24.8.2011 - Goat Mountain Astronomical Research Station (GMARS)

Date: 24./25.8.2011
Observing location: GMARS, Landers, California, USA (897 meters / 2942 feet)
NE Lim.mag: 7.5m (zenith)
SQM-L: 21.54 (zenith)
Background sky: 7-8 (excellent)
Seeing: 8 (excellent)
Transparency: 7 (excellent)
Weather: +29.4 - 24.2°C, humidity 25-34%, gusts of NW wind.

The night after Anza-Borrego I had set up a visit to a near by (77 kilometres / 48 miles away) observing site of the Riverside Astronomical Society (RAS). Located in the small town of Landers, the spot combines higher altitude (897 meters / 2942 feet), dark skies and a great place to host secret parties at a bachelor pad should you be in need of one. I was kindly offered to hitch a ride from Palm Springs with site director Stan Broberg to meet up at the site with Gary Nelson and Alex McConahay. So in my trip to the US, I might actually have to speak English.

The site hosts several private observatories, observing pads with electricity and probably in the future observing pads without electricity for visual observers; which is probably good too. You know how those astrophotographers can be with their bright lights and equipment. Visitors not only have the possibility to camp at the site grounds but also sleep indoors at one of the many beds located in two separate main buildings. Add in bathroom, showers, fridge, full kitchen with all goodies, a TV (nearly twice as big as mine), DVDs (for the rare cloudy nights), huge library of astronomy books and magazines and it is safe to say you've come to a Mecca of astronomy. The entire clubhouse has a full night vision-mode (only red lights) to used at night which to me seemed quite clever and now suprising that I haven't seen such set up at any of our observatories. And boy, isn't this place something to envy. Above all else, it is obvious that this place is built with a lot of love and skill and maintained by a core group of great people.

As the sun set between Joshua Trees I set up my gear on a table and started to wait for darkness. Stan offered me to borrow me a Orion observing chair (not that my back was killing me after 4 nights of sitting in the ground in various positions) which came in quite handy especially when sketching. Few minutes after, Alex came and asked if I'd be interested if I wanted use the 22" Capella for the night. Saying yes wasn't difficult and I got to use the scope for the entire night with a suitcase full of Nagler eyepieces!

NGC 7009 sketched with the 22" Capella

With the 22 inch Capella, I decided to sketch an object from at least every object type. After having a quick gaze at M8, I was ready to drop a diffuse nebula from the list. After few minutes of thinking I selected the following objects:

NGC 6281 (open cluster)
NGC 6302 (planetary nebula)
IC 1295 (planetary nebula)
NGC 7479 (galaxy)
NGC 7009 (planetary nebula)

If nothing else, these should at least be interesting to view with such large aperture - detail-wise. It would also be interesting to first view the objects with the XT4.5 then move to a larger aperture to see more. But that wasn't all. To add in a few more challenging objects out of my head to log, I came up with:

IC 1296 (galaxy near Ring Nebula)
2MASX J22290968-2047179 (tiny galaxy inside Helix Nebula)
Tonantzintla 2 (globular cluster)

I used the big boy Capella to sketch 3 objects from Scorpius before the wind forced me down the ladder. For a start, I have to say NGC 6302 yielded some great detail at high power but the sketch came up ugly and confusing as can be expected of me. NGC 6281 looked pretty much the same as it did with the 4.5" scope but with more stars obviously. Tonantzintla 2 appeared resolved from the edges although these are without a doubt just foreground stars. So, with the winds still quite strong, I returned my little scope to continue to uncover the secrets from the Scorpius-Sagittarius-Scutum region.

NGC 7479 with the 22" Capella

This, of course meant observing more "trivial" open clusters as well as some of the good, old friends: NGC 6124, NGC 6603, NGC 6822, IC 1296 (sketched with both the 4.5" and the 22" Capella) and NGC 246. I also did some more Sky Atlas-work by observing and sketching galaxies NGC 6941, NGC 6962, NGC 6814 and NGC 6903 from page 16 and took a break from the small scope by viewing the M57 / Ring Nebula with the 22" Capella and more interestingly the small galaxy IC 1296 just NW of it. After a little break before midnight, I returned to the monster Capella for a breathtaking views of NGC 7009, NGC 7479 and NGC 7293. The tiny galaxy next to the Helix nebula was visible as a small, elongated spot at high magnification. Unfortunately for all parties, I'm not any good or a big fan of sketching with large apertures. There is often simply too much subtle, complex detail to sketch properly. But at least I tried, no matter the results.

A Joshua Tree, observatories and no pizza place

Early in the AM the winds had calmed down and my SQM-L meter showed measurements in the 21.50-category. With the naked eye, I could just squint a few 7.4 magnitude stars close to zenith. Apart from the few stray lights of the local residents and the minor light domes of LA and Twentynine Palms(?) the GMARS site was more than adequate for some serious deep sky observing. Also, after Anza-Borrego, the temperatures were quite a lot more enjoyable and I could stargaze the whole night in shorts and T-shirt.

I encourage people from all walks of life, interested in astronomy and observing in general to give this site a go.  You won't regret it. I'd like to thank Alex, Gary and Stan for the great hospitality and time I had at the GMARS site. And Stan, next time lunch's on me. I hope I'll get the chance to visit Landers again some time in the future.

23.8.2011 - In a hot, hot desert...

Date: 23./24.8.2011
Observing site: Anza-Borrego Desert, California, USA (240 meters / 787 feet)
NE Lim.mag: 7.3m (zenith)
SQM-L: 21.39 (zenith)
Background sky: 7 (excellent)
Seeing: 6 (good)
Transparency: 4-5 (good)
Weather: +37.5 - 35.2°C, humidity <10%, strong gusts of wind from north.

The cold and cuddly Anza-Borrego

My first touch with dark skies in California was in a primitive camping site in the Anza-Borrego desert. Temperature-wise, I thought I had it bad in Palm Springs. As I set up the telescope in a searing heat of +45°C / 112°F, I took comfort in the thought that it would soon get colder and I could enjoy a typical, beautiful night under the night sky. Two hours later, I knew it was going to be an observing session worthy of telling the grand kids about. As sweat was literally dripping from every gap, hole and chasm in my body I looked at my portable weather station: +37.5°C / 100°F. It was going to be a long night. As the sun set, a breeze from the north followed. You might consider this a relief but think again: Go to a sauna, bring a friend. When the sauna is warm enough, ask your friend to take a deep breath and blow some air, say to your arm. There you have the "soothing breeze" of the Anza Borrego desert. Other than the temperatures, the place was good enough for some basic observing. Being midway between Salton City and Borrego Springs, light pollution was visible from both of these locations as well as lights from the LA/Palm Desert area. In any case, SQM-L meter showed numbers in the 21.30s in many parts of the sky so as a warm-up session, this would do just fine. Another thing surely worth mentioning was the humidity: below 10%!

XT 4.5 ready to go in Anza-Borrego

The first object to go after was surprisingly Pluto. I had a time window of 3-4 days to spot the dwarf planet before it would "disappear" in to the rich star fields of the Milky Way. It is not a big surprise that the 4.5" SkyQuest had little trouble showing Pluto even in the deepening twilight. SQM-L showed only 19.90 in the region when I first spotted the defunct planet. Identifying it would have been impossible without a printed DSS image of the region.

Real observing started in Scorpius from where I first observed the globular cluster NGC 6453, M8, several open clusters and the beautiful dark nebula B286 (appears as a heart-shaped dark patch). I took a lot of time to log many dark nebulae in the Sco-Sag-Oph region I had not observed before. Keep in mind that when observing for darks, you should only log them as seen when you see a definite difference between the dark nebula and the background sky. Simply logging areas without stars won't do the trick - at least for me.

The failed M11...

I struggled with M8 as it is so massively infused with detail. NGC 6437 and NGC 6415 were surprisingly good objects despite the fact that they're both simple star clouds. Both displayed a rich splash of stars in midst of dark nebulae. Open cluster ESO 456-09 wasn't much to look at and it turned out to be a waste of time. Messier 11 was everything but that. I had spent two nights with it in Palm Springs sketching the brighter, easily visible stars trying to keep the shape and form together the best I could. Here I finished this "monumental" work by adding the fainter stars and also managed to mess up the southern segment of the cluster. The damage was already done so there was no fixing it nor was I interested in doing it for that matter. The amount of stars sketched wasn't too bad but the shapes, dark lanes and star lanes made it very difficult to get them all well placed thus I nicknamed it the "The Cramping Hand Cluster". Also the several star strings made it appear as a large number of waves (apparently this was also noted by Stephen O'Meara in his Messier objects book) were moving towards the west and there you have another silly nickname: "The Omaha Beach Cluster". A wave after wave of soldiers storming to gain a foothold in the beach of Normandy. Don't ask where I do come up with this stuff; late at night I just do.

After finishing up, I concluded that this place was quite good and it is no surprise many societies in CA have their star parties held in such places. Add in a bit more altitude to remove that "murkiness" and you got yourself a great observing spot. At least in the winter...

31.7.2011 - Start of the season

Telescope: 8" Orion DSE
Obs. place: Koivukylä, Vantaa, Finland
Date: 31.7/7.8.2011
NE Lim.mag: ~4.6 (zenith)
SQM-L reading: 17.65 (zenith)
Background sky: 1
Seeing: 5
Transparency: 4
Weather: Nautical twilight. +13°C, humidity 91%, 1019 HPa, faint gusts of wind, moist and NCLs in the northern sky. No mosquitoes!

The new season's here my little porch monkies (don't worry, I'm taking it back)! I have to admit, the difference between last season's last observing session and the new season's first session was quite big. I ended my season on the 25th of April under the fairly dark skies of urban Finland (SQM-L 21.35 - 21.10 and NELM 7.0 - 6.8). On the 1st of August under suburban conditions and twilight skies (sun -11) my SQM-L showed only 17.65 with a NELM of around 4.6! I couldn't even spot the Andromeda galaxy or Double Cluster with the naked eye - the background sky was simply too bright. Still, I'm accustomed to starting the season during the final week of July no matter what. And this time, there were no mosquitoes!

Surprisingly, my key interest was in spotting C/2009 P1 Garradd which I did not manage to see before midnight (sun never below -10) using my 8 inch Orion. Slightly past midnight I look up to the north and saw a bright display of noctilucent clouds. I paused the observing for an hour or so to go to the local field for few photographs, here's an example:


When I got back, I started looking for Garradd again and this time found it without much difficulty @ 80x. Next I wanted to try the new 8-24mm Hyperion Zoom (Mark III) I bought a few months back. It performed quite well and I decided to sketch something while at it so I selected the bright open cluster NGC 7209 in Lacerta. I always see the sort of a lizard-shape in the cluster with the 9th magnitude stars TYC 3605-2563-1 and TYC 3605-2193-1 as the "eyes". The shape is also fairly similar to that of NGC 457 if you will. The next morning, I looked up my previous sketches of NGC 7209 and noticed I had sketched the very same object nearly exactly a year ago! What a great mess-up and waste of time and sketching paper!

NGC 7209 with 8" Orion @ 72x

I did sketch NGC 7243 as well as it was in the region but didn't really like the outcome. I started to sketch the cluster at too high magnification; I noticed it early on but decided to finish the drawing anyway. I've heard many people dislike the cluster but for some reason I've always liked it. It shows several concentrations of stars and is large and bright. Fine, it isn't a real show-piece at high magnification or larger telescopes but what a fine target under twilight skies it is! I also pulled up a study saying NGC 7243 actually is an open cluster and in fact it has 211 members down to 15.5 (v) magnitude with the brightest star being 8.43 (v) mag (Memberships and CM Diagrams of the Open Cluster NGC 7243 - 2008). Here's the sketch and be sure to check out the quick illustration of the concentrations in the cluster here.

NGC 7243 with 8" Orion @ 80x

The next night was clear but I decided concentrate on photography for now as I hiked to a little landfill area few kilometers from our house. From this slightly darker location around 1 am the Milky Way was *just* starting to show in central Cygnus. With some NCLs showing up in the sky again, I posed in front of the camera and took a shot of the view:


On both nights, temperatures were between 14-10°C (57-50°F) with a typical high humidity of around 90% so in a way we're definitely going towards the winter again. The moon will make sure that I won't get a proper start for the season until the end of August and by then I won't have to (hopefully) worry about the Finnish climate for a few weeks. That is if the monsoon season in Arizona decides to give a me a fighting chance...

Finnish Deep Sky Section's Deep Sky 600-list

Although I completed the "Deep Sky 600"-list back in May (version 1.004) I haven't had much to say about it. What I had in mind was a list of objects for observers to start after completing the Messier catalogue. Some criteria for the list were that all of the objects have to be:

• visible from Europe (at least from Canary Islands, 18 declination north)

• logged by me at least as "beautiful" or "interesting" over the years.

• visible with a 4 inch telescope and look good in it.

I made a list of 500 objects back in 2010 but decided to drop the declination for another 10 degrees and add 100 more objects. The only problem was that the name and the list "Deep Sky 600" might be associated with "Orion's Deep Map 600" or "DM600". So don't do that. "Deep Sky 600" has no Messier objects in it for a start and most certainly no double/multiple/variable stars.

So in short, the list contains the best of the best (at least in my opinion) down to -50 declination. I'm sure there are many objects in the list that YOU disagree upon but it is simply a list made by guy who found these specific objects worth looking at. Down the line, I might add in more objects down to -90 declination and call it "Deep Sky 1000" if I ever get to see the deep southern sky in my lifetime.

The list can be found here, ordered by constellation: Finnish Deep Sky Section's Deep Sky 600

The beginning of season 2011-2012

A few more days and the new season - and my 15th observing season - is going to kick off here in Southern Finland. But the season will start only barely: the sun won't dip much more below the horizon than -10° so any serious observing will have have to wait for a few more weeks. Still, with all the new purchases made this summer, my fingers and eyes are almost itching to get it on with the night sky. I have been working for the entire summer so I haven't had the time or energy even to do any photography of NCLs, thunderstorms or halos, unfortunately.


The "night sky" June 10th @ midnight. Image copyrighted by Jaakko Saloranta.

Complaining aside, the most expensive purchase this year has been the Baader Zoom eyepiece. Compared to Baader 21mm Hyperion (382 grams) the Baader 8-24mm Mark III Hyperion (342 grams) is quite not as heavy and is slightly smaller in size which is something I like. Using the Baader 21mm eyepiece is quite a trouble especially with the smaller telescopes (namely the already retired 3 inch Konus) as it can easily tip the telescope(s) over with the weight.

I purchased Sky & Telescope's Pocket Sky Atlas mainly as a book for quickly logging (and checking) naked eye limiting magnitude from specific fields of the sky. I suppose I can use it for binocular observing as well although I hardly do it any more. I also got the "All three Volumes of Uranometria 2000.0" and now can use the older version of the North-volume outside without too much stress of it getting completely destroyed. It has, over the years, suffered some moisture damage and has some squashed dead bugs inside some pages but other than that it is in good condition.

I upgraded my old headlamp for a new one: Petzl Tikka Plus 2. The lamp should arrive this week and hopefully I get to test (and dim ) it properly before leaving to the USA.


Petzl Tikka Plus 2

I'm also currently without a proper pad for sketching as the old one has endured some bites and tears over the last 4 years. I'll have to visit town and see if I can come up with something good and small.