Observing Log for Mike Durkin5/10/2005 6:00 PM-4:30 AM Kitt Peak National Observatory Transparency: 9/10, seeing: 8/10 RC Optical Systems 20in, f8.4 Richey-Chretien reflector 10x50 binoculars While on vacation in Arizona, I visited Kitt Peak on the night of 5/10. As you can imagine the sky there is great and they have some excellent public outreach programs. During the day you can tour the facility and see some of the scopes on the mountain, including the 4 meter Mayall telescope and the Solar Telescope facility. The first night program they had was the Nightly Observing Program which runs from about 6-10PM . After brief introduction by one of the operators, he took us out to see the sunset over the mountains. We had a nice clear view, however no green flash. After it got dark they handed out binoculars to the group (I brought my own 10x50s). We went outside and saw the following:
Beehive cluser: we could actually make this out with the naked eye as a
hazy patch. The sky was dark enough to actually make out the stars in
Cancer with the naked eye.
After that divided the group up into two, half to observe thru a 20-inch
Ritchey-Chretien and the other half thru a 16-inch Meade SCT. My
girlfriend and I stayed with the 20-inch group. They showed us the
following objects:
M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy): Wow I was amazed. It almost looked like it does
in astrophotography pictures with the spiral structure easy to see. While other people were looking thru the scope I pulled out my binoculars and was able to see Omega Cantauri thru the dome opening. It was pretty large in the binoculars and easy to see as a fuzzy patch just above the bottom of the dome opening. Unfortunatly the telescope operator said that they couldn't point the telescope that low to the horizon. It was still exciting to see something that I never get a chance to see in NY. The view of Omega Centauri in a telescope that large must be fantastic. After that they wrapped up and I started the Advanced Observing Program. The Advanced Observing Program is another public outreach program where up to two people (in this case it was me and my girlfriend) sit with one of the telescope operators all night at either the 20 inch Ritchey-Chretien or the 16-inch Meade SCT. You can do visual observing or astrophotography with film or CCD. I chose to do CCD astrophotography. The telescope operator for CCD astrophotography is named Adam Block, who has been doing this for a while and some of his pictures have been in the gallery in the back of Sky and Telescope. He is a great guy to work with, he is very patient and will answer any questions. The first object he imaged as NGC 6070, a spiral galaxy in Serpens. The image can be seen here: http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n6070.html After that he imaged Abell 70, an planetary nebula that just happens to be right in front of a galaxy. Adam nicknamed it "The Diamond Ring": http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/abell70.html In between some of the imaging we had a chance to go outside and look at the night sky. The view of the Milky Way from there was breathtaking. I could easily see the lane of dark clouds near the Teapot in Sagittarius.
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