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Deep-sky observing at Rancho Hidalgo

David Eicher — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:03:00 GMT

Following the dedication of Astronomy magazine’s observatory, and of Pluto discoverer Clyde Tombaugh’s telescope at Rancho Hidalgo, New Mexico, desert adventure awaited us. Astronomy’s publisher Kevin Keefe had joined me to trek out to visit developer Gene Turner and Loy Guzman, our hosts at Rancho Hidalgo. With the many guests from the night before now departed, we set about exploring nearby attractions surrounding the Hidalgo site — Portal, Arizona, with its Cave Creek Canyon and delightful birds, Turner’s Arizona Sky Village settlement, and some Native American sites near Hidalgo that still sport amazing relics dating to 1,000 years ago or even older.

Editors note: You can see the full image gallery of Dave and Kevin's trip to Rancho Hidalgo in our Online Reader Gallery.

The Chiricahua Mountains are amazingly beautiful, and we stood in awe of the perilous ride up the mountain that holds the 24-inch Cassegrain telescope associated with Arizona Sky Village. After exploring the vistas from that high altitude (much higher than the 4,600-foot desert floor below), we retreated to visit the desert itself.

Kevin and I were astonished to see a tarantula (two, actually) for the first time in the wild. We hiked for an hour and a half to reach a rocky shelf on one of the small mountains close to Hidalgo to find the area inhabited by various Native Americans, including Mimbres, from before 1,000 years ago to about the year 1,300 a.d. Tools and numerous stone chips from fashioning arrowheads and other implements lay abundantly on the sand in great areas of concentration. Inside one complex of caves, we found red and black petroglyphs seemingly telling of rivers, mountains, and long-forgotten messages of the ancient past.

This September we had an extremely late monsoonal flow (pictured at right) that threatened our observing on Friday night. But we stuck with the plan, feasted on a bountiful steak dinner, and then prepared Gene’s 30-inch Dobsonian (pictured above) to go after a laundry list of deep-sky objects. For Kevin, it would be a special treat, his first night under a premier sky with a really large telescope. Memories of M13 as seen with a small reflector at his summer camp way back when aroused comparisons with what we might see, until darkness fell, we had generally clear sky, and M13 was the first object dialed up. “My God!” Kevin exclaimed. It was a stunning view of the cluster, resolved cleanly across the face and with numerous lines of bright stars arcing from the central glow. A nice way to start the night, indeed.

We then gave Kevin a taste of the Sagittarius mainline, the arch of bright deep-sky objects from the galactic center northward. The Eagle Nebula (M16) looked fine, although the dark “pillars of creation” were a little subtle, as the sky was still darkening. The Lagoon Nebula (M8) did not fail to impress, as its star cluster, bright central glow, and rivers of dark nebulosity filled the field of view abundantly. We popped in an oxygen-III filter just to give the image a little more kick, to knock up the contrast. We then skittered over to the Trifid Nebula (M20), whose twin glows of emission and reflection nebulosity were superb. The Omega Nebula (M17) had such stunning surface brightness that it practically blew our heads off.

Not to be lost in Sagittarius and Serpens forever, we scooted up to the Wild Duck Cluster (M11), which was so richly stunning that its triangular shape looked wedge-like, set with the single, right orange jewel in its center. From there we shot over to the Dumbbell Nebula (M27), and by now the sky was getting dark enough to be superb. M27 was so brilliant — the brightest part a complete dumbbell but the fainter “ears” of nebulosity completely filling the object into an eerily glowing oval. It was like a superb photo without the color.

A long list of smaller planetary nebulae followed, many in Aquila and Cygnus, with NGC 6781, NGC 6905, NGC 6804, NGC 7008, and the Ring Nebula (M57) leading the way.

We observed many more objects, although some hopping back and forth around the sky was necessary due to very dark clouds that slowly washed over parts of the sky. The view of the Andromeda Galaxy and its satellites was incredible, the nucleus glowing brilliantly and the dust lanes sharply defined, with rich starfields on all sides of the major action. We took the galaxy question to the other extreme, too, by looking at the distant galaxy NGC 4319 and the nearby quasar Markarian 205. In the end, I think Kevin was satisfied with his first night of dark-sky, big-scope viewing. After lots of looking, it was a cool ending to a hot day in the desert, and we returned to Milwaukee on Saturday in time to get back into rhythm for another week at Astronomy magazine starting Monday morning.

We’ll continue to keep you posted on activities at Astronomy’s observatory and on images made from the facility in the coming days.

Photo credits: Gene Turner (30-inch); David J. Eicher (tarantula and monsoon)

August 28-September 4, 2009: Thuban, the Hercules Cluster, and the Veil Nebula

Michael Bakich — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 20:30:00 GMT

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich, a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky.

In each episode, Michael highlights:

One object you can see without any optical aid
One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope
One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope

Targets for August 28-September 4, 2009

Binoculars:

Small telescope:

8-inch or larger telescope:

The weekly observing podcast is available to registered members of Astronomy.com. The podcast remains FREE, so please register with the site to make sure you don't miss an episode!

Listen to this week's podcast.

This week's podcast is brought to you by Celestron — one of the world's leading designer and manufacturer of high-quality optical equipment. Learn more about Celestron and their products at www.Celestron.com.

Send us your astronomy questions

Liz Kruesi — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:05:00 GMT

Perplexed by planets? Confused by cosmology? Baffled by black holes? Then send in your questions to Astronomy magazine at askastro@astronomy.com.

If you have an astronomy question about observing, the planets, stars, cosmology, or astronomy history, send it in! Five are selected each month for publication in the Ask Astro section of Astronomy magazine. If your question is selected, we will forward it to an expert for his or her response. Then, the question and answer will appear together in a future issue. We may edit or revise your question for clarity.

We aren’t always able to respond to questions individually. But please keep the questions coming — they help us to learn what our readers are interested in, and what topics we should consider for future coverage in the magazine.

June 26-July 3, 2009: The Keystone, globular cluster M10, reflection nebula NGC 6726

Michael Bakich — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 19:18:00 GMT

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich, a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky.

In each episode, Michael highlights:

One object you can see without any optical aid
One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope
One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope

Targets for June 26-July 3, 2009

Naked eye:

Small telescope:

8-inch or larger telescope:

The weekly observing podcast is available to registered members of Astronomy.com. The podcast remains FREE, so please register with the site to make sure you don't miss an episode!

Listen to this week's podcast.

June 5-12, 2009: Variable star R Coronae Borealis, open cluster NGC 6124, and globular cluster NGC 6144

Michael Bakich — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:57:00 GMT

Each week, Astronomy magazine Senior Editor Michael Bakich, a master at explaining how to observe, posts a podcast about three objects or events you can see in the sky. In each episode, Michael highlights:

One object you can see without any optical aid
One object you can see with a small (4-inch) telescope
One object you can see with at least an 8-inch telescope

Targets for June 5-12, 2009
Naked eye: Variable star R Coronae Borealis
Small telescope: Open cluster NGC 6124
8-inch or larger telescope: Globular cluster NGC 6144

Starting June 4, the weekly observing podcast is available to registered members of Astronomy.com. The podcast remains FREE, so please register with the site to make sure you don't miss an episode!

Listen to podcast.

February 13-20, 2009: Open cluster M41, the Tau Canis Majoris Cluster, and Thor’s Helmet

Michael Bakich — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 19:45:00 GMT

Here is the transcript for my podcast about how to see open cluster M41, the Tau Canis Majoris Cluster, and Thor’s Helmet this week.

Check out the Astronomy.com's interactive star chart to see an accurate map of your sky. It'll help you locate some of this week's key targets. Astronomy magazine subscribers have access to a slew of cool functions with StarDome PLUS.

Each week, I highlight three different night-sky targets for you to see:

One object you can find with your naked eyes or through binoculars
One object to find with a small telescope
One deep-sky object to find with an 8-inch or larger telescope for you avid astronomers

--Start transcript--

Follow the brilliant guide
This week’s naked-eye object is open cluster M41, which lies in Canis Major the Great Dog. It’s easy to find M41 on any clear winter night. First, find Sirius (Alpha [α] Canis Majoris), the night sky’s brightest star. Then look 4° due south.

Because it glows at magnitude 4.5, most observers should be able to pick out M41 easily with their naked eyes under a dark sky. This cluster lies 2,000 light-years away and measures about 20 light-years across.

Now just because you can see M41 without optical aid doesn’t mean you shouldn’t point your binoculars or telescope at it. Even a low-power view reveals dozens of stars with a 7th-magnitude orange gem at the cluster’s center.

Train your telescope on Tau
This week’s small telescope target is the Tau (τ) Canis Majoris Cluster, also known as NGC 2362. From M41, move 8.6° east-southeast. With unaided eyes, you’ll notice a glow around the 4th-magnitude star Tau CMa. When you point your telescope at this object, however, you’ll have a whole new perspective.

Tau CMa forms the centerpiece of this terrific star cluster. A 4-inch scope will show stars in three tiers of brightness. First, there’s brilliant Tau. Then, 3 magnitudes fainter, a half-dozen other stars catch your gaze. Finally, you’ll spot the faintest stars, which glow at 10th magnitude. Look closely for the tight group of these stars spanning 6' that surrounds Tau. Don’t let the brilliance of the principal luminary deter you.

For Asgard!
This week’s deep-sky object is my choice for “best-named” celestial target — Thor’s Helmet. Some historical illustrations (and the entire 600-issue run of the Marvel Comics’ superhero epic) picture the Norse thunder god Thor wearing a winged helmet. Well, through a large scope, this nebula, also known as NGC 2359, looks like a helmet with wings.

Thor’s Helmet completes this week’s trio of objects that lie in Canis Major. It sits 8.8° east-northeast of Sirius. This celestial treat is a cosmic bubble sculpted by radiation from a type of luminous, massive star called a Wolf-Rayet star.

Editor's note: Al Kelly submitted the image of Thor's Helmet above to Astronomy.com's Online Reader Gallery.

French astronomers Charles Joseph Étienne Wolf and Georges Antoine Pons Rayet discovered this stellar type spectroscopically in 1867. These short-lived supergiant stars are rare; astronomers have discovered fewer than 250 of them within the Milky Way.

To enhance NGC 2359’s visual appearance, use a nebula filter such as an OIII. Through a 12-inch telescope, you’ll see the circular central area and the helmet’s two “wings.” The brightest part measures 1' wide and extends to the south approximately 4'.

Recently, I observed Thor’s Helmet through a 30-inch telescope. The intricate details I thought visible only in photographs amazed me. If you have the opportunity to observe NGC 2359 through a large scope, take it. You won’t be disappointed.

--End transcript--

Previous episode: Canis Minor, M78, and the Witch Head Nebula
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