DVAA News

In an unusual development, the Cherry Springs Star Party was completely sold out by early April.  Those who hadn't registered (myself included) were out of luck.

With Cherry Springs State Park locked out for the weekend, I decided to head up to BMVO instead.  A lot of other people - the "Cherry Springs Rejects" - apparently had the same idea.

I think I was the last to arrive, a little after 8:30.  Pulled up right beside the famous Blue Mountain Portapotty, as there were already 15-20 people on the field.   I saw Al Lamperti, Joe and Anne Lamb, and Igor, as well as a number of members of other clubs (including one guy who came over from NJ).  Frank Colosimo, our gracious BMVO host, came by to say hello as well.

Unfortunately, the thin clouds that were supposed to dissipate around 9 never really did.  Transparency was poor, although it turned out that the seeing was excellent!    Later on at night the transparency did improve a bit, although the seeing declined as well (which is often what happens - it's the opaque gunk that stabilizes the seeing).

Shortly after astronomical twilight, I tried to get a look at the Leo galaxies fading in the west, and could barely make them out with the poor transparency.   Moving over to Virgo, M84 and M86 were easy (although less apparent than they should be), but I had great difficulty making out The Eyes (NGC 4435,8).  I then decided this wasn't going to be a galaxy night, and I should concentrate on things that are high overhead.

I then went for the asteroid Pallas, which was hanging out near Arcturus, at 9th magnitude and forming an interesting "hockey stick" with two stars of similar brightness.  Pallas is inclined about 35 degrees relative to the ecliptic, so it can be found in unusual places... about 20 years ago I tracked Pallas through the Coathanger in Vulpecula / Sagitta.   To my knowledge it is the largest object in the solar system (it's the 3rd largest asteroid, slightly smaller than Vesta) aside from very dim objects in the scattered disc such as Eris, to have such a large orbital inclination.

Then I took a quick look at Jupiter, which was barely above the treeline.   It was very reddened and dim due to the haze, but even then I noticed that the seeing was excellent, with the Great Red Spot having just spun into our field of view.  Over the next few hours Jupiter got higher up, and I think we had some of the best seeing in at least a year (and probably several years).  The GRS was vivid in color, with a dark loop around its southern edge.  There was also a prominent dark region on the north equatorial belt, with a streak extending diagonally toward the equator, which is rather unusual.  The Galilean satellites were clearly resolved as discs, indicating arcsecond-level (or better) seeing (Ganymede's disc is 1.5" or slightly larger near opposition, and Europa's is about 1").  Over the next 3-4 hours, I was able to trace the GRS all the way across Jupiter's disc - it's amazing how fast that thing moves (although not really when you consider that Jupiter's rotation period is just under 10 hours).

I then spent some time looking at the usual globular clusters, taking advantage of the good seeing to bump up the power a bit - M3, M13, M92 (M13's little brother in Hercules), M5, M10, M12, a few of the dimmer ones in Ophiuchus, M56, M71, NGC 6229 (a dimmie in Hercules which is actually not bad when it's high overhead).

And then some of the brighter planetary nebulae - M57, M97, NGC 6210 in Hercules, and later on, M27, NGC 6826 in Cygnus, and NGC 6572 in Ophiuchus (although I wasn't getting the vivid green color I often do, likely due to the reduced transparency).  I tried some dimmer planetaries, but without much luck.

As always, I spent some time checking out M11, which I'd argue is the nicest open cluster in the whole sky.   I took a quick look at M17 in Sagittarius, although that was rather unimpressive.  The transparency had improved a bit by then, and M51 in Ursa Major wasn't too bad.   The Milky Way was dimly visible down the main axis of Cygnus, although normally from BMVO it would be much more distinct.

Finally, I moved on to Saturn, which was high in the south.  Saturn was nice too, although by then I think the seeing had deteriorated a bit.  (Jupiter was still good, but without as much detail as a few hours earlier). 

Oh, and it was dewy too.   A few of the Dob folks were even complaining about their secondaries dewing over.   When that happens, you know it's bad.  Any eyepiece left in the focuser more than a couple of minutes would be soaked.   Any unheated Telrad would become useless within minutes.   Refractors and SCTs... this just wasn't their night.  

By then, it was a little after 3 AM and most folks had left, so I retired to the car to sleep a couple of hours before heading home.   

I purchased an air mattress specially sized to fit in the back seat of a car (see link below).   It's not the greatest, but it isn't bad if you normally sleep on your side in more or less the fetal position (as I do).   A tent gives you more room to move around, but I can set this up in <5 minutes which is more sensible if I'm only staying one night..

https://www.amazon.com/FBSPORT-Inflatable-Mattress-Universal-Extended/dp/B01EKT08U8/ref=sr_1_1_sspa?keywords=car+air+mattress&qid=1559425018&s=gateway&sr=8-1-spons&psc=1 

I woke up around 8:30 AM to pack up and head home - a few non-DVAA folks had also stayed overnight and were packing up as well.

Jeremy