Telescope Reviews: Pacific NW Mt St Helens EternaThread Pt 6

Ram, your Whirlpool image is a revelation -- I don't recall seeing the arms coming off NGC 5195 before. And I think I can (barely) see a halo around the entire M51/5195 complex, which I've never seen before.

I was very impressed with the Umptanum site as an observing location. The ridgeline to the south blocks the brightest part of Yakima's light dome, although when periods of haze came through it was still pretty bright; same situation to the north, with Ellensburg. The south ridge still permits fairly low viewing, if sky conditions permit. Even with the light domes north and south, it was a significantly darker site than I know of on the west side, and only a couple of hours from Tacoma. High in the sky it's quite dark.

If you go there, I recommend setting up in the area to the left of the short entrance road. If a guy goes to the right, there's more shelter from highway headlights but there's a floodlight on a pumphouse or outhouse or something, that impacts night vision. The setup area is compact crushed rock and dirt. OK to set up on but I recommend a tarp to keep things clean.

Emery set up to the right of entrance road and later came down and joined us at the dark end.

I was brutally reminded that it's a lousy idea for me to set up after dark. It probably took me twice as long to get my gear operational as it would in some daylight. Also, especially in winter, temperature was dropping so fast that, even with the fan going, starting that late took quite a while for my optics to cool to ambient temperature. . . not that I mind recliner/binoc time. So the take-away lesson for me is that I don't even *think* about going back to that place unless I can take the afternoon off for travel and setup. Fortunately, road conditions weren't a factor. It was bare and dry on both sides of Snoqualmie (hear me, Stacy?

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Ram was joined by an imaging buddy, Andy, who was a very enjoyable star time companion. I hope to see him again. He seemed enthused about the June Pixieland party. Mentioning him reminds me of an astonishing thing he told me: he doesn't own an eyepiece!

Apparently imagers suffer from photon phobia; the guy has a nice scope and doesn't look through it! Maybe never has! I just don't understand. OTHOH, they doubtless think I'm nuts.

Late -- I wasn't watching a clock -- after some early haze had departed and everything was running smooth, I enjoyed my favorite view of the trip, the Cocoon Galaxy, NGC 4490 & 4485, in Canes Venatici. I learned about it through a Sue French column in S & T a month or two ago. It's two interacting galaxies, post-collision or near-miss. Both are stretched out by their gravitational pull, and the smaller of the two is pulled into pieces by the gravity of the larger. It was an incredible, highly detailed view, which I will revisit and highly recommend. Ram or Andy or both overcame their photon phobia and audibly gasped when looking at it, and said he/they would take a shot at imaging it in the future.

This was the first time I've used the Mini iPad + Sky Safari at a telescope eyepiece. It met my highest hopes. The unit is a convenient size to hold in one hand while handling the scope. I spent a fair amount of time doing just that in the Markarian Chain and nearby components. And the hard case I bought for it came in handy when I dropped it once while in the recliner.

So in summary, it was a great outing and I hope to repeat it, as soon as "the stars align."