Almost Heaven

The Perseid meteor shower is without doubt one of the more reliable displays of shooting stars. I have fond memories of setting the alarm for 2 a.m. as a teenager to catch the view from our lawn, lying in wait for that next superlative streak of light that would make me call out a shout of approval to the heavens above. I also have great memories of Stellafane visits during the Perseids, especially when either son would make the trek with me to Vermont.

This year was one of those fortuitous alignments of new moon and Perseid peak. My plan was to attend Stellafane to try some photography and visual observing using the Vixen. The weather gods were not cooperating, offering possibly a clear night Thursday but not many prospects beyond that. Unfortunately one can only gain an early Thursday entry if you had put your money down and pre-registered.

In contrast the forecast looked pretty good for West Virginia near Spruce Knob. I did a quick check of the North Mountain Vacation Rentals site to see if any cabins were open, and to my delight I saw that there was a Wed-Thr vacancy. Deb and I visited there last fall but the weather did not cooperate at all for any observing that trip, but I knew the cabins were nice and the owners very hospitable to star gazers. When I called Patty, one of the owners, right away she inquired "So you coming here for the meteors?"

While the cost of camping at Stellafane was certainly less than a two night cabin rental there were other advantages to the change in plans. First, the drive was much shorter, about half what it'd be to Vermont. The drive is also without tolls, unlike the shortest route up to Springfield. And then there is the enjoyment of a cabin with indoor plumbing as opposed to a spot-a-pot.

Wednesday night started out partly to mostly cloudy but the forecast had indicated that it would clear off by midnight. So I put my feet up and dozed off waiting to see if the weatherman got it right. When I stepped out around midnight it was indeed clear, and the sky oh so full of stars. The Milky Way was bold overhead, making it hard to even pick out the cross of Cygnus. When a sporadic cloud would intrude it was a black hole in testimony to the lack of lights below to illuminate it. And almost immediately the Perseids began to punctuate the night. From my perch on the hill I probably caught about 30-40 through the evening as I worked on taking some shots of the Pleiades and M31 through the scope. Around 3 a.m. I tried taking a series of tripod mounted time exposures of the northeast but was not lucky enough to capture anything.

Awaiting Perseids

The next night promised to be a repeat, and as the twilight deepened my delight rose. I had changed my location so as to get a better alignment for the scope on this evening, and it paid dividends with better if not perfect tracking. From this vantage point I could take in Scorpius and Sagittarius, visiting the show pieces like the Lagoon, the Butterfly Cluster, M4, and others. The 20-30 second images were revealing detail, creating anticipation that the stacked end product would be a fine souvenir of the evening.

The Lagoon Nebula

As the evening wore on I turned my attention to the planetary nebula highlights of the Ring in Lyra and the Dumbbell in Vulpecula. I had hoped to be able to increase the magnification in my images with the use of a Barlow but was not having luck getting the focus, so I stayed with prime focus shots. When the Andromeda Galaxy cleared the trees I also gave it attention with a series of short exposures.

Globular M4

Dumbbell Nebula

At around 2 a.m. I noted that Aquarius had cleared the mountain and was visible. I had deemed that this was an opportunity if ever there was one to try to bag the elusive Helix nebula. The limiting magnitude had to be at 6 or better (able to see M13 naked eye), so it was possible to spot 5th magnitude υ Aqr which lies a little east of the Helix. Centering the star and then panning I was amazed at how readily I was able to identify the ghostly Helix in my field of view. Large and with a more vacuous center, not a lot of details at 80mm of aperture and 30x with no UHC filter, but still an impressive object. A simple sketch and then it was time to pack up in deference to the dew that was becoming more prevalent in the cool mountain air.

What a fabulous two nights! Comfortable accommodations, very dark skies, lots of Perseids on display, imaging success to some degree, and of course adding the Helix to my trophy wall of DSO. I really hope I can make this trek a couple times a year to enjoy this full splendor of the night sky above - it is almost heaven!