Globs on the horizon

We're on our annual summer holiday in Colorado, and I had no visitors, so I concentrated on some targets deep in Ophiuchus and Sagittarius that are pretty much non-observable from County Louth. Even from 39°N some of them were a scant 18° off the horizon, but my site here (Blue Lake Road, about 500' down from the top of Hoosier Pass) is more-or-less light-pollution free and the air is a bit thinner at 11,000'.

Transparency was actually pretty poor for Hoosier Pass (which normally posts about a 21.8 on the SQM). Then again, even 21.5 looks pretty good compared to the 20.5 - 20.7 I usually get back in Ireland.

M62 7/16/2009 22:40 MT; Pickering 5, NELM 7, SQM 21.5
10" DK

Pretty little globular, only a couple of degrees above the horizon at Blue Lake Road site on Hoosier Pass. Seeing not great at this altitude, though, producing sharp stars only at 100X. Very grainy with a well-condensed core at 100X; perhaps 100 stars resolved across core and halo in averted vision at 180X.

I sketched M62 (and Pal9), but I've got no scanner here so you'll have to wait till I get home for those....

M19 7/16/2009 23:05 MT; Pickering 5, NELM 7, SQM 21.5
10" DK

Much smaller and somewhat dimmer than M62, but still with stars resolved across core and halo in averted at 180X.

Pal9 7/16/2009 23:15 MT; Pickering 5, NELM 7, SQM 21.5
10" DK

Quite small, dim smudge, but readily visible at 100X up to 340X. Globular due south of very bright, yellow-orange field star. One dim companion star appears to the E at 160X, with a dimmer one to the W at 340X. Both stars are very blurry at these magnifications, and could just be condensations within the globular (DSS image no help either).

Nagler 9T1 needs to be extended out of focuser to bottom of safety groove to reach focus. A short 2" barrel extender would help keep eyepiece parallel to optical axis.

Whoo hoo! That was my first Palomar, so I was rather chuffed about it. :rock:

M69 7/16/2009 23:30 MT; Pickering 5, NELM 7, SQM 21.5
10" DK

Similar to M62. Fleeting hints of what appears to be a dark lane separating core from halo to the S. (Confirmed on DSS image, although it's more of a dark spot to the SSE than a lane.)

M70 7/16/2009 23:40 MT; Pickering 5, NELM 7, SQM 21.5
10" DK

Much smaller and dimmer than M69 (in fact, much more similar to M19). Lovely composition, though, in a very rich field with a 4-star lollipop-stick asterism extending to the NNE.

I wanted to sketch M70 too, but I was nearly frozen by that point (it had dropped to 4° by then) and so packed up.

-- Jeff.

Hi Jeff.
Fair play for lasting as long as you did.
I did a quick Google Earth search to see that location ...
WOW!
Fab spot!

:X with envy!!!

Great report..
I couldn't help thinkin' what would a long exposure shot of
some of those areas turn out like!

Question,
do you hike out with your gear or do you set up near base?

Yeah! nice report Jeff, these fella's are way too low for us here in Ireland really, pity you're fingers were getting frozen :ohmy:

Enjoy your holidays, and do pot if you get some sketches!

Keith..

Keith g wrote:

and do pot if you get some sketches!

Wow man..
those globs are Like..
...surreal dude!

Chua...

:laugh:

Ooops, looks like the spelling gremlins have caught me again :blush:

Keith..

He he... some tie-dyed sketches, huh?

Frank --

There are a couple of great trails off of Blue Lake Rd that we hike during the day, but at night I just set up the scope in a turn-out about 100 yards off highway 9. I park the truck to shield me from the worst of the passing headlights, but there's not that much traffic at night.

Keith --

I'll definitely post sketches when I get home.

Hoping to get one more observing session in before the moon comes back, but it's looking cloudy for the next few nights.

Cheers,
-- Jeff.