A night observing on the 100" Hooker telscope

[strongmanmike]

Can you imagine what this was like.... :eyepop: a whole night (from dusk to dawn) of visual observing through a 2.5m telescope!....in an observatory steeped with the amount of history like no other....humbling and amazing all at the same time... :prey2: a short video as the night was about to start here (https://www.facebook.com/IO10SG/videos/2065747057081343/)

Two stars in the Ring Nebula in Lyra, visible without averted vision, vivid turquoise colour in NGC 6572 The Blue Racquetball nebula, a distinct red ring around Aro 11, also known as Campbell’s Hydrogen Star in the constellation Cygnus...a special and moving night...once in a lifetime experience...

Mike

[Atmos]

:eyepop:

[OneCosmos]

And how come this fantastic opportunity came about? I want such a night:eyepop:

[Stonius]

Wow. What kind of eyepieces do they use on that thing?

[cometcatcher]

I would like to do that before I kark it.

[multiweb]

Wow! That sounds like quite an experience. I imagine the views must have been very bright. Was the image quite steady for that aperture? How did you guys organise this. Was it a case of a group renting time for the night as part of a package?

[RickS]

Very cool, Mike!

[strongmanmike]

The scope is available for hire ($5000 for the whole night). With the greater LA area having 3/4 of the population of Australia and the associated smog from the same number of vehicles :eyepop: the LA skies are atrocious even up in the San Gabriel mountains at nearly 1800m, although we were well above the smog inversion layer up there at least... but 2.5m of aperture can cut through to some degree. The biggest restriction is the FOV, which is very small at around 6 or 7 arc min, so while it excelled at Planetary Nebulae, double stars and globular cluster cores and showing colour in these things! :eyepop:, looking at only the core of M51 et al was a little disappointing due to lack of FOV and contrast. They had several Televue eyepieces.

The real magic was the whole experience, being in that dome and the whole building, which is full of 100 years of nostalgia with lots of original equipment, power boards, spectroscopes, grinding tools for the 100" and testing equipment etc stored on the lower floor...the feeling of standing on the shoulders of giants was palpable :scared2: :prey2: even Hubbles chair is still on the movable dome viewing platform.

Mike

[Nikolas]

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[strongmanmike]

Hi Nik, not sure :shrug: works when I click on the link...? but I guess that doesn't mean much. It is a link on Facebook so it probably has something to do with that, any ideas? :question:

Mike

[Rodstar]

Memories for a lifetime Mike, I am a tad jealous!

[GrahamL]

Well thats a differant way to banish the dark side and come back to visual observing Mike :lol:


Whens all the gear up for sale ?

[strongmanmike]

It was amaaaaazing Rod :prey2:



:lol: Never fear, I'm still an imager mostly Graham but I do like visual observing and have done lots of it in my time. In fact I did 6 nights of visual observing at the Texas Star Party...would have done 7 but the last night we partied pretty hard and hardly even looked up :lol: :drink: :D. I am certainly not one of the new bread of imagers out there who know little or nothing about the sky and where or what things are (arhem Fred :whistle: :lol:) ..I know it quite well :thumbsup:

Mike

[stefang]

For those wanting a video of the evening spent on the 100" Hooker, you can see it documented here.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=1JAVrVyv2VI&feature=share

Mike, Will Young, Mark Axisa, Nicky Ladas , Dave Brown, Rodney Roo and Warren Neal were all my guests for a night observing on the Mt Wilson 100" Hooker Telescope. It was a night to remember, and worth every cent of the 6K USD it cost to hire for the night.

What was really special was to be able to share the experience with good friends , some old, some new, on a clear night in the Northern hemisphere.

Sometimes we just need to stand on the shoulders of giants.

#wouldntbedeadforquids
Stefan

[RobNevyn]

What a great idea and an awesome privilege, as Rod said it will be a lifelong memory for you guys.

[mental4astro]

What a marvelous experience that must have been!

I am surprised that they use 2" eyepieces though. I would have thought larger format eyepieces would have been better suited, and these can have longer focal length too.

All the same, to look into the core of a GC, and see colour in individual stars, magic!

I'd love to have some time with that scope with a sketch pad in hand, despite the narrow field of view.

:thumbsup:

Alex.