I drove down the winding road from Grand View to Pinion and met up with all the others.

We spent most of the day, again, talking of what these dark skies along with the high elevation would bring us. All the others, besides Geoff and John had been to this site before. The general consensus was that the skies at Pinion were comparable to Stoneman but even better at Grand View due to its higher elevation. During the course of the afternoon, the skies teased us as the sun broke out at times only to have the cloud cover return. At one point, a brief rain shower had us running for cover. For the most part, it was sunny and we spent the day moving our chairs around following the shade of a tall ponderosa pine. As evening neared, Thom made us a fabulous dinner of ribs. Around 8:30, the skies looked as though they would cooperate with us so Dennis, John and I returned to Grand View and began to set up our ‘scopes.

I was so excited about being able to set up my ‘scope, I think the winding road and it’s steep drop-offs bothered me just a little less then usual. At Grand View, we found some high, thin clouds had returned which had come in from the southwest. It took me about a half-hour to set up my scope and collimate it properly.

The clouds quickly passed by and just as it got dark, around 9:30, my viewing began. (At this point I must say I did not take field notes of all the objects I looked at. Actually, this whole trip, my notebook remained either in my tent or wrapped up under plastic in the truck.) The sky, like everyone had promised was crystal clear and ultra dark. The Milky Way was truly cloud-like and very bright. At times we did get some sky-glow to the WNW probably from Fresno.

The Ring Nebula was my first object and I found it looking very similar to the views the XT10 gets. I didn’t spend much time on M57 at this time. I wanted to check out the galaxies in UMa but instead looked at M13 in Hercules. Dennis pointed out that it was visible naked-eye from this site. The view was very pleasing at 91x with many stars resolved all the way to the core of the globular. Dennis’ 28” ‘scope blew mine away and I swear you could see the darkness of space on the other side of M13 even at the core. While I was looking for M13, I noticed a little blur of a galaxy right near M13 I had never seen before. I asked Dennis about it and he told me: “Welcome to the world of large Telescopes!” This is what the increased aperture of the Starfinder will give me. The little galaxy is NGC 6207 and has an apparent magnitude of 11.30 and is located 28’ off M13. John was looking at the Trifid (M20) so I too aimed my ‘scope at the nebula. One thing I am noticing is that with my new ‘scope, I can use lower powered eyepieces to get better, wider views of objects compared to the other ‘scopes I have. John also had his TeleVue Pronto ‘scope out, which won the “‘scope set up at the highest elevation” contest, and was looking at Andromeda. He also had a pair of super nice binoculars that he was using. I wish I remembered more about them but it was the new kind that “froze” the object and made it steadier while viewing.

When I was at the GCSP, I saw the Veil Nebula for the first time. I thought it was awesomely beautiful. In these dark skies and elevation the detail the Starfinder offered was incredible. It was certainly no longer a “faint fuzzy”.

Having looked through the other ‘scopes, I returned to my own ‘scope I chose to look at the globular NGC 6934 in Delphinus that I had seen from Mt. Charleston on another occasion. The Starfinder resolved stars to the core at 91x unlike the XT10 did at 266x. While in the area, I looked at M71, the faint globular in Sagitta with the same results. The constellation next door of Vulpecula holds the wonderful planetary nebula; The Dumbbell. I shouldn’t have been surprised that in the Starfinder, this object is super bright and very large. I should have put the nebula filter on to look but I didn’t. I was in too much of a hurry to see what else I could find. Triangulum was high enough to go for the Pinwheel Galaxy and after looking at this object, I was sold on my new ‘scope. My stay at M33, for the moment, was short lived as another round of high, thin clouds started to roll in. John thought it looked more permanent this time and not likely to move off. John, and then Dennis announced they were going to tear down and head back for lower ground. While they were taking apart their ‘scopes and loading up their gear, a voice spoke to us in the dark. No, it was not a friendly person inquiring if they could take a look but instead it was an irate, non-astronomer camper who was wondering if we were going to stop our activities any time soon. It appeared we were making too much noise and they couldn’t sleep. The time was approaching midnight and I guess our voices were exaggerated in the quietness of our remote locale. We apologized as Dennis and John finished packing up. John headed back first but Dennis remained for an hour or so. We had been watching Mars rise in the sky and now it was high enough for a good view, especially since the sky had opened back up and became very transparent.

Simply put, Mars blew us away. The clarity and detail were astounding to me. I really wish I had taken the time to make a sketch but I was to busy just looking. I could almost see how the early observers of Mars might have thought the planet had canals on it. (I have read the original idea was that of “channels” and not canals but somehow got misconstrued) We found the best view was at 182x with the Orion APO 2x Barlow and the Orion Expanse 20mm eyepiece. Bumping up the power to 244x took away some of the crispness so we reverted back to the 20mm instead of the 15mm. Since I did not have an aperture mask, Dennis hung his jacket over the end of the tube. Even this simple improvised adjustment tremendously improved the view of Mars and took away much of the brightness reflecting off the planet. We found the balance of the Starfinder would not hold at this angle and Dennis once again made an improvised improvement by wedging a rock between the mirror cell and the mirror base plate. I wasn’t to hip on the idea but it worked. (Later, I placed my 3 counterweight bolts and the rock inside a plastic bag and tied them to the mirror base handle. I liked it better like that.) For future reference, Dennis showed me how I could use Velcro and sandbags as counterweights on my ‘scope.

Next Dennis showed me an object I would never be able to see with the XT10; at least I don’t think I would. The object is Stephens Quintet; a group of 5 closely knit, faint galaxies in Pegasus. He also showed me how to find it easily. About 4 degrees off the star called Matar is a bright NGC galaxy: 7331. Less then one degree away, just outside the FOV is Stephens Quintet. I could only make out 3 of the 5 but with closer study, I’m sure I could make out the other 2.

An object I’ve seen before, even from TBY but with no detail is the Cat’s Eye Nebula in Draco. The map I had seemed a little off and it took Dennis only a minute or two to find it. When I had my chance to look through the eyepiece, I was totally amazed at what I could see: the central star was visible! Also visible was the wonderful greenish/blue color of the gaseous cloud surrounding the planetary. The central star was a yellowish color and at higher powers the distance between the central star and the cloud was clearly visible. Being able to see this object like how I was seeing it made me totally satisfied with the Meade 16” Starfinder.

Dennis had spent about an hour helping me out since he had taken his ‘scope down. I imagine the time was around 1am when he finally left to go back down to the Pinion Campground. After he left, I chose to look at the Ring Nebula again. I was wondering if I could see the central star of that planetary. After going up to 610x, I decided the answer was “no” and moved on to another object I had already looked at tonight.

I had only seen M33, the Pinwheel Galaxy a few times. The first time was from the semi-dark skies outside of Las Vegas and then again at GCSP when it was not very high in the sky. Both times I was not impressed by this much talked about galaxy. Tonight was to be very different. At 91x with the 20mm Expanse eyepiece and its 66 degree FOV, I could barely contain the whole galaxy at one time. The spiraling effects of the galaxies arms were most definitely discernable. I was even able to clearly make out near the edge of the larger galaxy another galaxy called NGC 604.

When I was at GCSP trying to find the galaxy M74 in Pisces, my aim was off and I had to be rescued by Dennis. Tonight, I found it all on my own by using the correct pointer stars in Aries. M74 is only 1 degree off the mag 4 star Eta Piscium in Pisces. At GCSP, the star was a little washed-out in the twilight but tonight it was certainly naked-eye visible. Eta Piscium is a much better landmark to find M74 and I really didn’t need the pointers Hamal and Sheratan in Aries. Now I can say I found M74 all on my own!

The weather was holding out for me even though I had brief moments where high, thin clouds had moved in. For the most part, they passed by rather quickly. I did experience something I had never had before, that being dew. It didn’t affect my ‘scope at all but I did cloud up the Telrad and an eyepiece on occasion. My map was covered in dew and I’m glad it was coated with a thin layer of plastic. Earlier in the night I had to put Sierra in the tent because she kept wandering off. I decided to go check on her and walked down to my tent that was rather close by. I guess the crunching sound of the rocks under my feet bothered the next-door camper, he must have been almost 50 yards away, and he let me know by yelling “shut-up over there”. He must not have been a city person. I quietly went about my business and tried not to make any more noise. I guess the fact that his dog heard me too and was yapping didn’t help matters. Finding Sierra safe and sound sleeping comfortably in the tent, I returned to my ‘scope and ate a sandwich I had made hoping the noise would not disturb my neighbor.

I wanted to find some new objects and my map showed that the constellation Cetus had risen sufficiently enough to catch a new Messier object. Below the mag 3.5 star Kaffalijidhma in the head of the sea monster, 3 degrees along the body, the next bright star is mag 4 Delta Ceti. From there, make a nearly 90 degree left turn towards Eridanus and go 51’ to find the galaxy M77 or Cetus A. Go back to Delta Ceti and continue on towards the mag 5.5 star 70 Ceti. Stop about 2/3rd the distance and once again go left at 90 degrees (on the line) towards Eridanus about 40’ to find the small but rather bright galaxy NGC 936.

Moving on to another group of stars that resembles the head of the sea monster is one of the fish in Pisces located under the Great Square of Pegasus. (Not the fish looking at Triangulum) On a line that starts at Scheat in Pegasus and goes to Markab continuing nearly 3 degrees is another faint 11.6 mag galaxy; NGC 7479. Between Pegasus and Pisces is a small group of 4 stars that are roughly all mag 5 stars. On a line between these stars and Theta Piscium my map showed a faint 12.10 mag galaxy that is still actually in Pegasus. I found this galaxy rather easily and when I did, I found another galaxy very comparable in size and brightness right next to it. The galaxies are NGC 7619 and NGC 7626. Both are visible in the same FOV.

I found myself getting a little tired even though it was only around 4am. It looked like some more substantial clouds would move in and I thought of more possible rain showers moving in or at least that heavy dew would get my ‘scope wet. I wanted to cover up my ‘scope with the plastic tarp and then go to bed. When I tried to cover them up, the plastic made I guess an awfully loud noise and my next-door camper sternly reminded me of the early hour. I never got the ‘scope covered. Not wanting to leave my ‘scope unprotected, I thought I’d just sit in my chair and fall asleep, if it started raining, then I would wake up and quickly cover every thing up regardless of the noise. I sat for about a half-hour watching Capella in Auriga rise into the sky. Last November when I got my first ‘scope, Auriga was high in the sky and the Messier objects it holds were some of the first I looked at seeing they were big and bright. So, I got up and looked at them. The Open-Clusters M38 and M36 were as nice as I remembered but in the twilight that was starting to break, I could not see M37. I took one last look at Mars which was still clear and crisp.

I could barely hold my eyes open anymore and needed to lie down in the tent. I wrapped my ‘scope up with the long plastic bag for the tube and covered the rest with a quite blanket. At about 5:30am, I took one last look at the morning sky noting Saturn rising big, bright and yellow.

My rest did not last long as my next-door camper decided to wake up and started banging around his campsite. I’m sure he could have been a little more quite but I guess he thought he would get his revenge on me. He slammed doors and let his kids and dog run up and down the road in front of my camp. At 6:30, I had finally had enough and woke up. As I stepped out of my tent, I found my next-door camper driving by with his SUV all packed up.

I decided to do the same and move my camp down to Pinion with the others where I should have gone in the first place.

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