akarsh
September 21st, 2015, 10:09 PM
Hello DSF
Here are some of my observations from the Okie-Tex star party, 2015, held in the Oklahoma pan-handle in the USA. The site is supposed to be Bortle 1, and I could not detect any light domes anywhere. The nearby town of Kenton, OK has an extremely small population of 18 people, and has 5 churches and an old cemetery established in 1888 -- so it is of no consequence when it comes to light pollution. I'm told that Okie-Tex was listed amongst the top 10 star parties of the world in the Astronomy magazine, and was one of the 3 star parties in the USA to be featured.
My friend Hemant and I stayed only for 4½ nights, the half-night being a night before a long drive, so we packed up our scopes at 1:30 AM. In accordance with Murphy's law, the last night where we packed up early was the most clear of them all. Friends tell us that the subsequent nights after we left were great and had lesser wind. During the first 4 nights, there were high-altitude clouds in the evening, and presumably through the night. Clouds roamed around in pockets and you could see some stars being obscured by low altitude clouds from time to time. Seeing was terrible most of the time, and there were wind gusts enough to move my telescope around. However, the skies were still very good because of the darkness of the site. The milky way was thick and ran from horizon to horizon. On the last night, I looked for the Gegenschein, which was very obvious below the circlet of Pisces. However, I could not see the zodiacal band. The latitude of the site was about 37 °N.
All observations are with my 18" dob unless mentioned otherwise.
NGC 6946:
I took a more careful look at NGC 6946. The two stronger arms on the east were resolved, and the stronger western arm was seen. The weaker western arm was sensed. The knot that corresponds to this star cluster -- http://simbad.cfa.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40218483&Name=[LEE2002]%201448 -- was seen. If anyone knows a better designation for this star cluster, please do let me know.
Delphinus Trio:
This was an object I picked off from the OOTW in this forum. I seem to have missed one of the galaxies, but succeeded in getting a feel for the two-galaxy nature of one of the galaxies. The report must be in the OOTW post.
Maffei II:
This object was at the very edge of visibility. A 14mm Pentax aided in detection of the object without knowing the precise location. The precise location was later confirmed using DSS. My notes say "Extremely, extremely faint; glimpsed at opportune moments of averted vision" before going to the DSS. After confirming, carefully distinguished the object from the glow of a few stars, by resolving the asterisms nearby. Held 20% of the time with averted vision, and seen in multiple eyepieces. Detection: 14mm Pentax < 10mm Delos <~ 7 mm Nagler. 7mm Nagler had the best view. I spent about half hour to 45 minutes on this object. At moments of excellent averted vision, the precise location and extended nature of the object was repeatedly confirmed.
Dwingeloo 1:
Negative observation. (Rendered very difficult because of bright star near the core). Any tips will be appreciated.
Draco dwarf:
Repeated after TSP 2014. Detected as a glow contained between a group of stars in a 31mm Nagler. 26mm UO HD ortho showed a region of maximum glow clearly.
Arp 284:
This object is close to a naked-eye star in the circlet of Pisces. The edge-on had ~70% holding and was faint. The face-on was a bright, easy, non-uniform glow. I could sense asymmetry in the glow of the face-on.
Abell 75:
Visible unfiltered much brighter than e.g. Maffei II, but still somewhat faint. OIII pulls it out. 10mm Delos + OIII shows non-uniform glow that's easy to see.
Elephant trunk nebula:
A dark hook-shaped region was seen; 14mm Pentax + OIII.
Cas 1 -- inconclusive observation:
The glow appeared smaller than in DSS images. Very very indistinct, best view at 31mm Nagler. Also felt in a 26mm Ortho and a 20mm Pentax XW. Sensed multiple times. I need to repeat this observation to be sure.
The Hubble Rose (Arp 273):
I was pleasantly surprised by how good this object looked in an 18"! I did not expect that at all. The features presented themselves to averted vision without even looking for them. The galaxy that forms the "stalk" of the rose curves upward quite distinctly. The galaxy that forms the rose itself shows some spiral features, with an arm that goes towards the stalk. At moments of good averted vision, the entire view integrates for a fraction of a second. My observation was truncated before I could finish it because of equatorial platform issues and clouds.
Galaxy near M 57, used as a test of 7mm Televue Nagler vs. 7mm Televue DeLite eyepieces:
DeLite seemed to show elongation of the core. DeLite was slightly better than the Nagler.
NGC 7253, used as a test of 7mm TV Nagler vs. 7mm TV DeLite:
DeLite again marginally outperformed the Nagler.
Abell 79:
From Steve's Adventures in Deep Space website. Much fainter than DSS leads you to believe. 10mm Delos + UHC: Very faint. Hints of structure detected, but nothing concrete. 10mm Delos + OIII: Structure is better. Can feel the "arm" going towards a star, but still hard to discern.
WLM:
20mm Pentax view sketched below
1791
Holmberg VI:
Easiest of the Holmberg dwarfs. Dim NGC galaxy in Eridanus. 14mm Pentax shows hints of mottling and direction of "bar". Otherwise, just a faint round patch. (This completed the Holmberg dwarfs, reporting all 9 in an 18". Uwe reports all 9 in a 16" on his website. Please do share your observations of the Holmberg dwarfs too!)
NGC 70 group:
I picked this off an OOTW post on this forum.
1792
Abell 74:
Observed this with a 5" Takahashi refractor, 26mm UO HD Ortho eyepiece, and Lumicon UHC filter.
"Held clearly for short durations with averted vision"
WLM 1:
Reported in the WLM globulars thread.
Cetus dwarf:
Negative
NGC 541 chain:
Detected galaxies are marked
1793
With a 4.5mm Delos, on occasion, sensed two protrusions flanking NGC 541.
1794
No luck with discerning Minkowski's object.
HFG I:
Reported in detail on the HFG I thread. I am posting the sketches here.
1795
Sh2-216:
1796
IC 342 knots:
Reported in a separate thread.
Overall, the star party was very nice. The nights are longer during this time of the year than during Texas Star Party, so I almost got two TSPs worth of observing done (excluding 48" observations). The environment of the star party was very laid back and comfortable. Despite being very laid back, there were (nearly) no violations of the "no white lights" rule at night. It was overall a great experience.
Clear Skies
Regards
Akarsh
Here are some of my observations from the Okie-Tex star party, 2015, held in the Oklahoma pan-handle in the USA. The site is supposed to be Bortle 1, and I could not detect any light domes anywhere. The nearby town of Kenton, OK has an extremely small population of 18 people, and has 5 churches and an old cemetery established in 1888 -- so it is of no consequence when it comes to light pollution. I'm told that Okie-Tex was listed amongst the top 10 star parties of the world in the Astronomy magazine, and was one of the 3 star parties in the USA to be featured.
My friend Hemant and I stayed only for 4½ nights, the half-night being a night before a long drive, so we packed up our scopes at 1:30 AM. In accordance with Murphy's law, the last night where we packed up early was the most clear of them all. Friends tell us that the subsequent nights after we left were great and had lesser wind. During the first 4 nights, there were high-altitude clouds in the evening, and presumably through the night. Clouds roamed around in pockets and you could see some stars being obscured by low altitude clouds from time to time. Seeing was terrible most of the time, and there were wind gusts enough to move my telescope around. However, the skies were still very good because of the darkness of the site. The milky way was thick and ran from horizon to horizon. On the last night, I looked for the Gegenschein, which was very obvious below the circlet of Pisces. However, I could not see the zodiacal band. The latitude of the site was about 37 °N.
All observations are with my 18" dob unless mentioned otherwise.
NGC 6946:
I took a more careful look at NGC 6946. The two stronger arms on the east were resolved, and the stronger western arm was seen. The weaker western arm was sensed. The knot that corresponds to this star cluster -- http://simbad.cfa.harvard.edu/simbad/sim-id?Ident=%40218483&Name=[LEE2002]%201448 -- was seen. If anyone knows a better designation for this star cluster, please do let me know.
Delphinus Trio:
This was an object I picked off from the OOTW in this forum. I seem to have missed one of the galaxies, but succeeded in getting a feel for the two-galaxy nature of one of the galaxies. The report must be in the OOTW post.
Maffei II:
This object was at the very edge of visibility. A 14mm Pentax aided in detection of the object without knowing the precise location. The precise location was later confirmed using DSS. My notes say "Extremely, extremely faint; glimpsed at opportune moments of averted vision" before going to the DSS. After confirming, carefully distinguished the object from the glow of a few stars, by resolving the asterisms nearby. Held 20% of the time with averted vision, and seen in multiple eyepieces. Detection: 14mm Pentax < 10mm Delos <~ 7 mm Nagler. 7mm Nagler had the best view. I spent about half hour to 45 minutes on this object. At moments of excellent averted vision, the precise location and extended nature of the object was repeatedly confirmed.
Dwingeloo 1:
Negative observation. (Rendered very difficult because of bright star near the core). Any tips will be appreciated.
Draco dwarf:
Repeated after TSP 2014. Detected as a glow contained between a group of stars in a 31mm Nagler. 26mm UO HD ortho showed a region of maximum glow clearly.
Arp 284:
This object is close to a naked-eye star in the circlet of Pisces. The edge-on had ~70% holding and was faint. The face-on was a bright, easy, non-uniform glow. I could sense asymmetry in the glow of the face-on.
Abell 75:
Visible unfiltered much brighter than e.g. Maffei II, but still somewhat faint. OIII pulls it out. 10mm Delos + OIII shows non-uniform glow that's easy to see.
Elephant trunk nebula:
A dark hook-shaped region was seen; 14mm Pentax + OIII.
Cas 1 -- inconclusive observation:
The glow appeared smaller than in DSS images. Very very indistinct, best view at 31mm Nagler. Also felt in a 26mm Ortho and a 20mm Pentax XW. Sensed multiple times. I need to repeat this observation to be sure.
The Hubble Rose (Arp 273):
I was pleasantly surprised by how good this object looked in an 18"! I did not expect that at all. The features presented themselves to averted vision without even looking for them. The galaxy that forms the "stalk" of the rose curves upward quite distinctly. The galaxy that forms the rose itself shows some spiral features, with an arm that goes towards the stalk. At moments of good averted vision, the entire view integrates for a fraction of a second. My observation was truncated before I could finish it because of equatorial platform issues and clouds.
Galaxy near M 57, used as a test of 7mm Televue Nagler vs. 7mm Televue DeLite eyepieces:
DeLite seemed to show elongation of the core. DeLite was slightly better than the Nagler.
NGC 7253, used as a test of 7mm TV Nagler vs. 7mm TV DeLite:
DeLite again marginally outperformed the Nagler.
Abell 79:
From Steve's Adventures in Deep Space website. Much fainter than DSS leads you to believe. 10mm Delos + UHC: Very faint. Hints of structure detected, but nothing concrete. 10mm Delos + OIII: Structure is better. Can feel the "arm" going towards a star, but still hard to discern.
WLM:
20mm Pentax view sketched below
1791
Holmberg VI:
Easiest of the Holmberg dwarfs. Dim NGC galaxy in Eridanus. 14mm Pentax shows hints of mottling and direction of "bar". Otherwise, just a faint round patch. (This completed the Holmberg dwarfs, reporting all 9 in an 18". Uwe reports all 9 in a 16" on his website. Please do share your observations of the Holmberg dwarfs too!)
NGC 70 group:
I picked this off an OOTW post on this forum.
1792
Abell 74:
Observed this with a 5" Takahashi refractor, 26mm UO HD Ortho eyepiece, and Lumicon UHC filter.
"Held clearly for short durations with averted vision"
WLM 1:
Reported in the WLM globulars thread.
Cetus dwarf:
Negative
NGC 541 chain:
Detected galaxies are marked
1793
With a 4.5mm Delos, on occasion, sensed two protrusions flanking NGC 541.
1794
No luck with discerning Minkowski's object.
HFG I:
Reported in detail on the HFG I thread. I am posting the sketches here.
1795
Sh2-216:
1796
IC 342 knots:
Reported in a separate thread.
Overall, the star party was very nice. The nights are longer during this time of the year than during Texas Star Party, so I almost got two TSPs worth of observing done (excluding 48" observations). The environment of the star party was very laid back and comfortable. Despite being very laid back, there were (nearly) no violations of the "no white lights" rule at night. It was overall a great experience.
Clear Skies
Regards
Akarsh