I was debating with myself on Thursday July 3 on whether or not to go up to Mt Pinos/Lockwood Valley for the night. The moon, only 1/3 illuminated, would set shortly before midnight and would be behind the tree line well before that time. Plus, it doesn't get very dark until 9:45-10:00 pm so you really don't lose much observing time to the glare on the moon. The clear sky clock was predicting excellent transparency and very good seeing conditions so what's not to like?
I decided against going up to Pinos after work for two reasons. First, the fourth of July holiday get-away traffic was on over-drive on the I-5 freeway. Second, I worry about fires if some stupid kid lights up Frazier Park and vicinity with fireworks. I don't want to become stir-fry up there.
In my area in the Santa Clarita valley, fireworks are banned and professional firework displays have been curtailed or cancelled entirely as in the case of the annual display at the Castaic lake. The lake has lost a lot of water to the drought and fire conditions are extreme. So what do the residents of Santa Clarita do? They go up the 126 highway to nearby Fillmore, a small town along the way, and buy their fireworks on that map dot on blacktop. A couple of my patients who live in Fillmore tell me the town has firework stands set up almost every 200 feet. You can't open up the blinds without seeing one. From what I've been told, the town is choked and clogged with traffic from Santa Clarita and those residents will presumably cart their treasure back to the valley where they will willfully and illegally ignite them to their heart's content. I believe the decision to curtail the professionally managed shows was a bad one since the residents will do it themselves and many don't know what they are doing.
Anyhow, that placed me in a dilemma. I wanted to observe but I didn't feel it was prudent to travel. So, that left plan B, and I set up in front of my home. I'm relatively lucky because I happen to live under a small patch of semi-dark sky surrounded by my neighbor's high ambient lighting. I'm lucky enough to glimpse portions of the milky way when it's near the zenith. However, I could walk a block or two away and see only a first or second magnitude star. If conditions are decent, my 16" dob can penetrate thru the light pollution to about 12.5 magnitude, more than enough to observe many galaxies and planetaries. Last night, however, brought the best transparency I've ever seen in front of my home. Humidity levels were extremely low and that means less light scatter off of less ice crystals at higher altitudes. Combined with good seeing conditions, my portal of semi-darkened sky beckoned for exploration. To do it, I used my CLS broadband filter with my 10mm ethos eyepiece and hit virtually every galaxy noted in Volumne 2 of the Observer's Guide in the constellations of CV and Draco. To give you an idea of how good the transparency was last night, I could actually see rifts in the milky way above my home at 2:00am.
One of my biggest delights and one of my biggest challenges was seeing NGC 6742, a faint 13.4 magnitude planetary in Draco. I've seen it better at Pinos but given my conditions with high ambient lighting, I was thrilled to see it at all. My link puts it at magnitude 15 but I believe the Observer's Guide to be correct.
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n6742.html
I then switched the CLS filter for my Lumicon 0111 and bagged additional planetaries in Aquila and Cgynus, along with reasonably good views of the veil and crescent nebula with a set of longer focal length eyepieces(14mm ES 100, 20mm Meade ultrawide, 30mm ES 82). The 14mm with the 0111 did very well on M17 and you could see the fainter outlying extension of it which was also visible in the ES 30mm. Ditto for the extensions on the dumbbell.
I finally called it a night when I saw the great square of Pegasus rising higher in the sky but I continued to marvel at the sight of the milky way above me and I'm thankful I could see it as well as I did.
Seeing and transparency....
I decided against going up to Pinos after work for two reasons. First, the fourth of July holiday get-away traffic was on over-drive on the I-5 freeway. Second, I worry about fires if some stupid kid lights up Frazier Park and vicinity with fireworks. I don't want to become stir-fry up there.
In my area in the Santa Clarita valley, fireworks are banned and professional firework displays have been curtailed or cancelled entirely as in the case of the annual display at the Castaic lake. The lake has lost a lot of water to the drought and fire conditions are extreme. So what do the residents of Santa Clarita do? They go up the 126 highway to nearby Fillmore, a small town along the way, and buy their fireworks on that map dot on blacktop. A couple of my patients who live in Fillmore tell me the town has firework stands set up almost every 200 feet. You can't open up the blinds without seeing one. From what I've been told, the town is choked and clogged with traffic from Santa Clarita and those residents will presumably cart their treasure back to the valley where they will willfully and illegally ignite them to their heart's content. I believe the decision to curtail the professionally managed shows was a bad one since the residents will do it themselves and many don't know what they are doing.
Anyhow, that placed me in a dilemma. I wanted to observe but I didn't feel it was prudent to travel. So, that left plan B, and I set up in front of my home. I'm relatively lucky because I happen to live under a small patch of semi-dark sky surrounded by my neighbor's high ambient lighting. I'm lucky enough to glimpse portions of the milky way when it's near the zenith. However, I could walk a block or two away and see only a first or second magnitude star. If conditions are decent, my 16" dob can penetrate thru the light pollution to about 12.5 magnitude, more than enough to observe many galaxies and planetaries. Last night, however, brought the best transparency I've ever seen in front of my home. Humidity levels were extremely low and that means less light scatter off of less ice crystals at higher altitudes. Combined with good seeing conditions, my portal of semi-darkened sky beckoned for exploration. To do it, I used my CLS broadband filter with my 10mm ethos eyepiece and hit virtually every galaxy noted in Volumne 2 of the Observer's Guide in the constellations of CV and Draco. To give you an idea of how good the transparency was last night, I could actually see rifts in the milky way above my home at 2:00am.
One of my biggest delights and one of my biggest challenges was seeing NGC 6742, a faint 13.4 magnitude planetary in Draco. I've seen it better at Pinos but given my conditions with high ambient lighting, I was thrilled to see it at all. My link puts it at magnitude 15 but I believe the Observer's Guide to be correct.
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n6742.html
I then switched the CLS filter for my Lumicon 0111 and bagged additional planetaries in Aquila and Cgynus, along with reasonably good views of the veil and crescent nebula with a set of longer focal length eyepieces(14mm ES 100, 20mm Meade ultrawide, 30mm ES 82). The 14mm with the 0111 did very well on M17 and you could see the fainter outlying extension of it which was also visible in the ES 30mm. Ditto for the extensions on the dumbbell.
I finally called it a night when I saw the great square of Pegasus rising higher in the sky but I continued to marvel at the sight of the milky way above me and I'm thankful I could see it as well as I did.
Seeing and transparency....
