pinnacles 6/23

First dark sky trip since October. I really needed the outing, in spite of it being a work night and a 12:30am moonrise.

I brought my low-power instruments -- a 10" f/3.7 reflector on Springsonian mount (altitude motion at eyepiece axis, so can sit and sweep horizon to zenith with 2.4° TFOV), and a brace of binoculars: 15x70 4°, 7x50 12° , and 2.1x42 28°. The mount Jamie mentioned is a home-made Sky Window or table top binocular mirror mount, which I made following plans I found online. (There is an updated design for tripod mounting, which I will make since a table may not always be available at a dark site). I made the mirror yoke adjustable, so I could keep the 4" spacing between the binocular objective and the first surface mirror -- so I could use any of my binoculars with the mount. The viewing is very comfortable, and so steady that I feel I can see further and with more detail.

The battery in my dim red LED flashlight died early in the night, and I only had my too-bright red headlamp, so I gave up note taking or referring to charts. In any case, I find it difficult to write about wide field viewing. The view is so aesthetically pleasing, so dream-like, I end up resorting to more fanciful ways of describing what I see rather than the usual Dreyer description protocol. So the following are my impressions, from memory, and not in order. Fortunately, the sky was good enough to see many dark and bright nebulae:

Barnard's E (B143, B142, & LDN 688): I returned to this several times through the night, with each of the instruments. The 10" gave the most detailed view (especially wisps of dark nebulae being blown to the east off of B143, and being able to see LDN 688 as a fairly dark forked tendril). Yet even at 2.4° the complex filled the field, so there was mostly "dark." The best view was in the 15x70s, where there were enough stars glittering around to set-off the nebula.

Region West of Alnasi (Gamma Sgr, tip of teapot spout): The is one of those views the Springsonian was made for. Enough aperture to partially resolve the two globular clusters (NGC 6528 & NGC 6522), and with enough of a field to make the Milky Way blaze and the dark nebula pop. The Milky Way in this area glows in sheets of varying intensity, rippling into the dark nebula B295. There's a small, very dark nebula to the east of NGC 6528, B298. I can't find an astrophoto to do it justice. 

Also in the Springsonian: Seeing Antares, M4, & Delta Sco in the same field, panning up to IC 4604 the Rho Ophiuchi Nebula, then over to follow the streaming flag of B44.

A random part of the sky with the 10x50s; a group of bright stars shaped like a dot-to-dot picture of a spiral galaxy. Coming upon two large dark nebula in the 15x70s in northern Cygnus. The Dumbbell Nebula in the 15x70s. All of Markarian's Chain in the Springsonian, a triangle formed by M84, M88, and M87, with more galaxies sprinkled throughout (I didn't count as I was sharing this view with our hiker guests).

Darn it, I forgot to look at the Veil!

As for the moon, I enjoyed looking at it too. I needed to move the Springsonian about ten yards since the moon was being blocked by a tree. But because I can view at horizon I could see it shortly after its rise. By now the sky was beginning to haze up, but it was great to see the moon at a different lighting angle than usual. Stayed on it for the better part of an hour before turning in.