2003/03/29-30
Time: 7:00pm – 4:00am
Location: Mesquite Springs / Death Valley National Monument, California. (Elev. 1800ft. ASL)
Weather:
- Temperature – Upper 70’s / Lower 40’s
- Humidity – Low
- Winds – Steady @ ~ 8mph with gusts to 15mph
- Clouds = 6/5
- Transparency = 5/3
- Seeing = 5/4
- Darkness = 6
Moon Phase: 6%

Rising early in the morning, the day I had been anticipating came with a shock: as I was packing everything up, I heard a light knock on the door. Looking out the peep-hole I found a man I had never seen before standing there. He knocked lightly again and then went and stood at the end of my front porch looking rather nervous. He was not looking at the door but rather was gazing back and forth up and down the street. Then he went to the West side of my front yard and started looking over the block wall into my neighbor’s back yard. Watching him through the window, it appeared he was bleeding from his left cheek. He looked around and quickly jumped over the wall. Still watching him through the window this time, it looked like he was going to jump back over the wall into my backyard. I quickly ran to my bedroom and grabbed the shotgun. As I opened the backdoor and stepped out, the man landed in my backyard facing away from me. I yelled, “Hey, what the heck do you think your doing?” The look on his face was priceless when he turned and saw me standing there holding the shotgun on him. I’ve never pointed a weapon at anybody before but I had every intention of using it on him if he advanced on me. He was a white male, approximately 45 years old, dressed all in black and he was bleeding slightly from his left cheek as I had thought earlier. He tried to explain that he had been in a fight at a near-by bar, which the closest one is at least six blocks away, and that he was looking for help. I explained to him that he would not find it here and that it would be in his best interest to jump back over the wall and move on down the road. He did not hesitate. As soon as he turned around, Sierra (my dog) was all over his heels. I came inside and called 911. John (my son) had been asleep but the commotion had woken him. He got a quite the surprise when he ran out into the living room to find me still holding the shotgun in my hands. How’s that for a wake-up call! About 5 minutes later, Metro was knocking on my door. I don’t know if they found the man or not but I felt confident that he would not reappear. It took me a while to calm back down before I could resume my activities of packing for our trip.

Next, another shocker: I got a page from work reminding everybody of a mandatory company meeting. I would have to attend and would probably not be able to make it to Sedona. I also checked the weather forecast for Sedona, I found it was going to be colder then I had expected. The forecast was calling for temperatures in the low 20’s. Neither John nor I are willing to submit ourselves to these extremes. Plan “B” is in order.

First, I started off by searching the Sky-Clock’s for decent skies. All sites within 200 miles, with the exception of Utah were calling for great conditions. The “seeing” was a little less then desired in some but not unacceptable.

The second was to find who was going where. The Las Vegas Astronomical Society (LVAS) looked like some were going to Temple Bar in Arizona and some to Echo Bay near Lake Mead. The Astronomical Society of Nevada Las Vegas (ASNLV) was going to Mesquite Springs in Death Valley National Monument, California. Since I had been prior on-line contact with some of the members of ASNLV, I chose to make the drive to Death Valley. Plus, I had never been there before and John and I thought it sounded interesting. I tried calling some of the members using phone numbers I found at their website. None of the numbers put me though to them. I was hoping it would be alright to come unannounced.

I went to the short meeting I had to go to and quickly came home. It didn’t take long to pack up the truck. We stopped at a friends house first to drop of my dog. Then, after a quick trip to the store for a few supplies & food, we were on our way.

ASNLV’s website showed the route to take to their viewing site in Mesquite Springs to be through Pahrump and then up California Highway 190. John and I chose to drive instead up US Highway 95 to Beatty and then cut over to Death Valley. It was a nice, uneventful drive. The weather was pleasant but I could see high, thin clouds to the north-west; the direction we were headed. This kind of concerned me and I found myself wishing we would have gone to Valley of Fire instead. Actually, I was wishing it wasn’t going to be so cold in Sedona!

Our chosen route was a total of 163 miles and we made it in 2 hours & 15 minutes. Daylight pass with an elevation of ~4300ft. into California, west of Beatty, was beautiful. The drop in elevation was incredible as at times you could see all the way down to the desert floor which was below sea level (-282ft.) and on the other side was a fittingly named mountain: Telescope Peak at 11049ft. When we arrived at Mesquite Springs, I found a discouraging sign which read: “Campground full, camping available 8 miles north”. John suggested we drive the 2 miles to the campsite just to see if it was really full. What a good idea!

The campsite WAS full. Full of people with telescopes! I found JC Willette, the vice-president of ASNLV, and explained who I was. He kindly invited us to join the group for the night. We met a few of the other members before setting up our campsite. As stated; the campsite was full and almost every site had at least one telescope set up in it. In the four sites around us, there were 9 ‘scopes, one of them an 18” Obsession and a 20” incher as well. Someday, when I grow up, I’ll have one too.

I was really hoping to find all 110 Messier Objects but found out that they were really not all available from this location. The site is down in a valley near a dry creek bed and the land rises to the north blocking the extreme northern view. Higher mountains in the east are not a problem as they are far enough away. The view to the south is the best and is rather wide. On the west side of the site is a tall bluff but does not obscure much of the view. Now, we just need darkness.

As the sunlight faded, the temperature began to cool down. It had been in the low 80’s. The high thin clouds did break some but not to the north. With blue still showing, Jupiter made its appearance and all ‘scopes turned to it. I could hear people saying that there was a shadow from one of Jupiter’s moon on the planet. I looked with my 10” and could clearly see it. (SNP shows Amalthea to be in transit at ~750pm. I’m thinking this is what we saw.) The view of Jupiter itself was not very good at any magnification and I’ll say now, neither was Saturn. This held up for the whole night as I checked back a number of times. The upper air disturbances were too great to get any real detail. The best thing about the views of Jupiter were those found with wide views and low magnifications being the planet was so close to M44; the Beehive Cluster.

As I stated earlier, this event was surrounded around searching for and viewing Messier Objects. In theory, all 110 of them are visible on this night. I had hoped that I would be able to find all of them in one night. But, as the darkness set on the camp, I found myself distracted by all the people and I could not concentrate. I had never viewed with this many people before. Instead of looking for new objects, I viewed things I was already familiar with. I did finally manage to find M78. It’s a diffuse nebulae located above Altinak in Orion’s belt. It’s not a hard object to find but certainly must require very dark skies. John was cooking us a nice steak dinner and I thought that after eating I would continue to try and observe.

Eating did not work. The food was great but for some reason, I was still in a sour frame of mind. The voices from the different campsites really got on my nerves for some reason and music was playing in the distance that sounded like an Australian Diggery-Do. I was really at a loss and I found myself wishing I had gone elsewhere for the Messier Marathon. Somewhere that was quite and peaceful. I concluded it must be the fact that I was just not used to being around other people. If only I could stop and enjoy their excitement and not be so concerned about the "hunt". Maybe that too will come when I grow up!

Meanwhile, John was unhindered by the noises I found distracting. He found 7 objects in all. They are: Messier Objects 66, 65, 95, 96 & 105 which are Galaxies in Leo, M50 and Open-Cluster in Monoceros and lastly, M51 in Canes Venatici. He was using the Meade 5” Reflector with the 6 x 30 finderscope & an Orion EZ-finder attached to it. I was very proud of him for finding the objects all on his own.

I found myself looking around Ursa Major and Canes Venatici. The Cigar Galaxy was awesome even at high powers. The Whirlpool Galaxy in Canes Venatici has got to be my favorite Galaxy to date. On this night, using the XT10” @ 240x, the spiral arms came into view beautifully with stars resolved in them. The little “side” galaxy, NGC 5195 seemed to be reaching out for M51and had a very discernable core. Loving the Globulars, I found M13 in Hercules, M53 in Coma Berenices and lastly, M3 in Canes Venatici. They all looked splendid.

I spent some time with the new AstroView but sad to say, I did not look at anything in particular. The wide field of view it provides was pleasing enough and I was satisfied just too randomly search the stars with it. The finderscope, especially it’s positioning, is a little awkward but the slow-motion gears are very smooth. The AstroView EQ-2 mount and tripod combo, in the lowest position, are rock-solid but when raised to standing level it becomes a little wobbly. Having done that, I sat down with John and just listened to the sounds of the star-party. Other people in the camp were walking up to some of the members asking to look through their ‘scopes. It was funny to hear their reactions. When looking at Jupiter, I heard one person say “What is that!” I thought it funny, they must have never even see pictures of the planet or they would have known what it was. John had laid down in our tent with his head sticking out the end. I sat at the doorway and we just chatted about various things.

At about midnight, an ugly band of clouds moved into the area obscuring even Sirius. Most of the people gave in and called it a night. The camp got a little more quite and around 1:30am, the skies opened back up. Only a small group of three or four people remained viewing through their telescopes. John had fallen asleep, the camp had quieted down considerably and I found myself in the mood to resume my own viewing.

I noticed that much of the Southern sky had now risen and much of it is not visible from locations that I had visited before. Unfortunately, I skipped over the chance to view M68, a Globular Cluster in Hydra and went right to M83, a Spiral Galaxy also in the same Constellation. I was surprised to see how big and bright it was. It was near the size of M51 but I did not notice any spiraling effect. To me, it looked more spread out, sort of like the Andromeda Galaxy but more circular.

One object that had eluded me in the past was The Black Eye Galaxy; M64 in Coma Berenices. This time I captured it with no problem. Being so close to “The Hair”, I moved over to Virgo and the swarm of galaxies it contains. There are so many of them and at times up to seven of them are available in one shot. I must have seen at least 25 separate galaxies but did not try to distinguish which ones were which. I will do this sometime when I am more concerned with a viewing session dedicated solely for that purpose. A couple of Globular Clusters in Ophiuchus that I hadn’t seen before were my next targets. M107 & M14 are both snagged with no problem. M107 was a little dimmer then expected but M14 resolved beautifully. I thought I had gotten all the Globulars in Ophiuchus but later discovered I had forgotten about M9. That too will have to wait for another date.

Scorpius had risen to a nice height and offered me my first glimpse of this constellation using a telescope. I chose to stick to the “M” objects and leave the others for another time. Both Globulars, M80 & M4 are easily obtainable being so close to Antares. I moved my view to the left and found the globular M19 and then down to find M62, another globular. Not until this writing did I discover that the last two globulars were actually part of Ophiuchus.

Anticipating the rise of the center of the Milky Way in Sagittarius I had been watching the sky to the south. I thought “great, clouds are coming” Keeping an eye on the area, I noticed they did not seem to be going away, yet instead were getting higher. The few clouds that had come earlier were moving from north to south, now, they seemed to change direction. In the area around Cygnus, I noticed the same thing; a faint glow in the sky around the constellation. What a fool I am! This is the Milky Way itself! I took up the binoculars and had a peek. What an awesome sight it is.

In the 10 x 50 binoculars alone, many objects are visible. I’m sure Mr. Messier had quite a time with this area when he started his search for comets. I noted that some of the objects indeed looked better with the binoculars then through the telescope. I spent a lot of time searching the skies from the area between Scorpius, Sagittarius, Scutum, Serpens Cauda, Aquila, Sagitta, Vulpecula and into Cygnus. I’m sure I saw many of the Messier Objects but I was so enthralled that I did not take the time to write them down or consult my star-chart as to which ones were which. This area of the sky contains so many beautiful, wonderful, awesome objects it’s not funny. In the summer time, when this area of the sky has risen to a greater height, I will be watching it for hours.

By now, the hour had gotten late. I had been to only one awake for at least the last two of them. I found myself getting very tired and was about to call it a night when I noticed Mars had risen. It was very low on the horizon, probably no more then 20 degrees and I knew the shot I was going to get would be less then desirable. But I looked anyway. It was red, very red and bigger then I thought it would be. I wanted to take the time to try a filter or two on it but I was too tired. I called it a night and packed everything away, mostly, just the eyepieces. I made sure the ‘scopes were sealed up tight and put towels around the base of the Dobsonian. The wind had picked up quite a bit and the temperature had cooled to around 40 degrees or so. I had never left my ‘scopes out during the night but noting that everyone else had, I felt safe about it. Retiring to my tent, I quickly feel asleep. It must have been around 4am.

Fully knowing that this would happen, noise from the camp as people started packing woke John and I from our sleep. I was hoping it would be later then 7am. I guess it was a good thing because I was starting to roast in the tent. The temperature must have already risen to ~75 degrees if not higher. It took us a while to gather our thoughts and we finally started to make our breakfast consisting of sausage patties and fried eggs. After that, we got to the task of packing up our equipment and our campsite. The man in the camp across the street had a sweet 18” Obsession and I took the opportunity to go and look at it and talk to him. That is the next ‘scope I am hoping for. It will have to wait for quite a while seeing that its cost is in the range of over $5000 including some “extra’s” he ordered with it.

Goodbyes were in order so we thanked JC Willette for allowing us to join their group for the night. He told us not to be strangers. I offered him money because I knew the club had to pay for the site, he only asked for $5 which we gladly paid.

I thought our observing was over but to our surprise, we got one more look through a telescope at something I had never seen: The Sun! A man named Steve, who had a sweet StellarVue 4” Refractor was looking at Sunspots with a solar filter. Neither John nor I had seen these before and after looking at them, I’ve decided I must get one of those filters.

Having done that and saying our final goodbyes, we got in our truck and hit the road. After about 5 or so miles I pulled over and let John do the driving. He’s a good driver and I enjoyed being able to look at Death Valley passing by. We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and looked at all the displays. Of course, I had to get a few postcards for my collection.

The ride home was uneventful. We chose a different route home by following California route 190 to Pahrump. When we got to Pahrump, I chose the longer route by going back up to US 95 and coming into Las Vegas via Indian Springs.

After dropping John off at his home and unpacking all the gear, I was completely exhausted. I figured in the last 72 hours, I had spent only 11 of them sleeping. And to think we had actually thought about driving to Valley of Fire for Sunday night! I slept until about 11pm before I forced myself awake. I had to get back on my schedule somehow. I wanted to at least to some Urban Observing from the back yard but I was too tired even for that.

The “New Moon” is on April fool’s day. John and I made plans to go to Valley of Fire for the weekend. I’m not sure if I will be able to do this or if the weather will cooperate, but, it’s nice to have plans.

New Objects Viewed:

- M78 / NGC 2068 (DN) Mag: 8.3, Size: 8’ x 6’ / Orion
- M83 / NGC 5236 (SG) Mag: 7.6, Size: 10’ x 8’ / Hydra
- M64 / NGC 4826 (SG) Mag: 8.5, Size: 8’ x 4’ (Black-Eye) / Coma Berenices
- M107 / NGC 6171 (GC) Mag: 9.2, Size: 8’ / Ophiuchus
- M14 / NGC 6402 (GC) Mag: 8, Size: 7’ / Ophiuchus
- M80 / NGC 6039 (GC) Mag: 7.5, Size: 5’ / Scorpius
- M4 / NGC 6121 (GC) Mag: 6.5, Size: 23’ / Scorpius
- M19 / NGC 6273 (GC) Mag: 6.9, Size: 5’ / Ophiuchus
- M62 / NGC 6266 (GC) Mag: 6.6, Size: 6’ / Ophiuchus
- Sunspots