Date: 2005/03/09-13
Location: Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada (Arch Rock Campground)
Altitude: ~2150 ft. ASL
Time: All day & night
Weather:
- Temperature = ~80 - 45°f
- Humidity = ~25%
- Winds = Variable
- Clouds = 6
- Transparency = 6/5
- Seeing = 5/4
- Darkness = 5/4
Moon Phase: 0%

 Telescopes Used:
- Meade 16” Starfinder Dobsonian
- Meade LXD55-AR5 Refractor
- Orion 100mm AstroView Refractor / EQ-3
- Orion ST80 / XHD Paragon
+ Barska 15 x 70 Binoculars

              

It's been a long time coming: a chance to get out to dark skies with my 'scopes. After months of rain, clouds and wind the new moon of March finally gave me the chance for a semi-dark sky observing session at one of my favorite campgrounds.

Leaving early on Wednesday I arrived to find the campground nearly full: my favorite sites were taken and I had to settle for my 4th favorite site. Trying to use a telescope at Valley of Fire is not really the optimal choice. But nonetheless, it's one that's close to my home and is very beautiful during the daylight hours and I got to observe one of the largest Sun-spots I'd ever seen! It's downside besides the close proximity to Las Vegas are mostly the other campers: they have porch lights on their RV's (hardly anybody tent's it anymore), lanterns on their tables, fires in their pits and flashlights for walking around. There are also the people who drive in and out trying to find a campsite. It's hard to escape their headlights as they pass by. Regardless, this is the place I chose to spend 4 nights of observing.

The up-side to all the other campers was that I got to show-off my telescopes and of course I let anybody who was willing to walk into my camp a look through them. That's one of the things I like best: giving people who may never have looked through a telescope that chance. I met a really nice man who is from Alberta, Canada. His name is Terry and each day he stopped by for a look at the Sun and then at what ever I wanted to show him at night. We also talked about native plants and culture and how our modern society is trying to force the earth into what we want it to be: not what it was meant to be.

One of my "neighbors" named Pat stopped by, not to look through the 'scopes but to tell me a funny story. He said about 30 years ago he and his wife were camping in Joshua Tree National Monument in California. He noticed about 30 people or so setting up 'scopes and going about their business. Well, when night-fall came, he, like most campers do, struck up a fire. Within minutes he had a large group of people in his camp asking him to put it out. Do you supposed it was the people with the telescopes? Anyway, Pat wanted me to know that when he pulled up in to camp and saw my 'scopes sitting there, he made sure he put his rather large 5th wheel in between me and where his fire was going to go! I thought it very kind and considerate of him. Thanks Pat...happy trials!

 

As you can see, the surrounding country-side has awe inspiring sites!

 

My first night started out with high-thin clouds making for the viewing my intended objects - magnitude 13 galaxies, a difficult thing to achieve. As I waited for the other campers to turn out their lights the skies too cleared enough for me to find my targets: but only those straight or nearly overhead.

Thursday night started out looking very promising. I did have to erect a makeshift "photon-phyter" to block out an annoying light.  Just as I started to do some more serious observing, a steady breeze kicked up. While I waited for the wind to die down I searched the Puppis/Monoceros region with the Barska Bino's. My patience paid off and by midnight I was on my way. The Milky Way rose above the ridge of rocks sometime around 3am: it was the best I'd ever seen it at the Valley of Fire. The bigger picture (like most) look much better then this photo. Of course, due to file size, they have to be greatly reduced.

 

Jupiter in Virgo...

 

My LXD55-AR5 did what I think was a fine job of capturing M13. I wanted to take more frames but the camera battery was running low.

 

Friday evening was almost circus like. The campground was completely full that night but that didn't stop others from trying to find an open spot. Cars, trucks, vans, motorcycles and even bus-like RV's drove in and out of camp. The sky was looking really good too but all these vehicles were kicking up tons of dust not to mention their headlights! Of course, the nights campfires were started at sunset as if on queue. One thing I didn't realize was that cardboard qualified for firewood - and man, does it stink when it's burning. From my vantage point at the crest of the little valley I was set up in, it looked like a scene out of "Apocalypse Now"! I kept telling myself - it's still better then my backyard. And it was...around midnight the smoke and dust cleared and I had a wonderful night of observing. I even managed to find a planetary nebulae in Hercules that had evaded me several times before at much darker locations: NGC 6058.

Earlier in the evening I had a large family from Utah come to my camp. I was happy to show them Saturn, the nearby Eskimo Nebula and Both Bode's and the Cigar galaxies. The teenage girls wanted to see the 7 Sisters and it was a great opportunity to show them the difference between a large telescope and the small ones. They all agreed that Pleiades looked much better in the ST80 then it did in the 16" Dobsonian! Now at least they understood why I had so many 'scopes: they all do different things better.

Saturday morning was unrepentantly quite. I was surprised that I was able to sleep until at least noon each day. I had my daily visit from Terry and later Pat came over to talk some more. He suggested I talk to the Park and see if they could set aside and area just for astronomers: that would be a dream come true if it could happen. I did see my Ranger friend Heather and we talked more about the upcoming "Moonlight Astronomy" event set for next Friday night.

Saturday evening brought me the "sun" I'd been waiting for: my son John! He had been at Apex riding his sand-rail and when it got dark he made his was out to Valley of Fire. Most of the evening was spent sitting around camp talking and waiting for more favorable observing conditions. We did have a group come up to our site much later then most people had come. At first they almost walked away because Sierra was putting up such a fit. Finally I convinced them it was ok. They were the lucky ones that got to see not only Saturn, but Jupiter as well. The object that really blew them away was M13: it gets everybody!

John didn't last it too long - he'd had a busy day already. Sierra stayed up with me chasing who knows what around the bushes while I searched for objects most amateur astronomers never bother to look at. I managed to find 27 new objects that night: the dimmest a magnitude 15 galaxy in Bootes - NGC 5490. I also got to observe a planetary nebulae in Serpens Caput that had eluded me at GCSP last year. That would be PK13+32.1. One of the objects I was unable to see was NGC 3172 in Ursa Minor. It is the most northerly galaxy and is nicknamed "Polarissima Borealis". An object close by that I could find was the fading Comet Machholz. It still held it's teal color but was mostly a big glow with a nice nucleus. I could not see any hint of a tail but what was nice was that it was framed between a very yellow star on one side and a very white star on the other. It actually looked to me that a faint foreground or background star was within the glow of the comet.

Sunday morning came much too early. It had been four nights observing and even though most of them were short due to less then favorable conditions caused both by nature and man-made - it had been four nights I was very thankful to have had. Below are two "fun" shots I took. One of Orion standing on the rocks and the other of Corvus taking a dive into a tree. Yes, I was shining a blue flashlight on the trees and a red one on the rocks. I think it looks cool.

    

 

NEW OBJECTS OBSERVED:

Gemini - NGC 2365, 2342, 2435, 2389, 2481, IC 2196
Ursa Major - NGC 4194, 4102, 4068, 4271, 4384, 4686, 5473, 5474, 5485, 5443, 5475, 5585, 5631, 5448, 5480, 5481, 5204, 5216, 5205, 5218, 5308, 5430, 4814, 4290, 4335, 4284, 4500
Lynx – NGC 2415
Cancer – NGC 2679, 2680, 2619, 2608
Leo – NGC 3598, 3655, 3681, 3684, 3686, 3691, 3659, 3632, 3800, 3872
Corvus – NGC 4024, 4033, 4050, 4035, 4094, 4114, 4177, 4263 (4265), 4727, 4763
Bootes – NGC 5665, 5669, 5656, 5614, 5533, 5557, 5529, 5582, 5899, 5490, 5689, 5660, 5676, 5633, IC 982, 983
Libra – NGC 5885, 5858, 5861, 5821, 5768, 5792, 5729, 5657
Hydra – NGC 2615, 2765
Canes Venatici – NGC 5198, 5173, 5103, 5123, 5145, 5023, 4800, 4956, 4868, 4914, 5014, 4956, 4460, IC 4182, 3667, 3675
Hercules – NGC 6058, 6484
Virgo – NGC 5634, 5534, 5740, 5750, 5713, 5719, 5691, 5806, 5831, 5869, 5854, 5864
Lupus – NGC 5834
Ophiuchus – NGC 6356, 6342
Serpens Caput – PK13+32.1