OR 7/22/14: Lassen Volcanic National Park
by Steve Gottlieb
Last month I met Mark Wagner, Marko Johnston, Carter Scholz, Peter Natscher, David Cooper, and Jimi and Connie Lowrey for 4 nights of camping and observing at Lassen
National Park, one of the premier observing sites in northern California. I've been observing off and on here for 15 years and its always a treat to observe in such a beautiful
location. A month in advance we reserved 4 campsites at Summit Lake South and planned to observe at Bumpass Hell lot. on July 22 through the 25th (4 nights). Unfortunately, a
weather system passed through just before we arrived and Tuesday night was expected to be cloudy, at least early on. Steve Gottlieb |
16 23 03.2 +37 55 19 Size: 1.9'x1.2'; Mag 12.4V At 375x, NGC 6137 appeared fairly bright, moderately large, elongated 5:3 N-S, 0.8'x0.5', broad concentration with a brighter core. Increases in size with averted vision. A mag
14.3 star is 1' E and a mag 14.8 star is 1' NW. Three galaxies are aligned in a string to the NNW.
The "Rumpled Starfish" or "Lobster" galaxy appeared fairly faint to moderately bright, irregular but roughly elongated 3:2 SSW-NNE, ~60"x40", though increases in size with averted vision. The surface brightness is irregular, with a mottled texture. The brightest portion has an offset nucleus or knot on the east side. On the northeast side, a faint narrow wing extends to the north. A very short extension was also glimpsed on the southeast side. A mag 13.5 star is 0.6' NE and a mag 15.7 star is 50" SSE of center. NGC 6240 has dual supermassive black holes and is the closest such galaxy, both in terms of distance from one another and distance from the sun.
Using 375x, the brighter component
At 375x, the merged contact pair
At 375x, this interacting pair was cleanly resolved, although essentially tangent [20" between centers]. Appears "peanut-shaped", oriented NE-SW, with the brighter NE galaxy (MCG
+09-29-040 at V = 14.7) at 0.3' diameter. The fainter SW galaxy (
Excellent view of this globular cluster (discovered in 1987). At 375x, a few obvious stars are resolved around the edges and superimposed on the 2' mottled glow. With careful
viewing the cluster was sparkling with a number of very faint stars, mag 15.5 and fainter, popping in and out of view. Roughly 20 stars were resolved, although it was difficult to
individually count. Of course, the main attraction is the location -- 20' west of
This unusual Red Reflection Nebula was seen at 175x, knowing the exact position. It appeared extremely faint, small, round, ~15"-20" diameter. Using averted vision the glow
popped ~20% of time, and was only seen for brief glimpses, though confirmed with certainty. The Serpens Nebula is located 7' WNW of mag 9.8 The "Serpens Nebula" is a very red (continuum) reflection nebula illuminated by the pre-main sequence star [SVS76] Ser 2 = HBC 672. It is located within the core of the Serpens
Dark Cloud, a dusty star-forming region associated with Sh 2-68, and includes several HH objects -- |