(SNES) Black Forest Star Party report

["Bartolini, David E (David)" <dbartolini@lucent.com>]

It was good to hear that people had a good weekend at FDO. I decided to make
the long trip to PA to attend the Black Forest Star Party. Even though I was
only able to stay for one day, I had a great and very productive time.
Despite the very thin cloud cover, the skies were as dark as any that I've
seen, and they got more transparent as the night wore on. Here are some of
my highlights in no particular order (all observations through a 20" dob).

M 31 - I'd never seen the dust lane because I wasn't exactly sure what to
look for (even though others could see it in my scope). It was impossible to
miss on this night. Now that I know what to look for, I'll see if I can
detect it in my backyard.

M 33 - Sub par transparency obscured details early in the night, but when I
revisited it later, it was an awesome sight. Naked eye object when it was at
zenith. Spiral structure was obvious, and NGC 604 (HII region in one of the
spiral arms) looked like a separate mag 10 galaxy. There are at least 15
named parts of M33. The next time that I'm at a really dark site like FDO,
I'm going to see how many I can detect.

NGC 891 - this took up the entire field at 275x, and the dust lane split the
galaxy right down the middle. It looked like a negative image of an oreo
cookie edge on - two light outsides with a dark center.

M 1 - This was the first time that I've ever seen structure in the Crab
Nebula. 

Maffei 1 - this was challenge #1 of the night. I noticed this galaxy for the
first time when I printed out a map of the double cluster, and wondered why
it wasn't in the NGC or IC catalogs, especially since it is listed as mag
11.8. Then I noticed that Jay Reynolds Freeman wrote about it in one of the
most recent S&T issues (I think last month's) along with some other obscure
galaxies. This is one of those very low surface brightness galaxies. I was
definitely able to detect a brightening (and another observer confirmed it
as well), but not much else to say about it. It is a very easy star hop from
the double cluster in case anyone else wants to give it a try.

Stephan's Quintet - I was able to detect at least 4 of the group, as well as
many other faint galaxies around the group. 

Horsehead nebula - this was challenge #2 of the night, more difficult than
Maffei 1. After about 10 minutes of searching and trying different filters
(other than the H-beta which I don't own but is the best for this object), I
am 95% certain that I located it. I didn't have anyone nearby to confirm it
(there weren't too many folks up at 4:30). 

M 42 - Absolutely incredible. The scope had lost collimation by this time of
the night (after 8 hours of hard work), but I could still make out 6 stars
in the trapezium. The nebula had so much more detail than I had ever seen,
that I didn't think until the next morning that I should have tried to
detect colors other than its typical green. The difference in detail was
greater between the 20" at this site and the 20" at my house than it was
between the 10" and the 20" at my house. 

Lowlight of the event - having to leave a day earlier than originally 
planned and missing the Aurora :-( You can count on better planning 
next year...

See you all sometime this fall at FDO.

Dave B.
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