Another Wonderful Night under the Stars
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Although Monday would never be my first choice for an all-nighter with my
telescope, as an astronomer I must yield to the moon and the weather, not
to the calender. Everything about the weather was absolutely perfect,
and usually some demon prevents that from happening on the eve of a new
moon. This past Saturday had been a complete disaster for me, and I
desperately needed one good night to boost my sagging morale. I actually
had to accomplish something at work on Tuesday, so the
evening will have to be cut short so that I can be back home and in bed
before dawn.
I was a little late getting off work, so I didn't make it into the Everglades until well past sunset. Setup always takes a little longer in the darkness, but by now I know the routine pretty well. I was polar aligned by 8:30, and that is actually early enough anyhow. I was just getting ready to shoot my first image when I heard the distinct sound of a car slowly approaching. There were no lights at all, so I wondered what on Earth could be going on. I grabbed my red flashlight and ran down the road towards the oncoming vehicle, frantically waving my arms and making all sorts of noise. I certainly did not want some complete idiot running over all my stuff just because his headlights were burnt out. Who is this fool and how could he possibly be driving through this complete darkness??? The so called road that he is on is less than 20 feet wide, and it's littered with huge rocks and full of deep potholes. A slight swerve to the right and he would be in the drink with all the alligators. If there actually is anyone behind the wheel, he must be totally nuts! All my fears were soon put to rest. It was my favorite nephew, Richard. I could hardly believe my eyes. He had just driven three miles in the complete darkness down a narrow and rough gravel road that's not entirely safe to travel on in the broad daylight. I think maybe he IS totally nuts! Wait a minute -- he says that he stopped at Arby's on the way and brought me a sandwich and a cola. Wow! What a great guy! And how incredibly thoughtful of him to drive here with the headlights off so as to not hurt my night vision. I take back everything I said. He must really be a good driver. I quickly gobbled up my Beef 'n' Cheddar® and sucked down my Pepsi,® slobbering all over myself in the process. There were far too many alligators along the banks of the creek for me to go down there to wash up, so I just sprayed my hands and face with a can of mosquito repellent and wiped them dry with a paper napkin. Note for future reference: When using bug spray as a cleanser, be sure to close your eyes tightly before spraying your face, as the tiniest amount of DEET will cause your eyes to water profusely for a full hour. Working with my right eye only, I started an imaging sequence of the face-on LSB spiral IC342. Rick stayed around to keep me company for the first few images, but he said that he wanted to get home in time for the Jay Leno show, so before long I was alone once again. Things went quite well for the rest of the night, and over the next six hours I captured good images of M65, M82, NGC3115, NGC5139, M68, and M104. This really has been an incredible evening. No dew, no fog, no wind, no clouds, and very few mosquitoes. To top it all off, I will actually be home and in bed by 4AM. With a little luck, my left eye should be OK by morning. The images will be posted at a later date. Fred Lehman, March 24, 2003.
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