Astronomy / Telescope / Stargazing
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada (Moderate Dark-Sky Site)
New Moon
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2004/04/16  

Time: 1600 – 0400 hrs
Location: Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada [Arch Rock Campground, Site #11]
Altitude: ~2500 ft. ASL
Weather:
- Temperature = ~80 - 55f
- Humidity = ~25%
- Winds = S @ 0 – 5, gusts to 20mph
- Clouds = 6
- Transparency = 6
- Seeing = 5/4
- Darkness = 6
Moon Phase: 6%

Telescopes:
- Meade 16” Starfinder Dobsonian
- Orion 100mm AstroView Refractor
- Orion XT10 Dobsonian

      

- REPORT:

Stress to one person may seem to another a little silly to say the least. But that’s exactly what I’ve been doing the last few days; stressing about where and if I was going to miss another new moon dark sky opportunity. At first all seemed a “go” for Two Trees. Then it didn’t. Then it seemed like nowhere would be good. Then Two Trees looked good. Then it didn’t. Even the areas around Las Vegas looked like they would be a bust. I looked at forecasts for Cima Road, Nelson’s Landing, Death Valley and even St. George. They all kept changing from the best at partly cloudy to even snow. Most of them at least had high wind alerts. Finally the voice of reason made it to my ears; John suggested we go to Valley of Fire and if it’s cloudy then we just camp – decision made.

During the late morning hours on Friday I packed up our equipment (of course forgetting some items) and drove to John’s school to pick him up when he got out.

After a short stop at his house to get his gear we hit the road around 2pm. The sky was awash with high, fairly thin clouds with not what I would call “sucker holes” but “teaser holes”.

We arrived at Valley of Fire just after 3pm and after paying our obligatory fee at the entrance we drove on to the campgrounds.

The Atlatl Campground was full; or at least my favorite spot was taken so we drove on to Arch Rock Campground. Slim pickin’s were available as far as open sky (if the clouds parted) sites. The campground is set about a little valley with most of the sites up against the sandstone cliffs. We chose one of the few that were available in the middle and set up camp.

Sierra was with us and she promptly started digging holes looking for goodness knows what; hopefully she wouldn’t uncover a snake.

Most of the people at the campground had RV’s or travel trailers of some kind. All I could think of was “Motor Home City” in Death Valley; porch lights aglow. So far though, the sky was dictating we wouldn’t be viewing anything. Around 6pm the clouds amazing seemed to be breaking up. Earlier I had gotten a glimpse of the sun through the AstroView that was nothing to brag about. The spots were barely visible through the cloud layer.

Some of the surrounding campers came over and wondered what we were doing with all these ‘scopes. We had the AstroView set up as well as the Orion XT10 & the Meade 16” Starfinder. They thought surely we were doing some kind of research and I must be a teacher. They thought it was crazy that an individual would own so many ‘scopes and especially one the size of the Starfinder. Little did they know I had two more sitting at home. Not Starfinders silly, telescopes!

At the sunlight started to fade and amazing thing happened; the sky cleared from the south...

...and to the west!

Venus was very, very bright above the rock face to our west and I chanced a look at it with the Starfinder. I used a 20mm EP @ 90x with little luck at a clear picture; the planet was too bright. At first I tried adding a medium blue filter with little improvement and then found the polarizing filter I have made all the difference in the world. Venus looked like a little crescent moon hanging in the sky. Later in the night when Venus got low enough I took a photo of it with my digital camera just at the moment it appeared on the other side of the “hole” in “Arch Rock”.

The other people in the camp saw that we were looking through our ‘scopes and by nightfall we had about 25 or so people in our site looking with us. Many of them were children. One little boy in particular was very smart. He knew that Jupiter and Saturn had moons while the adults always ask: “what are those little stars nearby?” I stayed mostly with Saturn at high power (406x) while John was more daring by choosing objects like Bode’s and the Cigar and the Whirlpool. These brought out the usual questions like: “how far away is that?” & “do you think there is other life out there?” Pretty soon we were doing more talking then looking which is fine by me. I was happy to see people that did just say “wow” or “hmmm” and leave it at that.

What amazed me most is that the most impressive thing of the night to our guests was not one of the objects we showed them or the ‘scopes themselves but was strangely; my flashlight. The flashlight in question is the “Dynamo” that I bought to power the tracking motor for the AstroView. It’s a portable power source that has a built-in flashlight and it’s very bright; 800,000 candlepower is what it says on it. Anyway, one of the Dads was pointing his little flashlight at the rocks near us and telling his kids “that’s where we were hiking today - up there”. His flashlight was not very bright and they couldn’t see the top of the rocks. I told John, “Get out the sun”. (That’s what we call the Dynamo) He pointed it at the rocks (it was actually quite a high outcropping) and turned the beam on. I have never heard a group of people get so excited about photons in my life! Hey, it is pretty bright and lit up the whole valley. I’m glad I don’t have a laser pointer (yet!). Sometime around 10pm the crowd dwindled out returning to their own camps. The camp was very peaceful; no big fires, no bright porch lights and most of the people were being really quite. Best of all – the sky was totally clear and there was no wind. Let the observing begin!

At first we stuck with some of the more familiar objects like the ones already mentioned as well as some of the big globular clusters.

    

I was mostly happy just to enjoy the wonderfully clear night sky and spent a lot of the evening just sitting in my chair gazing up and spending time with my son in the outdoors. These are the best times. Talking about the past and the future, making plans for other adventures and the things that will help get us there. Our only company was a Hoot Owl somewhere in the nearby cliffs. The Coyotes stayed far away although we did hear their cries way off in the distance. Sometime around midnight John decided his day was done and he headed for the tent along with our faithful watchdog Sierra. My only companion left was the lonely old crow watching from above.

During the past year and a half I have avoided looking for all the little galaxies located in the Big Dippers bowl. Tonight, with the Bear lurking overhead, I thought it would be a great time to pick through his fur and steal some of those faint fuzzies deep within. I started at Dubhe, then to Merak, to Phecda and across towards Draco. When my travels were finished I found I had scored 37 of them. Only a few escaped me but they won’t be able to hide next time; I know where they live! Most of them were very faint with only the body visible. In some of them I could see a brighter spot that was the core. They were mostly in the range of magnitude 13 with a couple dimmer then magnitude 14. The “Bear” offers tons of these little buggers but I decided I’d only hunt in the “body”. His “head” and “limbs” will have to wait for some other time.

The sky was still awesome and the temperature only cold enough that a sweater sufficed. My feet aren’t freezing and for that I am grateful. After taking a break to rest my eyes and legs I grabbed a variety of objects in Scorpius and Ophiuchus that needed picking. I found my first galaxy in Scorpius which is kind of creepy considering its chalk full of open clusters and some great globulars. Globulars are nothing rare to the serpent bearer but the two that I found were barely round more faint their shape and difficult to take like a hidden winter snake. After that, I needed another break.

I brought my guitar on this trip but it stayed in its case, a better instrument was at hand: The Lyre. I managed to strike ever note it contained before the night was through. Besides M57, my beautiful Ring and the Globular M56, I found 7 magnitude 13+/- galaxies, 2 double stars, an open cluster and the best challenge of the night: a planetary nebula. The planetary was NGC 6765 (PK62+9.1) and it shines at magnitude 12 and is only 38” big. I actually gave up on it at one time but later in the night when Lyra had risen higher I tried again and found it. As usual, without the filter the central star is visible but by adding the filter it takes it away. I guess it’s an even trade-off for the planetary’s nice teal colored halo. While I played in Lyra I was accompanied by the neighborhood Hoot Owl. He went on for nearly an hour and I noticed he “hooted” exactly every 15 seconds. “Who….who, who” (15 seconds) “Who….who, who” he called. But nobody answered as far as I could hear. It was the “Fox” who heard my call. I bagged two last objects before ending my hunt.

By 3:30am the Milky Way had risen enough to clear the sandstone cliffs to the east: what a beautiful sight I must say! This is the sky that I wish our guests to see. But they were all busy sleeping. Does “busy sleeping” really make sense and should they be used in the same sentence? Anyway, that’s what they were doing; all but the campers next to us of course. They woke up and got in their car for some reason; the interior light becoming a fierce beam of light piercing my eyes like a dagger. Oh well, we all share the same world and I half expected it anyway. I was happy to have had the length of darkness I did. Especially since I really thought the whole trip would be an observing bust. I was content to cover up with my sleeping bag and to fall asleep in my chair next to my ‘scopes.

Daylight finally woke me at about 7am and I crawled into the tent with John and Sierra. I noticed some rather “tall” clouds to the southwest so I first covered the ‘scopes up with their protective sheaths. (Garbage bags seem so degrading!) Once I woke because my tent was hitting me in the head. That’s very strange I thought, then I looked out the window. The wind was blowing something awful although the sky was now totally clear. At least from the view I had out my little window. I slept until 1pm when an even more foreign sound woke me up. I’ll save that story for my personal thoughts but will say I’ll never understand certain peoples.

During the next few hours John and I monitored the sky as it was looking very ugly to the northwest. We walked out of our little valley where the view was a little wider to check on the encroaching clouds. It was looking like the night would be ruined for observing. When we got back to the camp the wind begin to howl as if to say: “Attention all hands on deck: batten down the hatches and hoist the mizzen mast!” To the south, clouds rolled in signaling that all ships should head for port. These were those cumulous nimbus type that soared high into the sky with blackness writhing below them. We needed no more hints and began, almost frantically, packing up.

As we left Valley of Fire it did start to rain; and rather hard at that. I wasn’t too worried about our unprotected gear because everything was in their boxes wrapped in plastic. Plus, I could tell from our direction of travel and that of the clouds that we would soon drive out of them and then skirt around avoiding the rain altogether. And that’s what happened and they all lived happily ever after; the end.

I guess it was a good thing after all that we left. The night ended up being horrible. First it rained pretty hard, eventually cleared, got super windy again and clouded over by morning. I wondered how my friends down in Two Trees did. I’m sure the Las Vegas Clubs cancelled their Saturday night events. I think we made the right choice.

On a side-note: Sunday had called for partly cloudy skies and I had taken it off (from work) in anticipation of going down to Sedona. I think the weather people rely too much on computer generated forecasts and that they should actually go outside and look up more often. Or how about using nature as a sign? I remember in Texas, before it rained, the ants would build up the dirt around their mounds. Wait, those were fire ants; nevermind. I was happy spending time with my son and dog. That’s good enough for me, telescoping or not.

New Objects Viewed:

- NGC 3471 (Gal) / Mag: 13.2 / Size: 1.09’ x 0.9’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3488 (Gal) / Mag: 13.6 / Size: 2.1’ x 1.4’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3458 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 1.7’ x 1.1’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3445 (Gal) / Mag: 13.6 / Size: 1.6’ x 1.5’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3683 (Gal) / Mag: 12.6 / Size: 2.0’ x 0.9’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3674 (Gal) / Mag: 13.2 / Size: 2.0’ x 0.7’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3669 (Gal) / Mag: 13.1 / Size: 2.2’ x 0.5’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3619 (Gal) / Mag: 11.7 / Size: 3.1’ x 2.6’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3613 (Gal) / Mag: 11.2 / Size: 3.6’ x 2.0’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3642 (Gal) / Mag: 11.6 / Size: 5.8’ x 4.9’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3690 (Gal) / Mag: 11.7 / Size: 2.4’ x 1.9’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3738 (Gal) / Mag: 12.1 / Size: 2.6’ x 2.0’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3756 (Gal) / Mag: 12.0 / Size: 4.4’ x 2.4’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3898 (Gal) / Mag: 11.6 / Size: 2.4’ x 1.7’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3888 (Gal) / Mag: 12.7 / Size: 1.8’ x 1.4’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3804 (Gal) / Mag: 13.6 / Size: 2.4’ x 1.7’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3780 (Gal) / Mag: 12.2 / Size: 3.1’ x 2.6’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3913 (Gal) / Mag: 13.5 / Size: 3.0’ x 2.8’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3921 (Gal) / Mag: 13.1 / Size: 2.2’ x 1.3’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3998 (Gal) / Mag: 11.3 / Size: 3.1’ x 2.5’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3990 (Gal) / Mag: 13.5 / Size: 1.7’ x 1.0’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3977 (Gal) / Mag: 14.4 / Size: 1.7’ x 1.6’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3972 (Gal) / Mag: 12.9 / Size: 4.0’ x 1.3’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3982 (Gal) / Mag: 11.3 / Size: 2.5’ x 2.2’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3963 (Gal) / Mag: 12.5 / Size: 2.8’ x 2.6’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3958 (Gal) / Mag: 13.5 / Size: 1.6’ x 0.8’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3894 (Gal) / Mag: 12.6 / Size: 2.0’ x 1.4’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3796 (Gal) / Mag: 13.5 / Size: 1.4’ x 0.5’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3762 (Gal) / Mag: 13.5 / Size: 2.3’ x 0.5’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3725 (Gal) / Mag: 13.8 / Size: 1.6’ x 1.2’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 4125 (Gal) / Mag: 10.6 / Size: 5.8’ x 3.2’ / Draco
- NGC 4256 (Gal) / Mag: 12.9 / Size: 4.6’ x 1.0’ / Draco
- NGC 4221 (Gal) / Mag: 13.4 / Size: 1.9’ x 1.3’ / Draco
- NGC 4210 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 2.1’ x 1.5’ / Draco
- NGC 3978 (Gal) / Mag: 13.2 / Size: 1.7’ x 1.6’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 3945 (Gal) / Mag: 10.8 / Size: 5.5’ x 3.6’ / Ursa Major
- NGC 6000 (Gal) / Mag: 13.0 / Size: 2.3’ x 2.0’ / Scorpius
- NGC 6144 (GC) / Mag: 9.0 / Size: 9.3’ / Scorpius
- IC 4606 (DN) / Mag: 10 / Size: -- / Scorpius
- NGC 6235 (GC) / Mag: 9.97 / Size: 5.0’ / Ophiuchus
- NGC 6366 (GC) / Mag: 9.19 / Size: 8.3’ / Ophiuchus
- NGC 6675 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 2.0’ x 1.4’ / Lyra
- NGC 6646 (Gal) / Mag: 13.6 / Size: 1.3’ x 1.3’ / Lyra
- NGC 6703 (Gal) / Mag: 12.3 / Size: 2.6’ x 2.5’ / Lyra
- NGC 6702 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 2.1’ x 2.6’ / Lyra
- NGC 6745 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 1.6’ x 0.7’ / Lyra
- STF 2431 (DS) / Mag. = 6.2 & 9.56 / A.S. = 19” / Lyra
- NGC 6791 / OCL-142 (OC) / Mag: 9.5 / Size: 15’ / Lyra
- NGC 6792 (Gal) / Mag: 13.3 / Size: 2.4’ x 1.3’ / Lyra
- NGC 6688 (Gal) / Mag: 13.6 / Size: 1.6’ x 1.6’ / Lyra
- HIP91399 (DS) / Mag. = 7.18 & 8.65 / A.S. = 4.3” / Lyra
- NGC 6765 / PK62+9.1 (PN) / Mag: 12.0 / Size: 38” / Lyra
- NGC 6815 (Small Star Group) / Mag: 11.68 / Size: -- / Vulpecula
- NGC 6830 / Cr406 / Mel 224 / OCL-125 (OC) / Mag: 7.9 / Size: 12’ / Vulpecula

Other Objects Viewed:

- Didn’t keep track but they looked great!