HGSP 2013: Night #1

On my first night back at Hodges Gardens for HGSP 2013, I had hoped to take advantage of my acquired experience since my last trip there. HGSP 2012 was my very first star party and because I had only returned to astronomy only a few months prior, the first night was all shock and awe, but mostly shock. With my Messier certificate and Okie Tex under my belt, I was confident the first night of HGSP 2013 would be a no brainer kind of event. I had my girlfriend with me this time and she had her very own telescope. Everything was lined up just right for a great star party.

Main HGSP Goals:
Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs
M51’s spiral arms
PN in M46
NGC2158 near M35
Horsehead
Other H-Beta objects
Rosette Nebula
Caldwell objects
Look for dark nebulae
Omega Centauri (naked eye)

The evening started off with a bang. Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs was visible from the front of the park on the hill by the ranger station. Go time was around 7:45pm. The moon was nothing more than a thin crescent serving as the main reference point for locating the comet. I had seen the comet at home the night before in binos and briefly in my XT8. At HGSP, I spotted it with binos and switched to my girlfriend’s Starblast 4.5. I shot some video with my iPhone. It turned out fantastic. Check it out on YouTube. Later on, could just barely detect it with the naked eye just outside the glow of the sun along the horizon, about 10 degrees up.

We headed back to camp after that. My girlfriend’s reaction to the HGSP sky was similar to how I felt a year ago. “Oh crap” was just the tip of the iceberg, but I knew that she was more than ready to handle HGSP like a champ. Besides, she was with the right person. I had given her an observation challenge list, a list similar to what I completed at Okie Tex. I also threw in a few bonus targets to make things more interesting.

The problem with dark skies, or the real glory in dark skies, depending on your point of view, is that light pollution does not interfere. More is visible. Constellations blend in with the background. Familiar landmarks are lost. Panic and awe hit you simultaneously. You’re lost and amazed all at once. This is the duality one might be faced with at their first dark sky star party.

Instead of diving in head first, however, something inside of me lacked ambition. I felt more at ease and as a result, too relaxed. I spent most of the first night doing a free for all, looking at familiar targets and doing random stargazing. I did not stick to any specific lists, nor did I attempt to knock out any Caldwell objects. I glanced at views through other scopes and talked a little too much.

I hit up the usual suspects, including M42, Jupiter, the Double Cluster, and M51/5195. M42 was nice, but comparable to the view I get at home. I might have seen some color along the outer edges of the nebula. The central area of nebulosity extended out a little further and its cloudy structure came through, but the dark area in the middle was not quite as noticeable. Jupiter was nice, but I didn’t observe any transits, nor did I see the GRS. The Double Cluster was more vibrant, as expected, revealing more of the low magnitude stars. M51 was okay, but I could not see the spiral arms.

Then, I chased after some old HGSP friends like M35/NGC2158 and then M46 with its planetary nebula. Both open clusters were nice, but it was comforting to see the companion objects more clearly than I did at home.

At one point during the night, I switched from normal stargazing to Horsehead hunting. I threw on my new Lumicon H-Beta filter and went for Alnitak. I could barely see the Flame nebula, so I proceeded to the region where the Horshead should appear. I spent a while staring at that area, changing eyepieces, and blocking out any stray light I could. Unfortunately, no part of the horsehead popped out and the surrounding nebulosity was not visible.

In the later hours, I finally got to see Omega Centauri again. It was still rather low in the sky, so individual stars didn’t pop out, but it was most definitely there. I went to sleep before it had a chance to rise a few more degrees away from the muck on the horizon. Still, I had missed Omega and I was excited to have seen it again. I still had a few more nights to view ‘er.

Comet C/2011 L4 Panstarrs (more photos)