November 7th - 8th Observing 10:45 pm to 2:30 am

 Well I got out. I had to wait for the moon to sink but I spent that time looking at some doubles and some Messier eye candy which was nice. I also just sat back on my observing chair and for about 40 minutes just took in the sky naked eye. 

Sitting there looking up, relaxing and listening to the night around me brought to me such a peace and serenity that I usually only get one other place. However, I remembered this night why I love observing so much. It reminds me how insignificant I am when compared to all that is out there. Observing reminds me of the cycle of birth, life, death and renewing. Nothing goes to waste in the universe. It really recycles on a constant basic. Elements are created, used and often recalibrated into something new. This reminds me of our own journey. It isn't about ever arriving, but about enjoying the experiences and lessons that life brings to us, both good and hard. It is for our own experience and experiencing life allows us to be involved in life. 

I also felt connected again to the universe and the world around me. Night birds swooshed by at times, seeking food as they lived their nocturnal lives. Coyotes yelped and howled at times, as they went about doing their role as scavengers and hunters. There is a peace at night that I feel out in the desert mountains alone. I have been asked if I ever fear going out alone now. Nope. I have protection in various ways but I feel such a peace and calm that no, I don't worry. I did enjoy the days when I had a few select and good friends go observing with me so when we took breaks, we could compare notes and even views on some objects. I also though enjoy being alone and can go either way now. 

This night found me settling at my old friend and site, Forest Road 006, Top of the World. You can see that site from an early post this week. As I set up the 17.5, Star Catcher and waited for both the mirror to accumulate and for the moon to work it's way down, I collimated using my Howie Glatter collimation tools. I then aligned my telrad, my finderscope and my eyepieces. One of these days I need to really sit down and come up with a quicker way to align my finderscope and Telrad. 

So about 10:45 I started observing and I also started sketching. Here are my sketches. Some of these I really like, some show it has been awhile. It is starting to come back though and that feels good. No particular order to the sketches. Each observation used a Type II Paracorr. 

NGC 7009 the Saturn Nebula, a planetary nebula. 

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OIII and Narrowband filters

NGC 7479 Spiral Galaxy in Pegasus

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

NGC 7354 a PN in Cephus

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OII and NB filters

NGC 7331 the Deerlick Galaxy 

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

NGC 7293 the Helix Nebula

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OIII and NB Filters 

NGC 6905 The Blue Flash Planetary Nebula

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OIII filter 

NGC 6765 PN in Lyra

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OIII filter 

Note: some of the pastel chalk came off on this sketch. 

Messier 74 

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

Messier 64 the Blackeye Galaxy 

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

Messier 33 in Triangulum

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

30mm Pentax XW10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

One of my favorites of the sketches that night.  

Jones 1 Planetary Nebula in Perseus 

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OIII filter and NB filter

Another sketch that I felt really captured the view of this faint planetary. Filters helped a lot though the 17.5 did pick it up without a filter. 

IC 5217 in Lacerta

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm Pentax XW

OIII filter 

Cassiopeia A SN remnant in Cassiopeia. 

FR 006 Top of the World 

Antoniadi II

Transparency: 6 

17.5 f 4.4 

22mm Nagler T4

10mm & 7mm & 5mm Pentax XW

OIII filter 

Really nailed this one with a hint of the southern arc. Great night and could see brighter elements/filaments this night! 

It was a wonderful experience to be out, finding, star hopping and observing again. It got down to 18 degrees F this night but with my layers and hunting bibs and parka, I never got cold! It's funny. 10 years ago I loved the cold and hated the heat. My body has flipped and now I can get cold easy and long for warmth. I was plenty warm this night! 

Overall I am happy with some of my sketching and others show I need to practice again. As always I prefer the actual sketches verses the image of them. It is nice now to use my iPhone and take the pictures adjusted the image both before the shot and tweaking after the photo right there on the iPhone. That is perhaps the biggest change for me. I guess I need to improve on my editing skills. 

What I do like and prefer about this method is it shows my unven stars. I need to practice making stars again. Then again, in some ways I prefer that the stars are not always perfectly round. Shows that a human made them with his many imperfections! I'll improve as I start doing more sketches now. 

The Importance of Seeing and Transparency with Deep Sky Observing

 I'm going to quote from the Astronomical League's page which I link below: 

Quote

Seeing and Transparency are values that an observer uses to compare the quality of the sky from night to night.  The values are very specific to an individual observer’s visual acuity.  Seeing is a measure of how stable the sky is.  Transparency is a measure of how clear the sky is. Most of the Astronomical League’s Observing Programs require the observer to evaluate these conditions for each observation and to record them in their observation log.

This topic has come up over at CloudyNights and I want to share my view on both seeing and transparency. Both for me play a key part in what DSO objects I go after during an observing session. I'll being by sharing a quote from the Astronomical Leagues Website on Seeing and Transparency (LINK is below): 

"Seeing and Transparency are values that an observer uses to compare the quality of the sky from night to night.  The values are very specific to an individual observer’s visual acuity.  Seeing is a measure of how stable the sky is.  Transparency is a measure of how clear the sky is. Most of the Astronomical League’s Observing Programs require the observer to evaluate these conditions for each observation and to record them in their observation log."

A key take away is that the values are very specific to each of us who observe. If I have friends that I observe with and know and trust their knowledge, I usually try to compare our notes and thoughts on these two conditions. It allows me to determine my bias and to give a more accurate appraisal of the sky that night. Anyway, for the following is so important when I observe: 

I have and continue to note seeing conditions using the Antoniadi Scale. I like it and it gives me a view of how good the conditions are. Here is the break down for that scale:

(I.) Perfect seeing, without a quiver.
(II.) Slight quivering of the image with moments of calm lasting several seconds.
(III.) Moderate seeing with larger air tremors that blur the image.
(IV.) Poor seeing, constant troublesome undulations of the image.
(V.) Very bad seeing, hardly stable enough to allow a rough sketch to be made.

When I go for faint objects, aperture always helps, but I like to push the limits of my scopes to see what I can see. At 59 1/2 now, my eyes are starting to get older but so far no floaters or any problems and I feel the 25 years plus of experience observing aides me greatly when I observe. Experience and pushing yourself to see what you can see is a fun part of the hobby for me. 

However, when I observe, I do look at the seeing and transparency to determine if I need to adjust my observing for that evening, or at least until conditions improve. Transparency is how clear it is and I usually determine that at the site I am at. Both FR006 sites and Top View off of the Pony Express Road are up in elevation and avoid the inversion of the valley floors around them. Thus I usually can count on good transparency from these sites unless in the winter, we have inversion hit. Then FR006 Top of the World is the site I go to as long as it is accessible because it is higher up and avoids the inversion. 

It is why for me here in northern Utah, I love fall and winter to observe. Fall usually brings (at least in the past) stable air and good viewing. Fall storms clear out the muck and smoke and the seeing and transparency are the best in that season. In winter I love it here because if we have a storm come through, 2-3 days after that the sky becomes so calm and stable and inversion hasn't happen yet. I can really go deep in those nights! Spring brings a lot of unstable air as the jet stream seems to usually stick over us and doesn't make for good seeing, though transparency usually is quite good unless we hit a long stretch of high pressure which will bring inversion to the valley's. Key here is to get above that inversion to observe and I can and do.   Summer is the hardest. Transparency is greatly impacted by so much and seeing, well, it can come and go. I think for me in summer I struggle more here because the transparency gets so bad as smoke from western wild fires build up in the atmosphere impacting observing. 

So an important part of observing IS knowing the seeing and transparency of the site you are using. Also, stay away from valley floors as gunk will collect there. Get up and the higher the better. I hope this helps each of us to remember the value of these when we are observing and if we go after a faint object, and conditions are not ideal, remember it may not be you or your skill, it simply could be the conditions that night are not right to observe that object. Don't give up, try again when seeing and transparency are improved!