Astronomy / Telescope / Stargazing
Lake Stoneman, Arizona (Dark-Sky Site)
New Moon
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DATE: 2004/05/15
Time: 2 NIGHTS
Location: Lake Stoneman, Arizona [Blind Lake Tank]
Altitude: 7600 ft. ASL
Weather:
- Temperature = ~75 - 37f
- Humidity = ~20%
- Winds = SW @ ~5 with gusts to ~40mph
- Clouds = 6/3
- Transparency = 6/2
- Seeing = 5/2
- Darkness = 6
Moon Phase: 16%Telescopes:
- Meade 16” Starfinder Dobsonian
- Orion 100mm AstroView Refractor
- Orion XT10 Dobsonian
NIGHT ONE:
After last months new moon trip to Stoneman fell through, this month’s chance was greatly anticipated. Thom and Ellen decided they would go for both weekends on either side of the new moon. I put in for the week off from work and planned to stay for the whole week. Of course, even though Thom thinks he is god, he cannot control the weather. In the week leading up to the trip the weather forecast was looking great. I was worried more about being cold then anything. Advanced forecasts said the temperatures would dip down into the upper 20’s with high’s in the upper 70’s.
During the week leading up to our departure I made a number of plans and each one of those changed. At first I planned to have my friend Mara follow us in her car so she could take John back to Vegas. It would have been awesome if John could have stayed the entire week with me but he has to go to school. If it wouldn’t have been so close to the end of the school year it would have been ok for him to miss. Then, in John’s infinite wisdom (which I could use some of) he realized Mara’s car would not make it down the last part of the road to the site at Stoneman. Side note: the site at Stoneman is actually at a place called “Blind Lake Tank”. Plan Two was for Mara to drive with John in his truck. That way, he could take his sand rail too!
I had a friend at work say he would like to come down too. He would arrive on Saturday and be able to stay until Tuesday. My friend Sparky also wanted to come down and stay the whole week. That would be awesome because it meant I would not have to stay out in the middle of nowhere alone. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do but the thought of it was still scary. All sorts of scenarios ran through my head of bad things that could happen to a person and I was glad to have company.
With only two days until the departure date and the weather forecast still looking great, bad news arrived; my friend at work said he would not be able to go and Sparky thought it best to stay home. He is still recovering from his stay in the hospital and he didn’t want to push his luck. That meant that I would be alone again during the week after everybody left and John and Mara returned to Las Vegas. I thought if I got nervous about being out in the woods by myself (afraid of Coyotes but more likely the two-legged kind!) I could always pack up and drive to Phoenix and visit with Thom and Ellen for a day or two, then go to Sedona to Two Trees where it is not a remote. Maybe even Dennis would come to visit me there. After that, I could drive back to Stoneman and hook up with everybody for the 2nd weekend of observing!
Then: more bad news, John’s truck was in the shop and word of its repair date was unclear. So, John’s ride would not be the truck. That would also mean I was going to have to tell Mara she would be stuck driving her car and since it would not make it down the last part of the dirt road into Blind Lake Tank, she would have to leave it further back down the road. When I told her this she said she felt uncomfortable with this option as I would have been too. Besides she said, maybe it is a blessing in disguise as she should really be studying for the classes she is taking rather the gallivanting around the countryside.
So now, I’m up to plan 3c or something like that and have to figure out how I can get all my gear to Arizona and John’s sand rail. The answer was to rent a trailer. Of course I was mad that plans were not going, well, as according to plans. And of course John was not either. When I told him I was going to rent a trailer for the sand rail he told me not too. I didn’t want to argue at this point. He was as frustrated about everything as I was. We should be happy to be able to go to Stoneman with just our ‘scopes and for the opportunity to see our friends. Plan 4d/3-a was our last option and the one we went with. Plus, the weather forecast was still looking great and now I can get to the part about the actual trip!
Since it was going to be just John and myself we decided to make an early go of it. We went to the store late Thursday, started packing about midnight and left Las Vegas at about 3:30am on Friday. Our first stop was as usual at the Hover Dam checkpoint. This was the first time on the Nevada side they actually made us get out and open our boxes. When I said “you’re kidding me” they suggested I drive back and go through Laughlin where there is no check point. I told it was not a problem to open the boxes and besides, I hate the road that goes through Laughlin; it’s too dangerous with all the 18-Wheelers diverting that way. So, about three Dam Policemen were standing around my truck waiting to see what was in the big cardboard boxes. They weren’t afraid of who-knows-what was inside but when John and I stated to undo the extremely tight bungee cords that held all our gear in place, they backed off rather quickly. I thought it was funny. When we opened the box they asked “what is that?” I told them “a telescope” and he (one of the Dam Policemen) started to shine his flashlight in the box and then quickly pulled it away. He asked “it’s not light sensitive is it?” I told him “no” but it was nice to see that he was concerned that he might hurt it with the flashlight. Of course the telescope is sensitive to light but not in the way that he was thinking. They wanted to see in the other box which was the XT10 but when they saw how much trouble John and I were having trying to get it out, they told us it was alright and that we could move along.
The rest of the trip was uneventful except the part where I got lost in Flagstaff. Oh, the pine trees near Williams are still looking rather sad due to the drought that brought in the beetles; yeah, yeah, yeah. In Flagstaff I missed our exit to Lake Mary Road and ended doing a tour of some hoity-toity neighborhood before turning around and getting back on track. Once on Lake Mary Road we really started to get excited about the upcoming weekend. The lakes were still looking bleak (not as bad as they were last November) but the scenery was still totally breathtaking. We stopped a number of times to take some pictures.
Finally we got to Lake Stoneman Road. I was envious of the first settlers who arrived in the area. It is such a beautiful place.
We found the little cut-off road that led to Blink Lake Tank and quickly realized that no ordinary car would likely make it the last mile and a half; it was just too rocky in places. Maybe some would venture a trip down this last stretch but I would advise nothing less then a small truck. I don’t think a car would have the clearance required.
We arrived at the observing site sometime around 9am. Of course I had thought we would be the first and we were.
We unloaded the truck, set up our tent and promptly took a nap. Sometime around 10:30am I heard a diesel engine running and took a peek out of the tent. Nobody was in our field but I did notice a camper on a truck that had parked a short distance away in the woods. I thought “great, thousands of acres for somebody to camp in and they choose a spot right next to us”. Sometime around 3pm another sound woke me up. This time it was Thom & Ellen and Ron right behind them. Thom had had a mishap along the way; one of the tires on his camper had hit a rock bending the rim and flattening the tire. Luckily he had a spare. Unluckily it was low on air. He would end up having to travel into Flagstaff to have them repaired. But that would be tomorrow.
It turns out that the “camper” in the woods was actually another observer. It was a really nice man named Harold whom I think was from SAC. Forgive me if I’m wrong. He had a Coronado Solar Telescope and showed us our first observation of the trip; solar prominence. The view was incredible and only the second time I’ve seen them. Along the bottom (or is it the top?) of the sun, three huge flares were radiating out of the sun in what I could only describe as mushroom clouds. Harold also had a nice 11” Celestron SCT and showed us the crescent of Venus during the daylight hours.
During the rest of the afternoon four other people arrived to enjoy the dark skies of Arizona. One of them was a very knowledgeable man named AJ. Two of the others, I’m embarrassed to say (maybe someday I can correct this oversight) I can’t recall their names. They were from SAC & EVAC I believe. We had been wondering about our fearless leader Dennis and word was that he would not be able to make it as he had just driven back from Colorado where he and Ara had been visiting with John and Anita. About that time we noticed headlights coming towards us and wondered who it could be. We wondered if it could be Dennis but the answer was “no, he has a show tonight in Sedona” My son John made the observation “they sure are driving like Dennis would drive”; and he was right, it was Dennis driving like a bat out of hell where others would tread lightly! His show in Sedona fell through and he decided to come out and visit us. So now we are set for some Sirius Observing!
The daylight hours had been fairly clear but an unsettling wind had arisen. As Venus became visible to the naked-eye the winds died down and our spirits lifted. Just about then, Thom announced that dinner was ready. Have I mentioned that we are a spoiled lot? Well, we are. And Thom is not helping by forcing us to eat his mostaccioli. He made enough to feed an army but our little group of nine polished it clean. The big object of the night was Comet NEAT (C/2001 Q4). Starry Night Pro had a rendering of it that was phenomenal: the tail was promised to be huge! Of course we knew that that was probably wishful thinking but at best it would be visible without the aid of a telescope. After Venus came Jupiter and even Saturn. From the different camps you could hear discussions as to the comets location which was supposed to be just below M44, the Beehive Cluster in Cancer. Most of us were waiting to see it unaided-eye but Ellen was the first to catch it in her TeleVue 85.
Her superior knowledge of the Beehives location gave her the upper hand in finding it. As only the brightest of stars were visible, she made a triangulation off of Pollux, Procyon and Regulus to nail the comets location. While I was looking through her ‘scope at the comet, John was the next to find it in the XT10. Then, one by one, all the other people were finding it. As daylight faded the comets location became more apparent. It didn’t have the tremendous tail that SNP was promising but it was certainly a wonderful sight. It was only the second comet I’d seen without the aid of magnification. The best views were actually through binoculars and finderscopes although it did look very impressive through the telescopes under very low power. At low power, the tail stretched the entire length of the field of view. I took a couple of photos of the comet through the AstroView with my digital camera.
Then took the camera over to Dennis’ ‘scope where we took a few more. We tried a few options trying to mount the camera to the ‘scope and then Dennis opted for the old fashioned way: he held the camera to the eyepiece in his Takahashi with his hands. A couple of the pictures came out very impressive and I was more impressed that he managed to hold the camera virtually still for the 15 seconds that the camera’s shutter stays open.
After the glory of the comet had passed, I looked up into the sky and I realized just how dark Stoneman can be. Rather then look at the heavens through our ‘scopes, Thom and I stood and marveled at the true beauty of the night sky. Something we “city-slickers” rarely see. It’s no wonder our ancient ancestors spent so much time and effort devoted to the study of the night sky, especially when skies like this, without the obstructions of electrical lights and pollution were an everyday event for them; from primitive man up to just a few hundred years ago. Even though Stoneman is a dark site in our modern world, surely any skies even just one hundred years ago must have been better then this. It’s almost a shame what we have done to our planet. But without the technology that brought us the light pollution we would not have our wonderful telescopes and equipment that allow us to enjoy deep space. It would be nice to think that someday we could use our knowledge to have the best of both worlds: our modern conveniences along with our primitive night skies.
Anyway…with most of the group calling it quits I continued my search for unseen DSO’s. The sky actually had taken a turn for the worse. The SkyClock said it would be very nice for this evening but it was turning out to be false; high, thin clouds started to invade. Regardless, I started out in Hercules looking for the lesser objects it contains. My searching was interrupted by Dennis who had brought something for me to check out: his Denkmeier Binoviewers. I’ve looked through other Binoviewers (that also belonged to Dennis) and was not that impressed; especially for the price. But this pair was awesome. The Globular Cluster M13 in Hercules took on the appearance of an orb floating in the darkness rather then a flat object pasted against a black background. The 3-D effect was phenomenal. Dennis thought that I would be cursing him but instead I thanked him. I’d rather have somebody show me a wonderful piece of equipment I can’t afford (although the Denkmeier offer is very tempting) then waste my money on an inferior piece of equipment I can afford.
After wiping the drool from my eyes I resumed my search in Hercules for those magnitude 13 galaxies I like to find. Of course my weapon of choice is the Meade 16” Starfinder Dobsonian and an Orion Expanse 20mm EP at 90x. The first galaxy I found was NGC 6255. It appeared to be an elliptical galaxy with a tiny bright core. The body of the galaxy was more pronounced near the core’s side and thinning out into a point on the other. The core side of the galaxy had two stars nearby: one slightly brighter then the other. Next I searched for NGC’s 6146 & 6173. I found two galaxies in the area that my charts say they are in but I was not happy with the comparisons of my sketches to their locations with SNP or their photos from the NGC-IC Project. Above these galaxies is a faint planetary designated NGC 6058 which I was not able to locate.
The sky had really gone soft in most areas so I decided to take a break from the telescope and hope for better skies later in the night. I wondered if anybody was still awake and walked over to Thom & Ellen’s camp. There, I found most everybody sitting around the heater. Even though it was not as cold as expected it was still a little chilly and the heater is a welcome thing. One thing I’ve come to enjoy about these gatherings is not just the dark skies but also the company of my friends and how alike we think about the world around us. After spending about an hour talking with everybody I chanced a look up towards the sky. The softness had cleared and the transparency returned. Looking up at the clear dark sky here in Stoneman was like being a kid again and walking out into the living room on Christmas day after Santa had come!
I decided to try and find the little galaxies in the Little Bear. My charts showed there to be approximately four of them. The first one I found was NGC 6217. It’s a magnitude 11.5 galaxy located under Eta and Zeta Ursae Minoris and appeared oval in shape with a fairly bright core in the center. My next target was NGC 5832 located on the other side of the “bowl” between Pherkad and Kochab. It is much dimmer then the previous galaxy at magnitude 13. It appeared oval-ish in shape with no discernable core. The body of the galaxy was fairly even in brightness. There appeared to be a star very close to the galaxy. The third galaxy I was hunting for was NGC 6048 located on the Pherkad and Eta side of Ursa Minor. Maybe the skies were a little softer then I thought because this galaxy is also a magnitude 13 galaxy but was much dimmer then 5832. However, it is much smaller in size. It really only appeared as a small blur near 3 dim stars. The last galaxy in Ursa Minor turned out to be the smallest and faintest of all four at magnitude 13.4. NGC 5144 is located near Draco on the Camelopardalis side. Its location is within a small group of stars that make the shape of a square in line with the brightest pair. The galaxy itself was a mere smudge with a tiny core.
Just as I finished up in the Little Bear I finally heard the Coyotes cry. Their queries came from the eastern edge of Blind Lake Tank with returns from the western side. As far as I was aware, nobody else was awake to hear them. But that’s what I get for thinking. Ron was still awake and had walked over to see what I was doing. Either he is stealthy as a fox of my attention was turned down a notch because I didn’t hear his approach. When I realized he was standing next to me it caught me by surprise and I almost knocked him out. We talked for short while and I took a few pictures of the Milky Way with the digital camera. The Coyotes cries were short lived and Ron’s visit brief: I turned my attention to another animal: Aquila the Eagle was flying high.
Within the “body” of the Eagle my charts showed there to be three planetary nebulae that I wanted to see. The first was NGC 6804. I was still using the 20mm EP without the filter. When I finally found the magnitude 12.2 PN I noted it had an odd shape to it. It looked like a comet to me. From the brightest part that I was assuming was the central star, two wisps of brightness came off of it that looked like little tails. I made my sketch of it vowing to return at another time for a better look with the filter. Nearby is another dimmer planetary that I could not find. It is NGC 6803. I must have spent about ½ hr looking for this little faint object with no luck. The area is a rather star-filled area and after researching the object once I got back home I found the reason why I couldn’t find it in the field: this thing is small! I probably did find it but did not realize what I was looking at. I should make a more detailed map of the area and look again someday. The last PN I looked for was NGC 6852 located in the wing of the eagle near the Aquarius/Capricorn side. It is NGC 6852. It too had an odd shape to it with a number of faint brighter spots within its somewhat circular shape. There was just a hint of the blue-green color that I love to see.
Before we had left for Stoneman I did some snooping around looking for objects that I wanted to find. One of them was another comet called “Bradfield”. Its prime viewing time had passed but I still wanted to see it anyway. SNP showed it to be in Andromeda just below the famous galaxy of the same name. I had been watching the eastern horizon waiting for Andromeda to rise below Cassiopeia and Pegasus: off course, just as Andromeda got high enough our friendly high, thin clouds rolled back in obscuring my view of the eastern skies. Comet Bradfield would have to wait for another day. What I did find was a nice 26.12 day old crescent moon coming up over the trees. I quickly snapped a photo of it just in time for my camera battery to die.
The temperatures were not as cold as I thought they would have been. I was expecting them to drop into the 20’s. I did find a slight frost had build up some of my equipment but later, somebody had said the low was only 37 degrees. Either way, it was cold enough for me and I wrapped up my equipment and sent myself to bed.
NIGHT TWO:
I actually only slept for a few hours. The morning was kind of foggy; not literally, just in my head. When John finally woke up we hiked around the woods a little. Thom drove into Flagstaff to fix his tire but I missed that part: I was napping trying to catch up on sleep. When I woke I found Ron inventing a new game. It’s called “Bungee Cord Tent-Stake Launching (Helmets required)”. The winds had picked up substantially and the sky was completely clouded over with a thin layer of high clouds. All we could hope for was that they would depart by sundown as they usually do. Well, they didn’t.
When night fell we found ourselves starring at a different kind of veil. It was a good thing we had all looked at the comet the night before. When true darkness set in the sky had cleared a little and we did get a chance to look at the comet this night riding above the Beehive Cluster. The view was nice but still a little obscured. Thom had made Corn Beef and Cabbage and once again we had to be forced to eat dinner.
After dinner the skies had opened up here and there. Corvus was flying fairly low in the southern skies but sailing was clear. My first object of the night was NGC 4462 and magnitude 12.8 galaxy located near Kraz and inline with Minkar. The body of the galaxy appeared oval in shape and was fairly even across the surface. A bright core is visible as well as a semi-bright star near the body. I did take a peek at the PN in the middle of Corvus. The planetary did not have much color, was round and the central star is visible at 90x. From the group of people behind me I heard that familiar “Whoa…!” and knew it was my clue to look up. A huge meteor was streaking across the sky under Jupiter. When I retuned to my ‘scope I found the area around Corvus had gone foul so I pawed my way across the sky to Lynx.
Near Alpha Lyncis I found a little galaxy called NGC 2832 shining at magnitude 12.8. The body was oval and showed a brighter spot as the core. Nearby were other “bright” spots that I thought might be even fainter galaxies. Instead of investigating further I moved onto another galaxy called NGC 2793. This galaxy is pretty faint at magnitude 13.6 and is located around a smattering of dim spots that could be other fainter galaxies or just dim suns. The body is oval in shape and the core barely visible.
Then the skies turned truly junky and the wind picked up again. We all retired to the back of Thom & Ellen’s trailer where we talked about what we had seen. Ellen had amazingly found the “Leo Trio” in her TV85 which tonight was hiding near the bright glow that Jupiter was putting off. (Not her TeleVue silly, the galaxies!) We kept taking glances up at the sky and found for the most part it was like looking at the sky through seran wrap: visible but not quite in focus.
When the skies finally cleared I resumed my search in Corvus which was now much lower but still the most transparent part of the sky. John was searching Bootes with the XT10 looking for a galaxy near Rho Bootis. He asked for my help but I could not find it either. Perplexed (and not knowing the magnitude of the galaxy he was looking for) I tried in the much larger Starfinder. The galaxy is NGC 5653 and is located in the middle of a little triangular shaped group of stars. The body was round in shape with a bright core in the center. Now that I knew its location I went back to the XT10 but still I could see it even though I knew its location.
Back in Corvus I found two more galaxies: NGC 4714 was the first. It’s another one of those small, faint galaxies shining at magnitude 13.3, is elongated in shape, the body is even across the surface with no visible core however there is a brighter spot just outside of the body. The last new object of the night was also in Corvus and turned out to be a 3-in-1 object. NGC 4782 also contains NGC 4783. Together they have an elongated shape with a brighter core on one side of the object. In the same FOV is what I believe to be NGC 4804: a tiny oval shaped galaxy without much detail.
Well, the sky had really been coming and going all night long. I once again found myself at the back of Thom and Ellen’s trailer, chatting with my friends and waiting for the skies to open up again. Sometime around 3am this finally happened and I returned to my ‘scope. John had long since gone to bed and so had most of the other group. Aquila was now riding high in the sky and looking pretty nice. I wanted to investigate NGC 6804: the “comet” shaped PN I found the night before. This time I used my still rather new 1rpd 2” EP (60x) along with the Orion SkyGlow filter. I found the filter took away most of the “comet” shape making it appear more round. I still could not find (or see) the nearby PN called NGC 6803. What I did find was that as fast as the sky had cleared it could go south just as fast. Knowing I had a long drive ahead of me later in the day, I halted my observing session and opted for bed.
Waking sometime around 8pm I found a few early risers wondering how my night had faired. I had to report they did not miss much and this news they were happy (I guess) to hear. Slowly but surely we started packing up our gear getting ready for our drives home. When John and I were finally ready to go, Thom, Ellen & Ron were the only ones left. We said our goodbyes and talked briefly of our plans for next weekend. Of course, the ultimate decision would be the weather.
The drive home was uneventful. We made a quick stop in Flagstaff for a civilized breakfast before heading west on Interstate 40. Once again we were confronted by the Dam Police on the Arizona side of Hover Dam. The first guy was funny. He stopped us, looked in the bed of the truck and said plain and simple, no questions asked: “Whatever you have in the back of the truck, I don’t care to know; you need to pull over to the side and open it up.” They did a fair job of making us open everything up before letting us go about our business. Someday in 2007 the Dam Fly-over is supposed to open up so we won’t have to go through this ordeal. Until then, John and I will continue to make up (not out loud to the Dam Police of course!) things about what could be in the big cardboard boxes.
New Objects Viewed:
- NGC 6255 (Gal) / Mag: 13.5 / Size: 3.5’ x 1.5’ / Hercules
- NGC 6217 (Gal) / Mag: 11.5 / Size: 3.1’ x 2.7’ / Ursa Minor
- NGC 5832 (Gal) / Mag: 13.0 / Size: 3.7’ x 2.5’ / Ursa Minor
- NGC 6048 (Gal) / Mag: 13.0 / Size: 2.2’ x 1.7’ / Ursa Minor
- NGC 6804 / PK45-4.1 (PN) / Mag: 12.2 / Size: 62” x 49” / Aquila
- NGC 6852 / PK42-14.1 (PN)/ Size: 28” / Aquila
- NGC 4462 (Gal) / Mag: 12.8 / Size: 3.7’ x 1.6’ / Corvus
- NGC 2832 (Gal) / Mag: 12.8 / Size: 3.3’ x 2.2’ / Lynx
- NGC 2739 (Gal) / Mag: 13.6 / Size: 1.3’ x 1.1’ / Lynx
- NGC 5653 (Gal) / Mag: 12.9 / Size: 1.8 x 1.5’ / Bootes
- NGC 4714 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 1.6’ x 1.2’ / Corvus
- NGC 4783/82 (Gal) / Mag: 12.7 / Size: 1.7’ x 1.6’ / Corvus
- NGC 4804 [NGC 4802] (Gal) / Mag: 12.6 / Size: 0.9’ X 0.6’ / Corvus
THIS PAGE WAS CREATED ON MAY, 27, 2004
