I've been playing around and wanted to share some sketches. This is raw, unprocessed, just taken by my iPhone. I sometimes process them in GIMP but not on these.
8. NGC 7479 I really like this sketch in person on the paper.
Well, we will see how this goes. I am ready to start observing on a more regular basis again. With my current job and responsibilities I figure I can go out about once every other month for a night out. It will mean planning, driving out to one of a couple of dark sites depending on my goals. There are two sites that I am going to share besides my most common ones out off FR006 near Vernon Utah.
One of my new favorite spots is out in the Cedar Mountain Wilderness. It is dark here, very dark and there are a couple of spots that I go to. Here are directions to the first two spots. They are located on the western side of the Cedar Mountains.
Here is what the western side looks like. Take your pick where you want to set up but try to remember this is designated wilderness so try to stay near the road.
Go west from Salt Lake City on I-80 for about 70 miles to exit 56. This is 56 miles east of Wendover. Once off the highway, head south and reset your odometer.
2.0 miles - Turn left onto the dirt road. This is just before the gated facility. ( 12T 332388mE 4511721mN / N40° 44' 22" W112° 59' 06" )
3.4 miles - Turn right (south). There is a BLM info sign here. ( 12T 334389mE 4511091mN / N40° 44' 03" W112° 57' 41" )
9.6 miles - Stay straight. ( 12T 331615mE 4502095mN / N40° 39' 09" W112° 59' 30" )
16.1 miles - Old log cabin on the left. Continue straight. ( 12T 330619mE 4492735mN / N40° 34' 05" W113° 00' 03" )
16.8 miles - Water hole on the left, and dirt road. Keep following the Cedar Mountain Road south for about 3.5 miles. At one point look for the dirt road to the left and turn on it and follow it up. Here is a map as a guide. This goes from the water hold to where I like to observe here.
There you have it. This is where I often go now to observe. I have yet to take anyone with me to this location but it is dark, very dark, a great Bortle 2 site.
My next dark sky observing spot is out by Erickson Pass, west of the SheepRock Mountains of Utah. Here is a view of the dirt road heading up to Erickson Pass.
Here is Erickson Pass Rd and Government Creek Observing Spot:
A closer view
The other two Erickson Pass Observing Spots:
You can find these on my Jay's Astronomical Observing Locations located on this Google Map: LINK
So my next venture I believe will come on Friday, October 8th and Saturday, October 9th as I head out to one of these locations for a night or two of wonderful fall observing. I'll post more on that as those dates approach.
WARNING: There are two images of a doe's eaten head in this entry. If that upsets you after I describe the Crab Nebula or Messier 1 don't go farther.
Well it has been a long time indeed! I am still observing but I have modified what I do. Due to work, volunteering and family obligations I don't get out as often. It is nearly impossible for me to take a day off during the week unless students and teachers are off. So I tend now to get out about every other month or so and observe.
In October I was able to get out and do some observing at my observing site on the Forest Land in Vernon Utah. The drive out as always was the transition for me, leaving the cares of this day to day world for a night free from it, focused only on nature and the wonderful sky above.
Arriving on the dirt roads leading out to what I now call FR 006 Cattle Guard, the sunset was amazing!
As you can see these were wonderful shots of the setting sun lighting up the evening sky in Utah's West Desert.
Arriving on the spot as twilight was arriving, I found a place to set up, and another observer was already there. The observer had asked for my help in collimating their 18" Obsession. After setting up my 17.5" and collimating it and aligning the finder, telrad and eyepiece I waited for night fall. The typical transition from night to day occurred. The coyotes came out howling in the distance. A couple of owls flew by beginning their nightly hunt. Nighthawk birds began to welcome the night as well. Then at that magical point, a wonderful calm and silence fell. I love this time of night!
I enjoyed this transition by eating a healthy snack. Oh, I have lost over 100 lbs since I was posting before. I eat very healthy and swim in my swim spa for an hour a day, six days a week. I had even gotten my swim in before heading out.
After darkness fell, I checked out the thin waxing crescent moon to confirm my alignment of my observing tools and the 17.5" dob was ready to go. I then tried to help the other observer to find out the collimation issues. I wanted to use my Howie Glatter Laser and would have used my Catseye collimation tools, both the best in the world for collimating but the other observer wanted to use their collimation tools. I guess that made sense since they would be observing on their own. It was also hard to do this wearing a mask. We were set up to social distance. As I looked through her eyepiece I noticed that there wasn't enough travel to focus some of her eyepieces, but in using my Pentax XW or my 22mm T4 Nagler I could get them to pinpoint focus. In the end we decided it was her eyes and she need to see her ophthalmologist.
At this point I headed over, and on my table was my Lenovo ThinkPad with SkyTools 3 up and ready to go. I began in Pegasus chasing galaxies and found the 14 I had wanted to observe. I no longer sketch every object I observe, as in planning my session I usually pick 2 or 3 objects I want to sketch, then I make detail notes on the others and enter them into Sky Tools. I took a gander at the Blue Snowball, and did my sketch but I haven't processed that sketch to share. When I do, I will update it here.
After working in Pegasus, I left and went to work observing the Helix Nebula. The Helix was easy to find and I did make a sketch of it. I used my 17.5" dob, the 22mmT4 Nagler, the 10mm Pentax XW and the 5mm Pentax XW with a Paracorr Type 2. The Helix is a Planetary Nebula. This is the fate of our own star someday. As it heats up, it will burn up its layers of Hydrogen and will ignite a Helium flash causing the Sun to expand beyond the orbit of Earth. You can read about that process here LINK Universe Today. Eventually the outer layer of the Sun will burn off, forming a planetary nebula and the core of our star, will condense to become pure carbon, or a very large crystalized diamond!
After the Helix it was getting late, so I quickly went over to M1 the Crab Nebula. The Crab Nebula is a Supernova Remnant which means the star that formed it was between 8 to 11 solar masses (or 8-11 times bigger than our Sun). When it exploded it was visible during the day on July 4 1054 by Chinese observers. The guest star of 1054 first appeared in April or May of 1054 and grew from -7 m to -4.5m which is brighter than Venus in our own sky. It is my hope that before I graduate from this life, that I get to see a Supernova in person, one bright enough to observe during the day and night, but far enough away not to damage the Earth's atmosphere.
This observation was done using the 17.5" dob, the 10mm and 5mm Pentax XW and the 22mmT4 Nagler, Paracorr Type 2 and with no filter, the UHC filter and a OIII filter. The UHC brought out the filaments and the OIII darkened the background and faded the nebula so some more detail could be teased.
Now outside of observing two things occurred this night that were of interest. One as the thin crescent moon was setting over the Sheeprock Mountains, a passenger jet flew over the top of it. I was sitting finishing my grapes and watching this. Suddenly a beam of moonlight reflected off the plan into a cone that rose from the plane up into the night sky. The more the moon set and the farther the plane got, the higher this phenomenon went. It was rather cool watching this. It went on even after the moon set and the plane continued to reflect the moonlight!
The other item occurred around 2:15 a.m. as I was done observing for the night, and ready to crawl into my Subaru Ascent to sleep for the night. Yes, I have a new Subaru to go with the ever expanding family. I LOVE the size in the back, it is now really easy to transport and with a 3 inch memory foam and an air mattress, I have plenty of room to lay out in the back and sleep as I car camp.
Anyway, I was siting and taking a drink of water when about 30 yards or so out, I began to see two green eyes looking at me. They would disappear and then reappear about 5 to 10 yards to one side. It was an animal i knew that and it was pacing. Based on experience, the only animals out at this observing site that would have green eyes would be either a cougar or a coyote. I had had a run in with a cougar at this very site about 9 years ago, but from the distance of the eyes and not coming in, I figured it had to be a coyote.
I had protection if needed but I was never worried. I asked the other observer what they saw and they confirmed it. They looked like this, but it was too dark to see a body shape.
