Cosmic Lure: June 4th: Night Under the Stars

On June 4th, I was able to travel out to Area 62 for a fun night under the stars. I packed up Hercules (my telescope) and my camera. I left earlier than I needed to, or perhaps I drove really fast, or a combination of both, and arrived with still an hour and a half of sunlight left, and then another 30 minutes until it was dark enough to align Hercules with a two star alignment. I also bought an adapter to attach a green laser pointer to Hercules to use as a type of finder scope instead of the original one that came with it. I am very pleased with this small and inexpensive modification.

As I pulled up to my site, I noticed a truck out there with a tent set up. I was a little nervous at first, but shortly after arriving and starting to unpack the car, the couple drove over (did they really need to drive??) and talked to me for a few minutes. He told me they had a nice telescope set up with a camera that would project the image to a TV. He also had a 3D converter box to convert the image to 3D (with special glasses of course). He said I should come over and have a look later, sadly, I never made it over there.

I continued to put Hercules together, which was taking longer than normal due to the large amounts of bugs! Just FYI, bug spray that you use to keep mosquitoes away didn't work against these pests! After I finished assembly, another car came out which kicked up quite a bit of dust. Thankfully, I was smart enough to leave the dust covers over the mirrors on Hercules. The car drove past and over to the gentleman's campsite. Shortly after, he walked back over and apologized for the dust and that the rest of his party would be more considerate when they arrived. He also looked over Hercules and admired my equipment before telling me about a large 22 inch (mirror size) telescope that he had quite a few years ago. He even said he had to rent a trailer to haul his telescope in. That sounds like my kind of telescope! He also said that the mirror alone for his old telescope was worth over $10,000. A 22 inch mirror is almost twice the size of my little Hercules. Maybe someday I can find a big brother/sister for him.

Back to my night out! After the gentleman left for the second time, I sat down and waited for the darkness to finally arrive. I took a couple of pictures, watched a couple of antelope run by, walked around for a bit, but mostly swatted at bugs. When darkness finally did arrive, I powered on Hercules and put in my coordinates, date and time, and then aligned him (as mentioned before) to Polaris and Spica, In between this time, two more cars drove by (a lot more slowly than the first) filled with people to join the campsite about 100 meters away.

The first object I had Hercules locate was the king of the planets, Jupiter. He purposefully rotated and aligned perfectly on Jupiter with the soft hum of the motors. I took a peak through the eyepiece and was instantly filled with joy at the sight! I could easily see the four largest moons. Three were on the left and one to the far right, as seen through Hercules' eyepiece. While I was looking, I could easily hear the sounds of footsteps (many foot steps) approaching from the campsite. It's very quiet at Area 62, which I absolutely love. There are no sounds of cars, ticking clocks, any kind of machinery except for Hercules. Which also means you can hear every little noise, including these footsteps. When I looked up, there were probably 10 to 12 people walking towards me. The gentleman in charge, the one I had talked to earlier, asked which planet I was looking at and wanted to know if they could all take a look. After replying that I was looking at Jupiter, he walked over and took a peak through the eyepiece and was impressed. A few members of his party introduced themselves to me. I was elated by the sounds of "oohs" and "Wow!" while the party members peered through the eyepiece of Hercules. While the others looked at Jupiter, the leader reminded me that I should come take a look at what they had set up. He also wanted to know if I was staying out long enough to look at Mars while it was at its "sweet spot". I told him I probably would and he wanted me to call over to them so they could come take a look. I did stay long enough, but never did call to them to come look. I was feeling highly outnumbered and since I'm a fairly shy person, that just wasn't my style.

After they had their fill of Jupiter and walked back to their campsite, I had Hercules locate Saturn. That was also a majestic sight! The rings were almost vertical and the cloud bands (like on Jupiter) were easily visible. Shortly after locating Saturn (and failed attempts of taking pictures through the eyepiece with my cell phone) I instructed Hercules to move on to Mars. Mars was still low in the eastern sky, much like Saturn, so I couldn't see much detail. I've been told that I should be able to see the polar caps of Mars, so I left Hercules positioned on Mars and waited for about an hour. I took some pictures with my camera (not cell phone) to help pass the time.

After the time had passed, I looked again at Mars (still centered in the eyepiece! Thanks Hercules!) but it still looked mostly the same. I was a little disappointed but it was still relatively low in the sky so I hadn't expected much. I looked again at Jupiter and Saturn for a few minutes each. They still looked amazing through the telescope.

At this point, it was really dark out with the Milky Way easily visible across the eastern sky. I decided it was time to put Hercules to work and view some deep sky objects (DSO). I simply used a function called "Deep Sky Tour”.

The first object in the list for this night, was the Beehive Cluster. Hercules had no trouble moving to its location in the sky. I had my lowest power eyepiece installed at this time as that is usually the best choice for DSO's because of their large size. These often span a distance equal to or greater than the full moon! The Beehive Cluster looked great! I have seen this object before but from a light polluted sky. I was amazed but not surprised at the difference.

My next target was M39 which is an open cluster. Sometimes stars appear to be grouped tightly together and other times they are more spread out, creating an open cluster. As with the Beehive Cluster, this one looked best through my lowest power eyepiece.

After M39, I had Hercules target M4 and then M5. Both of these are called a globular cluster, which like the open cluster, consists of hundreds of stars. Unlike an open cluster, these stars are grouped tightly together with many stars at the center and then they start to spread out towards the edges. Both of these were absolutely stunning! I wish I had some pictures through the eyepiece to share, but unfortunately I do not. Hopefully some day in the future!

I enjoyed looking at these two targets for quite a while before I decided it was time to move on. I, of course, had to look at the Hercules Cluster since I named my telescope after it. I was very impressed with this group of stars every time I've looked it. This night was no exception. It actually looked a lot better at Area 62 because of the lack of light pollution. I am always blown away by this target.

I looked at the Hercules Cluster for approximately 15 minutes before I moved on. Hercules next target was Bode's Nebula. I have tried looking at this nebula before from a light polluted sky and could not see anything. Away from the light pollution, I was able to see a small, fuzzy blob of space dust. While that might not be very exciting to most people, it excites me to see these DSO's with my own eyes. To know that I'm looking at an object close to 12 million light years away is amazing to me.

I looked at a few more globular clusters; M3, M92, and M53. All of which looked amazing, but M3, and M92 surprisingly looked better through my highest power eyepiece. I was able to break the stars apart even more and see more color instead of just white stars against a black background.

I then moved on to the Pinwheel Galaxy which I had also tried viewing from a more light polluted area. I wasn't able to see anything the first time I tried, but at Area 62 I could! Like many DSO's, this appeared mainly as a fuzzy blob only with a hint of a circular structure. Like Bode's Nebula, most people wouldn't care to look at this target, but again, it's exciting to me to see these types of objects with my own eyes.

I have looked at the Dumbbell Nebula before from light polluted skies and thought it was pretty amazing. It was even more amazing away from the light pollution! I could definitely see more structure and even some color.

The Cat's Eye Nebula was the last DSO I viewed for the night. This nebula looked fantastic through my highest power eyepiece. I could easily see the blue color associated with it. I had also tried viewing this from light polluted skies but had no luck.

After ogling the Cat's Eye Nebula for 20 minutes or so, I decided that I should check out the planets one last time. Jupiter and Saturn still looked amazing but I was still slightly disappointed with Mars. It was just a bright, red disk with no detail visible at all. I know that a filter designed for looking at Mars will definitely help. This filter will dim the brightness so that I will hopefully see some of the planetary details such as the ice caps and Valles Marineris.

After observing on this night, I have come to the conclusion that I need more eyepieces and definitely should be viewing from dark sites more often. I also think a barlow (increases the magnification of eyepieces) would be extremely helpful. In addition, a collection of eyepiece filters would be great! These will help bring out the details of planets and of some nebulae as well.

My last trip to Area 62 I took 200 pictures. This time however, I only took a total of 66 including the ones from my cell phone. Here are my favorites from this night. Enjoy!