willow springs

Saturday night my friend Balint and I went to Bob Ayer's property in San Benito County, called Willow Springs 3000 (which is its elevation).  I borrowed another friend's SUV in order to make it up the 3 mile unimproved dirt road to the site.  It's a good thing, as this year's El Nino left a number of 8-12 inch deep runoff gullies in the road.  The grass and weeds were vigorous, taller than the hood of the SUV.  I missed one turnoff because it was hidden behind a wall of grass.  Bob doesn't have any cattle on the property, so it is untouched California wilderness.  It was a fun, if crazy, drive.

My allergies reacted to all the grass, and I had forgotten to take anything before going out.  I'm still feeling the effect two days later.  Because my eyelids were swollen, I had trouble reading my atlas, and had to turn my red flashlight brighter than I wanted to.  I had trouble with collimation, and finding objects was difficult -- the greater number of stars which are visible and the finer scale of the atlas take some getting used to.  Adding to these frustrations, the sky quality was poor, with thick water vapor in the air (Jupiter had a halo all night) and bands of cloud moving through.  We knew transparency wouldn't be good but went anyway, since relatively clear dark nights are few this time of year.

Balint had a good night, catching a couple dozen Messier objects, and even finding Omega Centauri around midnight.  I tried a couple MASH planetaries but did not see them, either because they are just beyond my scope in these conditions, or just beyond my scope, period.  These are all setting soon after dark now; I probably won't get another chance at them until next year.  I continued finding AL H2 and PN list objects, all of which were setting really fast -- I am behind the time on those lists.  All of this sucked the enjoyment out of the experience.  I decided we should pack up at 1am and head home.  After dropping Balint off I arrived back at 4:30am and slept on the couch.

As I review my notes I find I had a modestly good night, all things considered.  However I do need to get out, if even in the backyard, to continue working the lists -- just to take some of the pressure off myself.  Virgo is coming up and there are more than one night's session there.  I was also hoping to do another Herschel Sprint.  We'll see if the marine layer can hold off the Bay Area for a few days to let me catch up.  I'm thinking once these are done I will avoid long list projects for a while, and just plan my sessions around interesting targets which happen to be in favorable positions once I do have a chance to observe.

Here are my notes; all in the 20-inch, poor transparency but good seeing:

NGC 2139, Gx in Lepus: Fairly bright longish glow, gradually brighter in middle, N-S position angle.  Some brightening in halo to the N.  Seems to be longer than field guide suggests; W and E halo must be dimmer.  Two foreground stars at NE tip; triangle of stars to NW in field.

NGC 2170, Reflection Nebula in Mon: Fairly bright round glow of nebulosity surrounding a 8th magnitude star.  UHC gave more contrast.  Fainter star to ENE also showing some nebulosity

NGC 2182, RN in Mon: Faint, small round nebulosity around star.  Direct vision object but better with averted; UHC provides contrast.  Middle in line of 3 stars running W-E.

NGC 2196, Gx in Lep: Bright oval core and diffuse halo with hint of spiral (some darkenings / brighter streaks in halo).  An almost bar-like brightening in the core NW-SE.  Halo and core are themselves 2:1 NE-SW.  Bright and fairly large.

NGC 2236, open cluster in Mon: Comma shaped group of ~40 stars.  Bright star in center of round group.  Extension is of fainter stars and starts on west side of main group and loops south.  II2m.  Rich field.  Interesting object.

NGC 2245, RN in Monoceros: Sparse scattered group of field stars; nebulosity is fairly bright, large, irregular shape tending SW-NE.  Bright star on ENE edge of nebulosity.  UHC helped contrast to see nebula better

NGC 2252, OC in Monoceros: Extent of OC fills FOV.  Makes a shallow "Y" shape with double rows of stars forming the cross beam.  A string of stars going N-S hooks to the SW at it's tip.  With OIII shows faint nebulosity in the N-S chain, probably fringes of the nearby Rosette Nebula.  Rich field but separated; III2mn

NGC 2254, OC in Monoceros: Faint, sparse but tight group; seems mostly unresolved.  Arc of 6 stars open to east runs through the middle of the cluster.  I1m

NGC 2269, OC in Mon: Vaguely "L" shape of brighter members with unresolved stars in patches around them.  II1p.  Taller part of L pointed N.

NGC 2302, OC in Mon: Faint circlet of stars with concentration / appendage to the east.  An arc of three bright stars to the west cups the cluster.  III2m

NGC 2309, OC in Mon: Faint and small group, a dozen brighter stars with a sprinkle of stars behind.  Triangular shape pointed north.  Bright field star to NNE.  I2m

NGC 2316: Emission & Reflection nebula in Mon: Small faint glow just to north of a small, tight cluster of stars (which has a single bright star in its middle).  Nebula is brightest in the middle and is mostly round, with short faint wisps extending to the south.

NGC 2346: Planetary Nebula in Mon: Visible unfiltered as a star with irregular haze around it.  OIII loses the CS but shows a distinct apple-core (bipolar) shape orientated NNW-SSE, and a bright central core.  No connecting rims to E or W sides.

NGC 2467: EN in Puppis: Extensive greenish nebulosity in a very rich field.  Surrounds a bright star with many wisps to the S & SE.  "V" of ~14 stars pointing from W to E is Haffner 18.  OIII helps provide more contrast; panning the scope shows much of the area fogged with nebulosity

Jonckheere 900: PN in Gemini: Unfiltered appears as a small unfocussed star.  With OIII is a round, evenly bright sphere, slightly green.  No CS.  Nice!

NGC 2452, PN in Pup: Very rich field.  PN visible unfiltered as a bloated faint star, but needs OIII to see better.  Small, overall round but brighter rims on N and S make it look hourglass.  No CS; slightly green color.  OC NGC 2453 is 6' to N in FOV, very pretty.  OIII wipes out most of the stars in the field.