Date: Thu, 06 Apr 2000 14:47:31 -0400 From: Dave Mitsky <djm28@psu.edu> To: "spider@seds.org" <spider@seds.org> Subject: Marathoning at Cherry Springs Date: 2000/3/31 Location: Cherry Springs State Park, Potter County, PA, USA Telescopes: 80mm f/5 Orion ShortTube refractor, 12.5" f/4.8 Starsplitter Compact Dobnewt Oculars: 2" 32mm Meade SWA, 30mm Celestron Ultima, 19mm Tele Vue Panoptic, 12mm Tele Vue Nagler type 2, 8mm Tele Vue Radian, 7mm Tele Vue Nagler type 1 After a nearly four hour drive I had my first taste (my cherry taste so to speak) of the dark skies of Cherry Springs State Park in Potter County, Pennsylvania on Friday, March 31st. The limiting magnitude was a bit better than 6.5; the transparency and seeing were very good but not quite superb. My only complaint, a minor one mind you, regarding the site was that the observing area is just not far enough removed from Route 44 and there are two lights, now equipped with Hubbell Sky Caps, at the airfield just across from the road from the park entrance. Although I got a bit of a late start and missed M74, M77, M33, and M110, and later a few of the spring and some of the late summer and fall Messiers I nevertheless managed to log 92 Messier objects using just the Telrad on my 12.5" Starsplitter and the 6x30 finder on my Orion ShortTube 80 to locate them. The ShortTube again performed very well as a deep-sky scope, displaying rather dim objects such as M1, NGC 2158, and some of the Virgo Cluster galaxies quite nicely. I logged 45 M objects with the ShortTube using the 30mm Ultima, 19mm Panoptic, 8mm Radian, and 7mm Nagler. There were four other observers present. Gary Honis, who coordinated the session via e-mail, brought his high tech 20" GOTO Starmaster Dob and a 10" Meade LX200 SCT for CCD imaging. Dave Barrett, who works for Pocono Mountain Optics, had his wonderful 24" Tectron Dob. "Stosh" took astrophotos through his 6" Astro-Physics refractor. Wayne Natitus worked the Messiers with his Celestron Celestar 8 Deluxe SCT. The demands of doing a Messier marathon did detract somewhat from enjoying the full potential of what is perhaps the darkest site in Pennsylvania. However, during the course of the night I did have the opportunity to see the Horsehead Nebula (B33), Hubble's Variable Nebula (NGC 2261), the Owl Nebula (M97), Seyfert's Sextet (NGC 6027 and NGC 6207 A-E) and several other galaxy clusters*, and the eastern segment of the Veil Nebula (NGC 6992) through Dave's 24 incher. And the views of M51 (the Whirlpool Galaxy), M64 (the Blackeye Galaxy), M82 (the Cigar Galaxy), M99 (the Pinwheel Galaxy #3), M104 (the Sombrero Galaxy), M106, NGC 2903, NGC 4565, NGC 4631 (the Whale Galaxy), NGG 4762, and other spring galaxies were among the best I've ever had. Gary's scope was no slouch either, especially when he had his Tele Vue binoviewer in place. M13 was truly awesome through the binoviewer and twin 18mm Meade SWA eyepieces. Because I was intent on marathoning I missed seeing the Antennae (NGC 4038/9), the Siamese Twins (NGC 4567 and NGC 4568), the Mice (NGC 4676), and other cosmic goodies through Dave and Gary's scopes. Gary owns quite a few eyepieces and was good enough to lend me his 30mm Wide Scan II and 35mm Panoptic for comparison. Although I never tried the 84 degree apparent field of view Wide Scan II that I owned briefly in my 12.5" f/4.8, the astigmatism was just as bad as I had imagined it would be (based on my Wide Scan's performance in an f/6.5 Cave Newtonian) when Gary's ocular was in my focuser. However, the 1.6 degree true field of view was impressive for a 12.5" telescope and the Leo Trio (M65, M66, and NGC 3628), or Triplet as you will, was framed perfectly through the Starsplitter at 51x. The 35mm Panoptic was overwhelmingly better in field edge performance than the Wide Scan II, but the difference between the Panoptic and my "finder" eyepiece, a 32mm Meade SWA, was not so pronounced. The temperature dropped to 17 degrees Fahrenheit, as measured by the external temperature sensor on Gary's Starmaster, but the air was so calm and dry that I was, for the most part, quite comfortable throughout the night in my five layers of clothing. In fact, most of the time I didn't even wear my gloves. Unfortunately, the weather forecast for Saturday night was not promising. So after a morning and afternoon of good food and conversation our intrepid band of astronomers left God's Country. A few of Gary's converted Quickcam VC CCD images from Friday night can be seen at http://members.tripod.com/~ghonis/. See http://www.cpo.homepad.com/ for information on the Black Forest Star Party 2000 in September. Be sure to have a look at the great Milky Way shot by "Stosh". Dave Mitsky AELC, ASH, DVAA * Jim Shields has created a great list of interesting galaxy clusters that can be found at http://redshift.home.pipeline.com/agctable.htm.