The Heavens Above Hope Slide
November observing in Vancouver is not particularly easy. It can be extremely dewy, cold, and rain/snow for days on end. But the forecast looked very promising on Friday, November 18, and I cajoled a hearty group of dedicated observers (Sean, Jeff, Jeff’s friend Gee and his daughter, as well as Felix) to head up to Hope Slide, the site of one of the largest landslides in Canada which occurred in 1965. The skies are not quite as dark as that of Manning Park, but Manning Park is another 45 minutes or so of treacherous mountainous driving.
Sean and I left Vancouver around 5 pm, inviting the wrath of the traffic gods. After passing three car accidents, we stopped briefly in Abbotsford to fill up gas and have a quick bite to eat. We arrived at Hope Slide around 8 pm and started to set up our scopes; Jeff and Gee had already had their scopes set up. It was a still night, cold and crisp with superb transparency. Already the skies were dark, with the winter Milky Way looming overhead, Cygnus clearing the mountains to the west and Jupiter shining just above the southern peaks. There was also a large mound of snow that blocked some of the east, a mixed blessing as it also blocked some of the parking lot lights off in the distance.
It was yet another day of testing out some of the new equipment I acquired. I recently purchased a heated vest and heated socks since my feet always eventually gets cold, even with ski socks and -40 degree Celcius winter boots. I was also wearing my new Patagonia down jacket designed for 6000m peaks - exactly the kind of gear that an astronomer sitting on his ass in negative double-digit weather can get behind. Without getting too sidetracked, let me just say that even on the lowest heating setting, I was so warm as to not even bother with gloves for most of the night.
I set up my 10” Meade on my AZ-EQ6 mount while Sean set up the APM 140 and his NP-101 on the UBC Astronomy Club’s brand new CT-20 alt-az mount. It held both pretty easily although I think it was far happier holding just the APM 140 - I didn’t use this combo too much throughout the night but look forward to using this mount more in the coming months. Gee had his home-made 8” Dob set up and Jeff with his NP-127.
Sean made a list of all of the objects we observed:
M82, M81, NGC2976, Rosette, Mars, Orion, Pleiades, Pinwheel, Veil, Double Double, Owl, Double Cluster, Andromeda + satellite galaxies, M108, Little Dumbbell, Blue Snowball, Crab, M37, a mystery Supernova Remnant, Hyades cluster, Jupiter, Heart, Flame, Ring, Triangulum, and 2 fireball meteors, as well as one more deep sky object (a bucket list item for me!) that I’ll get into a little later.
Some of the personal highlights for me were viewing the Andromeda galaxy through my Canon 15x50 binos and seeing it stretch nearly the entire 4.5-degree field of view, dust lane plainly visible as well as its two satellite galaxies. Through my 10”, I could make out two big dust lanes in Andromeda. The Pleiades through Jeff’s NP-127 was also spectacular; when paired with his 21mm Ethos, the nebulosity was etched all around the bright blue stars, glowing like a morning mist. Under the dark and transparent skies, my 10” Meade showed the two main spiral arms of the Triangulum galaxy, a beautiful site indeed. I also finally managed to view both halves of the Veil Nebula with my 15x50 binos. We also spent an extended amount of time observing the Orion nebula, going back and forth between the various scopes and admiring the view through the different aperture, focal length, and eyepiece combinations. My favourite was probably the APM 140 with the 31mm Nagler and Nebustar filter - the sheer grand size of the nebula comes alive in that combo. I also tried to split the E and F stars of the trapezium, which I had done previously at Manning Park, through my 10” without luck, as the seeing wasn’t particularly stable.
Our observations were interrupted by multiple meteor showers from the Leonids, including two fireballs, the brighter of which blazed across Orion, lighting up the snowy ground in a flash and creating an ionized green streak that lingered in the sky.
The grand finale, the true highlight of the night, occurred after Jeff, Gee, and Gee’s daughter left a little after midnight to get back to Vancouver at a somewhat sensible hour. Felix arrived around 1 am wearing the North Face Summit Suit (I finally felt a little underdressed), with his brand new 14” Skywatcher Dobsonian. After collimating and the 2-star alignment, we slewed straight to the Orion Nebula with the 31mm Nagler - what a site, no filter required! Then Felix slewed to the Horsehead Nebula with the 31mm Nagler and the Tele Vue H-beta filter. We had tried to observe it several months ago at Manning Park and I was unable to view it through his 6” refractor, but this time the additional aperture and better transparency made the dark, distinctly horse-head-shaped nebula an easy observation. I didn’t even bother with adverted vision here. Sean confirmed that he was able to see it as well.
With that, Sean and I left around 2 am for the long drive back to Vancouver, energized by the light of the stars above us.