[Friends_of_SSASTROS] Notes From The Field - It sounded good on paper.

[Mike McCabe]

May 9th,2023; Lake Nippenicket, Bridgewater:

I ventured to “The Nip” on Tuesday night to take a gander atthe coupling of Venus and M35 in the post-sunset western sky. The smokyconditions that were so prevalent throughout the day had abated somewhat, butthere was still a notable presence of colorful haze when looking out toward thesunset. I went armed with a pair of 8x42 binos, a pair of 15x70 binos, and theever-present 120mm refractor that rides around in the truck with me. It’s agood thing too, because it would be the refractor that would save the night asfar as seeing the desired target goes.
There were lots of people occupying the Nip parking lot,many of whom were there for the express intent of seeing the sunset and some ofwhom were keen on getting their fishing season underway. As soon as I had thescope set up I had visitors asking what I was looking at and then enjoying theview of a 63% waning gibbous Venus, with some folks naturally asking if it wasthe moon they were seeing, as it definitely looks like a mini half-moon at thisstage.

The early part of the evening turned into a mini outreach, with about a dozen guest viewers enjoying a peek at the Goddess of Love in her half-illuminated state.
With the sunset over and the lot mostly cleared out I gottired of hanging around the back of the truck, so I went over to have a seat ata bench that a group had installed within the past couple of years over nearthe boat ramp. I’ve taken to reading the plaques on memorial benches thesedays, and I count my lucky stars when I see that the person it’s honoring wasborn after me and obviously gone before me. This particular one was dedicatedto a man named Richard Monteith, and it made me wonder if he was related to PatMonteith, a NASA Solar System Ambassador who presented at our club severalyears ago. One thing I did know; based on the location of the bench he waseither a fan of sunset watching or boat ramp watching, both of which can beimmensely satisfying experiences, the sunsets for the wonderment of nature andthe boat ramps for the wonderment of trailer backing skills – or lack thereof. 

The view from the Richard Monteith memorial bench overlooking the lake was nothing short of splendid.
By 9pm it was dark enough to attempt what I had come for,namely to seeVenus and M35 in the same field of view. I can say this; the binocularsdid not work for this task. The sky was too bright, too compromised by haze,and the duo was too low in the thick atmosphere to expect any improvement astime went on. I can say that maybe sort of in an averted imagination kind ofway I was able to see M35 in the 15x70’s, but by and large the binocularwonderfulness experience that I was hoping for and really quite expected was adud. Thankfully the scope would do better. 

Even with the sky darkened the binos failed to resolve M35, but the scope did better. The constellation Auriga occupies center stage in this image taken at 9:15pm on Tuesday evening.
In the 120mm refractor operating at 28x and with a 2.5° truefield of view I was indeed able to fit both objects in the view at the sametime, but it certainly wasn’t a middle-of-the-winter M35 viewing experience.With the relatively bright sky background I could still definitely see the cluster, but unlike thosedark overhead views earlier in the season where we can resolve this particular cluster into severaldozens of stars, on this night I counted just 20 members in the cluster itself andabout 60 or so throughout the entire field. I’ve had worse viewing experiences,so it was still worth the effort.

Let’s hope that this forest fire/smoky skies situationabates during this period up to and a little beyond the new moon – we’ve gotobserving objectives to tackle!

Keep Looking Up!

Sincerely,

Mike McCabe

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