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Dave Mitsky
Postmaster
Reged: 04/08/02
Posts: 6114
Loc: Pennsylvania, USA
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On Friday night, I spent 90 minutes driving to a gated dark site in western Perry County that I had never before visited. After finally finding the right turnoff, I parked and began what turned out to be one long trek (approximately 0.8 mile) up the mountain in the dark. Since I knew that it was going to be a bit of a hike, I took only a 10x50 Celestron Ultima binocular. (I had thought about bringing my wife's 6" Orion Dob but trying to lug that up the trail would have been a big mistake.) Little did I know that it would turn out to be the farthest that I had ever walked to do a bit of observing.
When I finally reached the clearing, which had somewhat limited horizons due to the surrounding trees, two fellow ASH members were already observing with the small refractors they had carried up the summit. One was a 60mm Borg, the other an 80mm Stellarvue Nighthawk. Conditions were quite good but the transparency was just a bit lacking. The Milky Way was very prominent and I believe that I was catching occasional averted vision glimpses of M39 without optical aid. The North America Nebula was easy enough to see through the refractors, a Canon 12x36 image stabilized binocular equipped with nebula filters, and my 10x50s but the Pelican Nebula just wasn't quite there. The 60mm Borg and a 24mm Tele Vue Panoptic revealed the entire Veil Nebula complex. M24 and M31 looked surprisingly good through that small aperture and an 8mm Tele Ethos.
We spent the next several hours observing some 40 or more DSOs including Messier, NGC, IC, and Barnard objects. As the sky brightened from the rising Moon, it was interesting to watch the Milky Way and fainter stars begin to fade and disappear.
The walk back down the trail was not quite as bad as going uphill but seemed to take forever. As we neared the gate, I could see clouds starting to cover what little sky there was to see through the treeline. By the time I drove down the mountain and reached the highway, the sky was mostly cloudy.
Dave Mitsky
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Chance favors the prepared mind.
De gustibus non est disputandum.
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stevecoe
Reged: 04/24/04
Posts: 2114
Loc: Arizona, USA
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Dave;
My club had a "binocular night" several months ago and it was a real success. We were at a site that is only 50 miles from the city lights, so it was a mediocre site. But there is still Milky Way to see and stars to magnitude 6.0 or so.
It was a lot of fun to view some old favorites and swap binoculars with other club members as we tried mostly famous objects. Comet Holmes was still naked eye at the time and we spent half an hour or so observing it.
All in all it was a very fun evening and we all said we need to do this again. Now, we just need a night when the clouds will stay away;-(
Take Care;
Steve Coe
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150mm 6" f/8 Celestron Refractor on Sirius Mount
80mmED 3" f/7.5 Orion Refractor
Author "Deep Sky Observing" Springer-Verlag
Author "Nebulae and How to Observe Them" Springer
New Canon Xt astrocamera with Hutech modification
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Patricko
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/30/07
Posts: 716
Loc: around the corner
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Excellent report! I can't wait to get to a dark site again!
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Clear skies,
Patrick
 "Life is too short, go collect some photons!" - Me, myself, and I
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bsim
professor emeritus
Reged: 01/04/08
Posts: 675
Loc: New York City
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Quote:
My club had a "binocular night" several months ago and it was a real success. We were at a site that is only 50 miles from the city lights, so it was a mediocre site. But there is still Milky Way to see and stars to magnitude 6.0 or so.
Steve, you are truly spoiled by the dark skies of Arizona! My "dark" site is NELM 6+ with the Milky Way visible 3/4 of the way across the sky. That requires about an hour drive north of New York City.
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Teeter's 10" F/6 Truss Dob / Sky Commander DSC / Round Table Platform
Celestron C80ED / MoonLite CF Tri-Knob
William Optics ZS66, Orion XT8i, Orion XT4.5
Garrett Signature 15x70, Canon 10x30 IS, Constellation View 2.3x40 Bino
Astro-Tech Voyager, Bogen 3011 & 3036, UA MicroStar Deluxe
Howie Glatter Laser & tuBlug
13 & 8 Ethos, 35 & 24 Panoptic, Nagler 3-6 Zoom, TV 8-24 Zoom
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stevecoe
Reged: 04/24/04
Posts: 2114
Loc: Arizona, USA
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Ben, et al;
Please believe me I understand that observers in the Southwest are spoiled. Anyone who lives in NYC and gets any astronomy done has my utmost respect. Do the best you can and maybe if you get out this way someday you can go out with the folks in my club and we can enjoy some desert skies.
Enjoy;
Steve Coe
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150mm 6" f/8 Celestron Refractor on Sirius Mount
80mmED 3" f/7.5 Orion Refractor
Author "Deep Sky Observing" Springer-Verlag
Author "Nebulae and How to Observe Them" Springer
New Canon Xt astrocamera with Hutech modification
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