Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

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Don Quixote
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Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#1

Post by Don Quixote »


July 30-31, 2019

9:30 pm (2130 hr) to 2:30 am (0230 hr)

ES127 APO
Doctor 12.5
TV 22 Pan
Pentax 7, 10 XW
6, 4mm KK Orthoscopic
TV 2X Barlow
Swarovski 10X30 binoculars
LXD75 mount.

Seeing:
Pickering 5.

Transparency:
Similar quality to the seeing with naked eye views of M31, and the Double Clusters as a measure.

M4 revealed low on the southern horizon early in session with binoculars.
As the evening progressed M4 improved to reveal the center bar under the telescope power.

Sky condition deteriorated for about half an hour at midnight and then improved to earlier condition. My pickering check with hi mag on Vega was performed at 0130.

Jupiter is very bright and clear, taking 158X with 6mm KK Ortho. Contrasting cloud banding flashed glimpses of swirl detail. GRS is prominant, around 2200, a dark salmon color and three moons in evidence. C west, I, E, and G East of Jupiter.

Saturn was her beautiful self, but had not risen far enough for best view. By the time she had reach her high Jupiter was hovering on the edge of a far tree line.

I cruised the sky with excitement. This is the best sky in months. Through the 4 hours I observed most of the messier available in this night sky along with some Caldwell and NGC objects. It was a leisurely, but constant run with the help of the LXD75 mount. While I was entertaining myself with visual my friend Henry was imaging with his Quatro. We shared views and generally enjoyed being out together.

The most fascinating observation was M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy and its partner NGC 5195, a lenticular galaxy satellite of M51.

The GoTo on my LXD75 worked wonderfully, landing on M51 nearly centered in the fov.
First viewed with TV 22 Pan, Pen 10XW, 7XW, leica HC, and the best for last...the Docter12.5 UWA. The Docter performed in an outstanding manner all night. Henry and I joked about no one being able to tell the difference between a $50 bottle of Scotch and a $200 bottle of scotch. Well I am not sure I could, but we both could "see" the difference in EP.

My first view of M51 was over a year ago with my 127Mak on the SLT mount. I was able to identify pretty well, but without much structure revealed.

From April 10, 2018

"M51 “The Whirlpool Galaxy” is a spiral galaxy in Canes Vanatici and was pretty much what I expected…very difficult to relate to the images… :-) 
RA00.43.47
Dec13.30.37
8.01 Mag 
....There were two fuzzy blobs at a slight angle to each other. They could have been mistaken for one blob... they were so close as to appear as one distorted form with almost no separation between them. The "tell" that they were two was that they both had a pin prick of light in the core. "

My view last night was many orders of magnitude finer.

The spiral arms of M51 were clearly revealed outlined by the brightest parts of the arms, and the core was sharp and bright. NGC 5195 was oriented as I have depicted here. It appeared as a much smaller, core, and as if on edge. There were blooms of light irregularly on two sides within the disc of light encompassing this galaxy and the connecting tissue of light from M51.

I roughly sketched these after viewing for about 30 minutes. My night vision was well adapted. We have NO terrestrial lights at this dark site in Penfield Illinois.
I finished my drawing with manipulations and texture in Photoshop. The finished drawing is black and white rendered with #2 led pencils which had contoured tips. It was transfered to a cotton vellum sheet, photographed and loaded into photoshop for further rendering of tecture and my color blends.
This was the best visual observation of M51 that I have had. In this view I ran through all of the EP listed and discovered that the Docter 12.5 UWA, as mentioned above, gave by far the most revealing view. It was only with this EP that I was able to see the detail I have described here in this sketch. The one EP that I should have compared was the 12.5 KK Ortho. I just got carried away and forgot. Next time, maybe I will remember to include that one as well.

The sky by 0100 had snapped into focus it seemed. I figured I would give Saturn another go. It was in a better position now. I was able to count 4 moons of Saturn. The highest mag used here was a 4mm KK Ortho at 238X. I was easily able to observe 4 of Saturn's moons, and retained pretty good focus and detail on Saturn.

The best detail of Saturn came with the 6mm KK with reveals of the polar cap, a nice shadow on the top of the ring section, crisp Cassini division with a and b ring and I believe a hint of the outer f ring.

Unfortunately my Nikon batteries were dead so no camera for planetary. Bad planning I suppose. I might have gotten some fine images.

By 2:30 Henry and I were pretty tired.

Oh by the way a young man and his wife rode into the site on bicycles at about 1 am as well. They enjoyed a view of Saturn and some binocular views which I directed with my green lazer.

They are planning an outing with a group of High School kids this Thursday. Apparently the young man works at the planetarium in Chicago, Ill. It was fun to share with them.

So I rolled into bed at about 3:00 this morning. :-)

This was a great outing, the best in a very long time.

Peace brothers and sisters, and clear dark skies to all.
Attachments
20190731_145004.jpg
Field sketch Saturn  7 30 2019 Penfield, Ill..jpg
M51 Best.jpg
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#2

Post by Juno16 »


Dang Mark!

Your sketches are wonderful! Beautiful rendition of The Whirlpool.

What a fine place to observe. I have, however, been to Yosemite and recently cross country driving and seen some beautiful naked eye skies.

Good for you sir!

Thanks,
Jim
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#3

Post by Bigzmey »


Nice session and beautiful sketch Mark! You have made a great progress as observer since last year. Sure, better equipment helps but you also training your eyes to resolve faint details.
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.

Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#4

Post by Don Quixote »


Juno16 wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 8:49 pm Dang Mark!

Your sketches are wonderful! Beautiful rendition of The Whirlpool.

What a fine place to observe. I have, however, been to Yosemite and recently cross country driving and seen some beautiful naked eye skies.

Good for you sir!

Thanks,
Jim
Thank you Jim.
It has been months since Henry and I have a sky like last night. I hope we have more soon.

The M51 and the Double Clusters as naked eye views are a sort of quick reference as to my sky potential.
And I get a kick out of pointing to objects with the laser so guests can see where to point their binoculars. They love it. :-)
Cross country drives are a thing Henry and I have discussed. We often dream of going to a site that is High and Dry.
I am glad you have enjoyed the sketch.
Peace to you my friend.
Don Quixote
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#5

Post by Don Quixote »


Bigzmey wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:20 pm Nice session and beautiful sketch Mark! You have made a great progress as observer since last year. Sure, better equipment helps but you also training your eyes to resolve faint details.
Thank you Andrey.
I have learned many, many things being in these forums. I began on AF in February 2017.
I would just like to say thanks to you, Andrey. You have been a great encourager. Sometimes this has been directly and sometimes it is indirect as I read your postings. I appreciate this very much.

So, yes...My eyes have been starving for a sky like we had here last night. It may be that we will have a few more this week.
Darks skies help a bunch for details.... :-)
More Clears to you and yours Andrey !
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#6

Post by Bigzmey »


Don Quixote wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:32 pm
Bigzmey wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 9:20 pm Nice session and beautiful sketch Mark! You have made a great progress as observer since last year. Sure, better equipment helps but you also training your eyes to resolve faint details.
Thank you Andrey.
I have learned many, many things being in these forums. I began on AF in February 2017.
I would just like to say thanks to you, Andrey. You have been a great encourager. Sometimes this has been directly and sometimes it is indirect as I read your postings. I appreciate this very much.

So, yes...My eyes have been starving for a sky like we had here last night. It may be that we will have a few more this week.
Darks skies help a bunch for details.... :-)
More Clears to you and yours Andrey !
Thanks for the kind words Mark! Don't we all just love dark clear skies and miss them greatly? I am glad you caught a break from the crazy weather and hopefully catch more.
Scopes: Stellarvue: SV102ED; Celestron: 9.25" EdgeHD, 8" SCT, 150ST, Onyx 80ED; iOptron: Hankmeister 6" Mak; SW: 7" Mak; Meade: 80ST.
Mounts: SW: SkyTee2, AzGTi; iOptron: AZMP; ES: Twilight I; Bresser: EXOS2; UA: MicroStar.
Binos: APM: 100-90 APO; Canon: IS 15x50; Orion: Binoviewer, LG II 15x70, WV 10x50, Nikon: AE 16x50, 10x50, 8x40.
EPs: Pentax: XWs & XFs; TeleVue: Delites, Panoptic & Plossls; ES: 68, 62; Vixen: SLVs; Baader: BCOs, Aspherics, Mark IV.
Diagonals: Baader: BBHS mirror, Zeiss Spec T2 prism, Clicklock dielectric; TeleVue: Evebrite dielectric; AltairAstro: 2" prism.
Filters: Lumicon: DeepSky, UHC, OIII, H-beta; Baader: Moon & SkyGlow, Contrast Booster, UHC-S, 6-color set; Astronomik: UHC.

Observing: DSOs: 3106 (Completed: Messier, Herschel 1, 2, 3. In progress: H2,500: 2180, S110: 77). Doubles: 2382, Comets: 34, Asteroids: 255
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#7

Post by John Baars »


Great sketches Mark!
You had a good deep view of M51, amazingly good.
What a nice session that must have been, I am a bit jealous on your pitchdark location.
Thanks for sharing!
Refractors in frequency of use : *SW Evostar 120ED F/7.5 (all round ), * Vixen 102ED F/9 (vintage), both on Vixen GPDX.
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Don Quixote
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#8

Post by Don Quixote »


John Baars wrote: Wed Jul 31, 2019 10:55 pm Great sketches Mark!
You had a good deep view of M51, amazingly good.
What a nice session that must have been, I am a bit jealous on your pitchdark location.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you John.
I was quite surprised.
I did not expect the view I had when the mount settled and I put my eye to the glass. I did not plan on sketching but when this view presented the opportunity I scratched a quick representation with notes which I used for the piece I posted in this report.

This site is a newly designated National Dark Site that Henry discovered and we have been using it as often as we are able. There are not even any farm lights on any horizon.
It is a very good spot and only a 30 minute drive.
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#9

Post by bladekeeper »


Very nice evening, Mark! Congrats on this!

I know exactly what you mean on M51. I had a similar experience a few years back that still haunts me. I can still picture the vast gloriousness of this galaxy in my mind's eye. There were a few other profound Messier galaxy views on that same evening. Every one elicited a gasp as they swung into view. :)

Excellent report, my friend. :)
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Scopes: Apertura AD12 f/5; Celestron C6-R f/8; ES AR127 f/6.4; Stellarvue SV102T f/7; iOptron MC90 f/13.3; Orion ST80A f/5; ES ED80 f/6; Celestron Premium 80 f/11.4; Celestron C80 f/11.4; Unitron Model 142 f/16; Meade NG60 f/10
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

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Post by KingClinton »


Great sketch Mark!

Good to see you putting your artistic skills to good use.
I always find sketching to be very satisfying and it leaves me on more of a "high" after the session than with just a visual session.
Eyeballs, binoculars, sketch box, Scopes n stuff.
Some people don't understand why I love astronomy so much, I cannot understand why they do not!

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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

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Post by pakarinen »


Interesting! A few of my club members have been talking about a county park near there. Middle Fork River maybe?

Unfortunately for me, that's a good 2.5 hour drive if I remember correctly from when my son was at U of I.
=============================================================================
I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do.
=============================================================================
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#12

Post by Don Quixote »


pakarinen wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 8:23 pm Interesting! A few of my club members have been talking about a county park near there. Middle Fork River maybe?

Unfortunately for me, that's a good 2.5 hour drive if I remember correctly from when my son was at U of I.
Yes I believe it is called Middle Fork. It is 5 miles north of Penfield.

If you ever wanted to come down on a good sky night if we could even tell when one would be you'd be welcome to stay at my place after observing.
There is actually a camp ground in another area as well.
I will take some daytime pictures of the place and post them.
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#13

Post by Don Quixote »


KingClinton wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 2:10 pm Great sketch Mark!

Good to see you putting your artistic skills to good use.
I always find sketching to be very satisfying and it leaves me on more of a "high" after the session than with just a visual session.
Yes. I agree Clinton. The sketching imprints the experience and sustains the pleasure.

The longer I relaxed and stayed on target the more I seemed to see. It could be that for this particular swath of time I hit on a particularly clean and calm sky. The view was very steady with only occasional, floater type, smears of bad air reducing the apparent focus. Then it snapped back for long periods of my view. These momentary variations in seeing seemed to create a visual/mental contrast that made each return of clarity seem better than the last.
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#14

Post by helicon »


Beautiful sketches Mark! I've had a few good views of M51 over time, the best of course from a dark sky site 40 miles north of Santa Rosa, CA. From home it varies depending on that particular evening's conditions. You are quite a talented artist.
-Michael
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#15

Post by pakarinen »


Don Quixote wrote: Thu Aug 01, 2019 9:00 pm
Yes I believe it is called Middle Fork. It is 5 miles north of Penfield.

If you ever wanted to come down on a good sky night if we could even tell when one would be you'd be welcome to stay at my place after observing.
There is actually a camp ground in another area as well.
I will take some daytime pictures of the place and post them.
Thank you! Looking forward to seeing the pics.
=============================================================================
I drink tea, I read books, I look at stars when I'm not cursing clouds. It's what I do.
=============================================================================
AT50, AT72EDII, ST80, ST102; Scopetech Zero, AZ-GTi, AZ Pronto; Innorel RT90C, Oberwerk 5000; Orion Giantview 15x70s, Vortex 8x42s, Navy surplus 7x50s, Nikon 10x50s
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Re: Penfield, Illinois Dark Site and M51

#16

Post by Don Quixote »


This is a set from a panorama view. I may not have the unload exactly in order as I had to section the pano to get upload size, but this gives a good idea of the location. This is about 300 degrees. I left out the direct sun facing angle.

PS:
As I view the upload it does seem in proper order. :-)
Attachments
20190801_173925.jpg
20190802_090456.jpg
20190802_090432.jpg
20190802_090408.jpg
20190802_090321.jpg
20190802_090236.jpg
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