The hangover from the astonishing time I had at the Oregon Star Party still lasts to this day; every time I view a deep sky object through even my (by most standards “large” ) 15-inch Obsession I can’t help but think “how much better would this be through a 22-inch? Or a 30-inch?” Nonetheless, I’m still enjoying my time under the stars, despite the “dim” and “fuzzy” views that my scope reveals when compared to the true behemoths at the OSP.
On August 14, my friend Daniela and I drove to Manning Park for a night of camping and observing. We managed to find a campsite at Coldspring Campground and after hastily setting up our tents, we made it to the Cascade Lookout only to find it packed with people who were there presumably to observe the tail end of the Perseids.
Unfortunately, Cascade Lookout is becoming overrun with people who don’t have stargazing etiquette, with people shouting and waving white flashlights and staring into their bright phone screens, or leaving their car dome or headlights running, ruining the experience not only for me and other observers (who drove 4 hours or more to get here) but also for themselves. During our observation, several vans containing a group of youths from a church arrived. They were disruptive and loud, waving flashlights around and smoking pot. Another group in an electric car just sat inside their vehicle with the headlight running, pointing right at me and my 15” scope until I walked over to them and asked them to shut their vehicle off.
I hope that Manning Park puts some effort into educating visitors about some basic stargazing etiquette so that the lookout can remain one of the best observing sites within a 4-hour drive of Vancouver.
Despite this, we were able to get some good deep-sky observing - the sky conditions were superb, with rock-steady seeing and great transparency. I did note that the skies were not as dark as the Oregon Star Party site; for example, I had a hard time seeing M33 naked eye and M13 was not as obvious as I recall. Nonetheless, we had some great views of the classics like the Veil Nebula, M13, M31, M51, M81/M82, M27, among many others. The lucky few people whom I invited to observe were blown away by the views, especially of M13.
Felix also joined us and we binoviewed some deep sky objects through his refractor. Thankfully the Cascade Lookout crowds thinned out around 1 AM and we were able to get some great observing done.
The absolute highlight of this night was when we turned my scope towards Saturn. Despite it being relatively low at 29 degrees, I popped in my 7mm XW and was stunned at the level of detail and colour.
So I borrowed my friend’s Baader Maxbright IIs (I had left mine at home since I was planning to do mostly deep-sky observing) and his 5x Powermate, hopeful that this combination would achieve focus with a pair of 32mm Televue Plossls. And it achieved focus! I’m not sure exactly what power I was operating at, since the longer light path of the binoviewers amplifies the magnification of the Powermate, but judging from the image scale I’d guess around 500x.
I’ve never seen more detail on Saturn before, with the disk of the planet showing one prominent cloud band and multiple thinner bands, with subtle texture and hues. Cassini division and inner “C” ring were starkly obvious. My eyes wandered over to the outside edge of the “A” ring and to my astonishment I could see a pencil-thin black line visible. I pulled out Sky Safari and zoomed in, and sure enough it showed the Encke gap exactly where I had seen it.
I told Felix and Daniela to see if they could spot it and both confirmed my observations, punctuated by gasps of amazement. The optics on this 15-inch scope can deliver some of the very finest planetary views I’ve ever had under such extraordinary seeing. Most of the photographs of Saturn I’ve seen taken through amateur scopes don’t match the level of detail we could see on Saturn.
Next, we went to Jupiter, and sure enough, the seeing didn’t disappoint. I could see detail resolved in the Great Red Spot, as well as striking blue storms weaving out of the North Equatorial Band. If only this scope had tracking…
After this experience, both Felix and I have had difficulty transitioning back to observing the planets through our 4” Takahashi refractors (FC-100DL and FC-100DZ), which are considered some of the finest small instruments for planetary observing. But the truth is that aperture is critical in resolving fine detail, and I’ve never had views through my 4” that revealed anything even close to what my 10” Meade revealed, let alone my 15”. Despite this, I still use my 4” scope far more often than either of these larger scopes. It does make me wonder what size a refractor would provide views comparable to my 15”. Perhaps a 10” apo? I’d love to observe through such an instrument one day.