panoche hills

 I decided last minute yesterday afternoon to go out observing.  The forecast, while far from perfect with "average" transparency -- which usually means thick haze -- was good enough compared to all of next week's, and it seems this was the only opportunity to observe this new moon.  I decided to go to Panoche Hills BLM, which I have not visited before.

I drove down 101 to 152 over to I-5 to access Panoche Hills from the east.  I should have just taken 205 to I-5, as the driving is all highway and a lot easier, if maybe a few minutes longer.  This is the way I took coming back.  I drove past the D.A.R.C. observatory a couple miles from the entrance, where there were a couple domes and a 50-inch reflector, but also a very private owner.  The road into the hills is dirt and a little washboarded but nothing I couldn't handle.  I arrived at 5:30pm with plenty of time to set-up.

Being BLM there were some people scattered further in the Hills doing some shooting, but most were in the process of leaving.  I parked at the visitor center which has a pit toilet and is at the end of the access road, which acts like a trunk to all the side roads in the hills.  This was a mistake, since most people leaving made a pit-stop on their way out, and their trucks and cars kicked up a lot of dust.  The site is windy, so the dust clouds didn't last long -- but the wind also made the air feel colder, and I had to fully layer up by dark.  Surprisingly there are a lot of lights visible in the central valley, which can be seen from the site.  There are light domes all through the east and north (from Hollister) up to 45-degrees.  So really only zenith and the south is really dark.  It's disappointing, and means the only truly dark area left is deep in the south west of Los Padres National Forest, which is closed now due to overuse.  It makes me wonder if a big scope is worth it any more, or should I invest in night vision equipment instead?

I brought my 10-inch, but in my haste I forgot to bring a red flashlight, which meant I could not see my chart, which meant I was left to scanning about without identifying anything new, and viewing things I have already seen before.  And no note taking.  Transparency was poor, and my SQML read 20.00 after astronomical dark.  But I still saw some things:

Zodiacal light rose up from the horizon after astronomical dark, long and rather thick, nearly reaching M45.

All of M45 fit in the FOV, and I could see the bright reflection nebula sprouting from Merope NGC 1435 and surrounding Maia NGC 1432.

M31 was really good, more than filling the FOV which also contained M32 and M110.  I traced M32's glow beyond the FOV on each side, and also to the SE of it which is an IFN shelf -- I was careful to make sure the fog followed the movement of the scope, set-off from darker sky.  This is my first IFN.

M36-38-37 were all very well resolved, I would say down to their last stars.  M35 too.  

M42 of course.  Lots of texture and cloud ripples.  I tried the HBeta filter and it showed a bright plume of nebulosity which doesn't show the same with UHC or other filters.  

NGC 2024 the flame was there but a bit weak.  IC 434 also there with HBeta but I did not have a clear sense of the Horsehead -- I probably should have used more magnification

I did see the fog and vague outline of NGC 1909, the Witch Head Nebula, but it was a bit weak.  The best view I've had of this was through Kevin Ritchel's 4-inch

I also brought my 2x54 binoculars, which I like better than the Vixens.  I scanned around and could pick out brighter objects, like M41, M46 & M47.  I also noticed there's some long, broken banners of dark nebulosity running between CMa and Mon, in the area of the Seagull Nebula and generally NW-SE.  Sweeping the same area with the 10-inch, and to the SW of CMi, I noticed the extreme richness of the star fields all through this area.

I did some low horizon sweeps in Puppis, land of the open cluster, and was really pleased to come upon NGC 2477 and NGC 2451 -- large, bright overlapping clusters.

While sweeping along the horizon I noticed a line of eight lights -- which I initially thought were stars -- but must be on someone's property on a distant hillside.

Finally a look at Leo -- The triplet M65, M66, and NGC 3628 -- which is bright enough Messier should have noticed it.  Then some NGCs in Leo's rump, and M95 & M96, and Hickson 44, where I could see two of the brighter galaxies but only smudges of the other two.  What a difference aperture would have made.

At around 9:30pm the clouds to the north, which seemed to only grow slowing through the earlier part of the evening, seemed to be advancing more quickly.  Jet vapor trails stretched across the sky and lingered.  I decided to head home rather than battle a deteriorating sky and sleep on the cold hilltop.

If I go back I'll drive further in to find a more isolated spot, away from dust and lights.  It's a good place for what skies you can get.