Licked



Friday afternoon I drove to Lick Observatory to volunteer as a docent
at the Music of the Spheres program. I had been looking forward to
the evening, as the scheduled performance was by Andean flute master
Oscar Reynolds, and a lecture by Geoff Marcy of extra-solar planet
fame. The only drawback was a 77 percent moon, which would obliterate
all but the brightest of deep sky targets. However, there was also
the promise of observing from 4200 feet elevation in what are
regularly very steady skies... after the public left, and after
moonset.... so all in all, the plan was a winner.

The drive up was beautiful, as usual. About one hour of attentive but
relaxing cruising, past great mountain views, past lakes, quail
running across the roads, old twisted oaks, grazing cattle, all the
while with the domes atop the peak getting progressively larger...
then suddenly the turn toward the offices and domes of the 120" Shane, 36" Clark
refractor and 40" Nickel Ritchey-Chretien. I was the first of the
group to arrive. Marek, Jeff and Sandra would
arrive to round out the crew of telescope volunteers.

As the concert began, the flute, really Andean pipes,
took me back to the sounds of street performers in La Serena Chile, an
astronomy trip from 2005.

The night's speaker came by and spent
time looking through Marek's telescope, interested in particular in
the spectrographic eyepiece showing emission and absorption lines of
various stars. The observatory draws top notch speakers. I've
enjoyed listening to Alex Fillipenko at Lick as well.

Bottom line, volunteering as a docent at Lick has lots of benefits!

I was looking through Jeff's 12" Meade Advanced RC, at the moon.
While I enjoyed some of the detail in Clavius and Plato, I noted the
slow rolling effect the atmosphere was giving. The view looked as if
it were through a slow stream of water. Not terrible seeing, but it
would make splitting tight doubles more of a challenge.

After the public left I began observing in Cepheus, and spent much of
the night there, then in Cygnus and finally Andromeda. The first
target was Pi Cepheus, a mag 4.4 1.2 arc second double in an easy
location near the pointed top of the constellation figure. While easy to
get, this one would not split with the 7 Nagler and 2X barlow, due to
unsteadiness I assume.

Before more on what I observed, there were several double stars on my
list, and really few challenging deep sky targets, due to the moon
phase and proximity of lights from San Jose, but I did include a few.

Struve 2923 is SAO 20150, an easy double to split at mags 6.3 and 9.5,
a nice difference. They sit 9.5" apart with a yellow primary west of
its red secondary. This double is found is an easy hop within the
"hat" of Cepheus.

I moved to Struve 2883, SAO 19922 is a naked eye target at mag 5.5,
just west of the prior target, and slightly wider with an almost
opposite position angle It is a yellow primary with nearly yellow
companion to its southwest.

Six and a half degrees east southeast, outside the "hat" in Cepheus is
Omricon, a double with separation of 3.1" and mags 4.9 and 71. Nice
double, good split with 12 Nagler. Both yellow, primary is to
northeast of secondary.

Struve 457 is very easy to locate, just off the bright star in the
center of the box of Cepheus. Its very tight with 7 Nagler.
Yellow/white primary with almost violet secondary to its west. This
is SAO 20554, mags 5.0 and 7.6 with a separation of 1.3'.

Next object was Abell 75, or NGC 7076, which I decided to skip,
thinking this sky was too bright. I continued on the doubles.

Stuve 2950 is SAO 20281. I had no split with 7 Nagler. Or possible
very tight split, equal colors and mags - maybe hint of a north south
orientation, ruddy color. Mags 6.1 and 7.4 with a 1.4" separation.

Before continuing, I'll go back to the public part of the night. The
music was excellent. I could stand in the patio behind the main
building, look through the glass doors to the back of the stage, see
the audience to the left, right and in front. Oscar is an excellent
performer, on guitar, singing, and playing flute. Once the
performance ended, he came out back with his small young son, and both
looked through my 18" Dob. The little boy was looking at Epsilon
Lyra, and describing it. The entire musical group looked. Had a
great time with them.

As the other guests waited to view through the 36", they came out back
and looked through our scopes. I mostly showed Epsilon Lyra, the
Blinking Planetary (people love it when this object blinks!), M13, M3
and the Veil. Others were showing the moon, M57 and spectra of stars.
It was a bright night.

Back to what I observed after the public left...

15 Cepheus is SAO 34016, and is part of a nice chain of four stars in
a line. At mag 6.7 and 11.4 its separation is 11.1", it was an easy
split with my 12 Nagler. The primary is off white, secondary is
blue/green.

Struve 440 is easy in 12mm, primary is gold, secondary is green and to
south. Nice double. Mags 6.4 and 10.7, separation of 11.4", SAO
33443. It is an easy hop from Alpha Cephei.

A short hop south southwest is Struve 2790, an excellent double due to
the primary's redness. Secondary is blue, dim, and close to north
east. SAO 33443, mags 5.7 and 10.0, separation 3.4".

One of my favorite multiple stars in Struve 2816, close to Mu Cephei.
It has a yellow primary flanked by two white/blue companions of equal
mag. Its SAO number is 33626. What puzzled me was another double,
that had the shared Struve 2816's location, Burnham 1143. Perhaps the
dim secondary, mag 13.3, is too dim to pick out on a breezy night,
with a tighter 1.6" separation.

That turned out to be the last double of the night. It was now past
two, the moon was gone, and the next object was Abell 77, a planetary
I was not going to attempt. But I changed my mind. Its located in an
easy spot, Mu Cephei to Struve 2816 and beyond, just before SAO 33458.
I was very surprised to see it. I observed a definite smallish gray
round glow using an OIII in 12 nagler. After this, I felt encouraged
to return to Abell 75.

Abell 75, or NGC 7076, is at a very easy location, almost exactly a
degree east of Alpha Cephei. I could see it without a filter.
Putting the OIII filter in on the 12 Nagler made it easy to see,
roundish, annular,brighter on N edge. Larger than Abell 77.

I then went an a short open cluster spree. It is amazing the variety
open clusters come in. I think they are more diverse than galaxies or
planetaries. Some are very easy, others are extremely tough.

The first was NGC 7086 in the far northern reaches of Cygnus. Very
easy to identify, bright, large, perhaps 8x8, about 8 bright stars, a
dozen dimmer, then many dim stars, somewhat heart shaped. Stands out
from field.

Next was an open cluster not on my target list. Turns out, a red
star, BD +48 4070, or SAO 53088 is embedded in NGC 7686. Red, bright,
yellow/orange actually, offset in eastern portion of the cluster which
has many bright stars - it seems sparse, but has many dim members in
western portion.

I was off to the one piece of eye candy on my list, M39. Its an easy
location. Actually, it showed up well in my 10x70 finder, I could see
the individual stars in the cluster. It is a beautiful bright coarse
sparse open cluster filling up to 48 arc minutes of the field in my 20
Nagler. I'm sure I've used the term before, but this has a poor man's
Beehive feel to it. The number of bright stars is great!

I used stars in M39 to star hop to the dim cluster NGC 7067, which is
part of the Herschel 400-II list. My notes describe it as difficult,
small, seven or eight brighter stars over oval sprinkle of many dim
stars elongated east/west. Showed better in 12 than 20 Nagler. This
is frost on a window in winter.

The last object of the night was open cluster NGC 7082, also on the
Herschel 400-II. This cluster formed a nice equilateral triangle with
M39 and NGC 7067, so it too was easy to find. This entire area is
rich in open clusters. NGC 7082 is a large sparse cluster mixed in
with into Milky Way fields to its north and south. Large number of
dim background stars interspersed with a handful of brighter members
helps define it.

By now it was almost 4:30 in the morning. I was licked. This is the
latest I'd observed in a long time. Marek and Jeff remained as I
crawled into my truck for a short rest. After an hour I was back out,
sunrise glowing warmly over the dome of the Shane 120 to our east.
Jeff packed up as did I, and we headed down the mountain. It had been
a surprisingly good night.


---
Lumpy Darkness
.

Relevant Pages

  • Cepheids and their Cocoons (Forwarded)
    ... Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO ... Observatoire de Paris & CHARA Array, Mt Wilson Observatory ... Interferometry Helps Discover Envelopes Around Supergiant Stars ... discovered envelopes around three Cepheids, ...
    (sci.astro)
  • Cepheids and their Cocoons (Forwarded)
    ... Text with all links and the photos are available on the ESO ... Observatoire de Paris & CHARA Array, Mt Wilson Observatory ... Interferometry Helps Discover Envelopes Around Supergiant Stars ... discovered envelopes around three Cepheids, ...
    (sci.space.news)
  • From galaxy collisions to star birth: ISO finds the missing link (Forwarded)
    ... Data from ISO, the infrared observatory of the European Space Agency, have ... collisions excite the gas from which new stars will form. ... mechanical energy produced in the collision and transported by shock waves. ...
    (sci.astro)
  • OR: Visiting some old friends, but now armed with more aperture (umm, long)
    ... Scope Setup Notes, DSCs ... Then it's two alignments on bright stars out of a moderate database of ... this open cluster requires aperture to ... M8, Lagoon Nebula ...
    (sci.astro.amateur)
  • Circumstellar Disk Cradles Young Massive Star (Forwarded)
    ... National Astronomical Observatory of Japan ... An international group of astronomers has used the Coronagraphic Imager ... our understanding of how massive stars form. ... an image of the light's polarization shows a butterfly shape ...
    (sci.astro)