El Cabañero versus Murphy: 1 - 1
Dear all,
Preparation
Occasionally I take my 20" telescope from Madrid (where I live) to the province of Ciudad Real. There is a natural reserve called Parque Nacional de los Cabañeros. On the north east side there is an embalse called Embalse de Torre de Abraham and I have been observing there quite a few times now. The sky is very dark there. Using my Sky Quality Meter (SQM) I always measure values of 21.5 to 21.7. The one thing I don't like so much about going there is having to drive back home after a long night of observing. More than once I struggled to stay awake. And last week a colleague said that such a large water reserve acts as a heat source at night that may influence the seeing negatively. At night, the water cools down more slowly than the surrounding ground, introducing turbulence which may reflect in a slightly worse seeing. So, I rented a room in a hostal in Gálvez (just south of Toledo) to stay the weekend, go observing and try to find another observing location in the neighborhood.
First half: El Cabañero takes the lead
On Friday night (May 15) I drove to Gálvez and from there to the embalse. Around 3 AM the SQM indicated 21.6 so that was really good again. My target was to observe over 60 objects from the Herschel 400 list plus surrounding objects. In the end I observed nearly 150 objects, all of which I made a verbal description. Unfortunately Friday night was very windy so I couldn't apply high magnifications which means I'll have to revisit many objects. In the end I started packing up at 5 AM and went to bed at 5:30. Great!
Half time
One of my prime concerns about booking a hotel or hostal was possible noise from other guests or people outside preventing me from getting a sufficient amount of sleep. Luckily the hostal proved to be very quiet. however, that didn't prevent me from waking up around noon anyway. So I took a quick breakfast and returned to the parque nacional to try and find another observing location. Well, I found two! The village of Alcoba, at the south side of the parque nacional, turns out to be on a plateau in between the mountains. The plateau contains a lot of unpaved roads that are flat and wide enough for me to set up my telescope with room to spare. Then I also found a sufficiently large open spot along the CM-4017 road about halfway between the villages of Horcajo de los Montes and Retuerta del Bullaque. The disadvantage of that spot is that it is located close to the main road. I would have to come back there at night to see if passing traffic would hinder me with their lights.
Second half: Murphy takes charge
At night I returned to the spot along the CM-4017 and soon I found it to be too close to the main road. Fortunately I had a look at the satellite map before and the open spot turned out to be the start of an unpaved road leading into the mountains. I noticed another clearing about a hundred meters down that road, so I drove there and set up my telescope. This spot turned out to be sufficiently shielded from passing traffic. At the end of astronomical twilight (around 23:15) my SQM indicated 21.5 so that's very good as well. Just like at the embalse, some light pollution from Toledo and Madrid was visible to the north. But the sky was dark in all other directions. Well, apart from zodiac light and the Milky Way along the horizon of course... One of the reasons for looking for this spot was the seeing so I needed to try high magnifications. Unfortunately I had made a big mistake: I had left the mirror in my car all day, which got heated up considerably by the sun and the warm day. So the thermal radiation from the mirror introduced one of the worse seeings I have ever seen. Luckily the mirror cooled down in just over an hour so around 23:30 I could see that indeed the seeing was very good there. One drawback of this spot is that the ground isn't flat. The telescope just fits there but I needed to put my little table on a slope which may cause my eye pieces to fall off it. I need a step ladder to reach to the eye piece and I needed to take good care how to put the ladder in order for it to be stable. Then there is no mobile coverage and I was all alone in nature. If I fell of my ladder (or got attacked by a wild boar) it would be hard for me to call for help. So, I packed up and drove to Alcoba.
I selected three possible locations near the village. Unfortunately I didn't mark the third location in my GPS system, so I drove to location two. That one is just to the north west of the village, which meant some light pollution to the south east where Saturn and the Milky Way were rising. It wasn't really disturbing but better no light pollution at all, right? So I drove to the first place which is located a few km to the east of the village. No light pollution from the village there but again only from Toledo and Madrid to the north. Perfect!
This is where Murphy made his move. When I was setting up my telescope, I put two cables together in a wrong way which caused a little spark. Then it turned out that the whole electronic system for guiding was dead. No matter what I tried, I couldn't get it to work anymore! Luckily I brought a spare battery but that one also didn't work. So it had to be inside the electronic circuit. I didn't bring a multimeter so I couldn't locate the problem. After trying several things and getting Our Dear Lord involved in a negative manner several times I gave up. No sound from the motors or the fans on my telescope. Only frogs quacking. Only 1:30 AM and my observing night was over. It was a bitter sweet moment: bitter for me and sweet for Murphy.
On my way back to the hostal I discovered yet another unpaved road. This road is still a few more km away from Alcoba so to either the previous spot or this one I will return for star gazing soon. I took my binoculars out to do some observing and was able to spot NGC 5128 (Centaurus A) and M 83. But then I drove back to the hostal.
Recap
When I got home on Sunday afternoon I took my multimeter and found that a fuse that I didn't know about had blown. I replaced it with a new one and then all systems were working again. So I'll need to buy a few spare ones and make sure I always keep them with my telescope parts. And from now on I will bring my multimeter as well.
Despite the set back on Saturnday night, it was a really good weekend. Not having to drive back really is an advantage cause knowing I'll be able to get to bed soon helps me relax and allows me to stay up longer. Having found those new observing spots near Alcoba means I'll book a hotel or hostal near Alcoba. There are a few in Horcajo de los Montes, which is only 10 minutes away by car.
Clear skies, Wouter
