Again Mother Nature vetoed our planned November dark skies trip. So, in a last-minute desperate move to get at least one night in dark skies – I went to CSASTRO’s property near Gardner, Colorado for a single night of imaging on 4Nov2023 – “sleeping” in the Expedition in between attending to the Southern Cross who captured two DSO’s and the Canon 5DSR on the star tracker that captured the Milky Way.
A Night at Starry Meadows
Although the New Moon is 13Nov2023, our original plan for a November dark skies trip was to go to Comanche National Grasslands on Wednesday, 8Nov2023 through Saturday, 11Nov2023. The plan was to complete the trip before a trip for the Scientific Advisory Board starting on 13Nov2023. As we got closer to the dark skies trip week, the forecasts for all our imaging locations were showing cloudy or snowy weather. So, in a last-minute desperate move to get at least one night in dark skies – I went to CSASTRO’s property near Gardner, Colorado (about two hours from the house) for a single night of imaging on 4Nov2023. Paul was still not feeling well from his stem cell procedure the previous week, so I went alone – in the Expedition (because Paul didn’t trust me to take the Beast by myself).
The directions to the site on the CSASTRO website were great! (What a phenomenal benefit of membership!) I was able to drive right to it and with Ann Chavtur’s additional pointers, it was easy to find a place to “bed down” for the night. I chose to stay in the lower area, adjacent to the domes (which were intriguing to me – especially the one with no door??) and set up on one of the cement pads.
I had the Southern Cross set up and (daytime) aligned by 1500, ate my lunch, and then decided to also set-up the star tracker with the 5DSR and 14mm lens to capture the Milky Way. The view of the Sangre de Cristos from the CSASTRO property is phenomenal! Even though the MW core was only going to be visible for about 40 minutes, I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to capture it.
The imaging went well throughout the night, capturing data on two DSO’s (IC1318 Gamma Cygni with the NGC6888 Crescent Nebula “floating through” it and NGC1909 Witch Head Nebula to complement the data I gathered in Los Alamos during the solar eclipse trip. I had a little (mental) glitch around the time change coming out of Daylight Savings Time on Sunday morning, but even with that I was able to image well past the clouds moving in, as they seemed to get thick all across the sky except where the Witch Head Nebula was located (and amazingly enough, the autoguider never lost its guide star)! But at 0315MST, a shivering popsicle-like Suzanne finally gave up, packed up the Southern Cross, and headed home.
Two DSO’s and the Milky Way
IC1318 Gamma Cygni Nebula w/ NGC6888 Crescent Nebula
This image was captured during a one-night trip to CSASTRO’s Starry Meadows property near Gardner, Colorado. It was the first target of the night because the Cygnus constellation at this time of the year is rising early in the day and setting shortly after midnight. By nightfall, when I could start the imaging (~1900MDT), it was already past the meridian so the collection went flawlessly. I cut it short (ending at 2235MDT) to have more time to spend on the night’s second target, NGC1909 Witch Head. Check out the target fun facts (for both the Sadr Region and the Crescent Nebula) and capture and processing notes in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ngc6888-crescent-nebula-floating-through-ic1318-gamma-cygni-and-the-sadr-region/
NGC1909 Witch Head Nebula
This image is comprised of data from two imaging sessions – the night of the annular solar eclipse from Urban Park in Los Alamos, New Mexico; and a night of imaging at CSASTRO’s Starry Meadows property near Gardner, Colorado. It was the second target on both nights, as it is a “late riser” but definitely one to be captured in dark skies. (So this may just be the start of data capture on this object for this year’s “nebula season.”) Check out the target fun facts (for both the Sadr Region and the Crescent Nebula) and capture and processing notes in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/ngc1909-witch-head-nebula/
Milky Way over the Sangre de Cristos
Although the Galactic Core was only going to be visible for approximately 40 minutes (1928 – 2012MDT), I had the Southern Cross set up by 1500 and the backdrop (foreground for the Milky Way) of the Sangre de Cristo mountains was very appealing. Check out the capture and processing notes in the gallery at: https://beersastrophotography.com/gallery/milky-way-over-sangre-de-cristo-mountains-starry-meadows-gardner-colorado/