views of faint DSO than there more exotic multi element brethren. Hence I went with the 42mm DeepView 3 element eyepiece with a 50 degree of so FOV, over the 38mm SWA 70 FOV multi element eyepiece.

"M109 in Ursa Major"

The VersaGo III Alt-Az mount was not a planned purchase. I kinda found it while browsing Orion's Red Tag Sale for refurbished items. Always wanting a great deal, I called them up to see if they could deliver it to the showroom here in Cupertino so I wouldn't have to pay for needless postage. The staff at Orion were ever so courteous and made it happen. Now I am the proud owner of a nice sturdy alt-az mount. Although the weight rating had it at 18 lbs as opposed to the 20 pounds for the Vixen PortaMount, from just looking at the mount and carrying it, I could immediately tell that this mount was going to outperform the Vixen. The older PortaMount I had held the C6 f/5 newtonian very sturdily, but was left wanting with the C8 perched on top of it. Even at its lowest height, vibrations was a problem with the C8 (6 seconds or more before dying down). The weak point for me was its stamped aluminum legs. The VersaGo III, by contrast had almost 2" tubular steel legs, plus the hub where the alt-az head attaches to the tripod had a much larger circumference. Of course all these would be meaningless if the mount underperformed in the dark. I was not disappointed. At its lowest height, there was barely any vibrations at all with the C8. With a sharp rap to the side, the jiggling died down in under 2 seconds! Another plus for this mount was the accessible lock knobs (I know, I know it defeats the purpose of a simple alt-az mount). The fact that you can adjust the tension was a big plus. This feature on the PortaMount is only accessible with an allen wrench, and I found the slow north creep annoying when I used it with the C8.

"We woke by red light, a self portrait!"

The 2" barrel 42mm DeepView eyepiece also performed extremely well. No doubt that this same eyepiece would fall apart in my old fast 10" GS dob, I did not have any field distortion, pin cushioning or coma in the C8, thanks to its well corrected optics and long focal length. Also no problems with kidney beaning and the field lens was nicely recessed and not at the edge. And the views were quite expansive and plenty bright, just as I expected. Well I would probably get a much more expansive view in the 38mm SWA, but that is all relative. With this eyepiece, operating at 47x magnification, I could fit the dipper part of the Pleiades, M81/M82 and M65/M66 in one FOV. NICEEEE. Spent a good part of the night just looking at big objects such as the mentioned, M42 (the rusty hues in the outer regions were very apparent tonight!), the double cluster in Perseus, and got some nice deep views of some galaxies. M51's spiral structure was apparent tonight with averted vision, and from playing around with different magnifications, as was dark lanes in M82 and M104. Also spent a nice time galaxy hopping in the Virgo region. In fact I had so much fun just visual stargazing, I almost forgot to view the triple moon occultation of Jupiter's disc, Comet Lovejoy Q2 and my plan to image two objects (yup was planning to take it easy).

"Comet Lovejoy Q2: Can you spot its greenish glow?"

Speaking of Lovejoy, the comet has now dropped in brightness somewhat, but is still a naked eye object from my orange sky site. The coma was bright and defined, but the tail was best seen in my 50mm finder. Yup now I can say that I have seen the tail of the comet visually! Fired off a couple of shots of the comet with my Kodak backlit CMOS bridge camera on Orion Paragon HD F2 photo tripod before breaking out the imaging gear for M108 and M109, two rather bright galaxies close to the dipper in Ursa Major.  The weather started getting cold when the winds kicked in at about 1am. I then decided to pull the switch and started to pack up by 2am. Its only at about this time that the Realm of Galaxies started to climb higher into the skies. Looks like I have my work cut out for me in the next couple of months, going deep into this region......more coming up....

Stargazing down under spotlight: Cambroon nights at Ron's on the Sunny Coast, QLD, Australia

One of the many observing locations I used to frequent whilst back in oz was Ron Knight's place in Cambroon on the Sunshine Coast. Ron was always the gracious host and extended a warm welcome to all astronomers from Brisbane and beyond, via the southern astronomy forum "Ice In Space". What made this gathering special was not just the incredible observing, but also the camaraderie. Prior to observing, there was always a BBQ, as well as friendly banter, where we would get to know each other better, talk about equipment (the second, or for most the highlight of the evening) and observing. There was always a good mix of both visual and imaging astronomers, as well as the occasional monster dobsonian. Bill sometimes brought along his SDM 25" monster dob. Its interesting watching him set up his towering dob (a picture speaks a thousand words!).

Then there was Paul Russell's imaging rig, and Ron's 16" truss dob and C8, which was housed in a nice lil shed observatory. My first trip there was with Andrew Durick, my best astro buddy in oz. Then Andrew had his 12.5" truss dob and was doing purely visual observing. Back in simpler times, I also did not have the variety of scopes I had later on in my observing career. My trusty Celestron/Vixen C6 newtonian f/5 on EQ 3-2 mount, used in alt-az mode went with me everywhere. My eyepieces were housed in a yellow weather proof Pelican Case, complete with foam cutouts.

Skies at Ron's was comparable to what we got at Leyburn, which was plenty dark for hunting down those faint fuzzies. M33 and NGC 5128 were routine naked eye objects here when the skies were transparent. The only problem with his site was a higher level of moisture in the air than at arid Leyburn, causing optics to dew up, and the occasional fog bank rolling in. That was one of the creepier sights I had ever seen, observing as the fog slowly creep up from the rolling hills and covered the entire sky. It was like a living and breathing entity!!!!!!

Needless to say this is one of the places I miss most whenever I look back at those times when I used to observe from the place I called home for 11 years, Brisbane. All those friends I made under the starry southern skies will remain for life. Thanks Ron for all those good memories, be it at Cambroon, or at the two QLD Astrofest I had the pleasure of attending with you guys!

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!