On Friday, October 1, Astronomy Assistant Editor Bill Andrews, Copy Editor Karri Ferron, and I left Milwaukee and traveled to Tucson to spend a long weekend of observing under very dark skies at Granite Gap, New Mexico. There, near the hamlet of Animas, in the southwestern corner of the state, astronomy developer Gene Turner is creating the first low-cost, dark-sky community for amateur astronomers, an idea that is about 30 years overdue. We were joined by a crowd of other enthusiastic amateur skygazers who are interested in joining the Granite Gap project and making the most of a dark-sky paradise.
Our hosts Gene Turner and Loy Guzman, as with every visit, were accommodating and very gracious, creating a terrific dinner and making all feel at home. We are based at Rancho Hidalgo, some 4 miles south of the Granite Gap property, as the Gap itself is undergoing a major transformation with new roads, electricity, and the lake all now in. What a difference a few weeks make! The first park model cabins are on site. The sky is mesmerizing. More than 150 people have completed applications to acquire parcels of land here, and so the first on-site star parties will be happening in the near future.
Hidalgo holds the Astronomy Magazine Observatory, Clyde Tombaugh’s 16-inch telescope, and now the Celestron Dark-Sky Observatory, too. The directions of activity are numerous here: astronomy, mineralogy, horseback riding, birding, geology, archeology, and local history of the Old West are all active areas of discussion and debate around the observing sessions. The bulk of my Civil War library, acquired by Turner for a cultural and historical center, is now on site here — some 4,000 volumes.
For more on the project and its status, which aims to bring a very dark sky to a large number of folks, see www.granitegap.com.
After Loy’s great dinner Friday night, we rolled out another scope at Hidalgo, the 30-inch Starmaster, and went to work on a range of deep-sky objects. The crowd enjoyed viewing clusters, nebulae, and galaxies of all types. We started early by looking at the mainline Sagittarius Milky Way, with some bright targets before the end of astronomical twilight. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) was beautiful at low power, with sparkly stars of the clusters contrasted against softly glowing nebulosity and the dark rift that gives the object its name. The Omega Nebula (M17) was dazzlingly bright at low power and its distinctive shape looked like a photograph lacking only the reddish color of imagery. We scooted up to see the Wild Duck Cluster (M11) in Scutum, a terrific flock of stars arranged triangularly around the orangey gem near the center.
We then swung the telescope straight up to the zenith and gazed at NGC 6960, the western half of the Veil Nebula, and its bright star 52 Cygni. It dazzled with an O III filter, leaving us stunned. Other objects in the area were great: the Dumbbell Nebula (M27) was utterly photographic, its central star easy and a full ellipsoidal glow encapsulating the apple-core shape. Planetaries abounded, too: weird, disfigured NGC 7008 appeared spectacular, as did NGC 6905, NGC 6781, NGC 6826 (the “Blinking Planetary”), and NGC 7009 (the “Saturn Nebula,” with its ansae appearing like edge-on ring extensions).
We scoped out clusters like the Owl Cluster (NGC 457) in Cassiopeia; rich NGC 7789, which was nearby; the Hercules Cluster (M13); and others. A spectacular view of the Crab Nebula (M1) and then of the Andromeda Galaxy (M31) capped off the long observational night, and we were exhausted but ready for a day of adventure in the desert today.
Related blog:
Inaugurating Granite Gap