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Darkest Skies in the West

Loyd's Image of NGC 1514, a Historic Nebula

Introduction

Amateur astronomy has, over the last fifthteen years, grown to such an extent that it has become not only a viable and credible resource of present day science but has developed into a scientifically endorsed category in its own right. One only need open the cover of any astronomy magazine, browse any official or private website or peruse the image credits at the Astronomy Picture of the Day website to find proof that the "amateur" has become a scientific force and self-sustaining institution of its own. Historical roots aside, this growth of private astronomy is due almost single-handedly to the technological advancements made in the 20th century; technologies that have since been incorporated into the lives of virtually every human being on this planet.

With the invention of the telescope by Hans Lippershey and Galileo's improvements and subsequent use of it to view the planets, a turning point in the science of astronomy had been reached, for it placed into the hands of the everyday individual a capacity to peer out and into a realm that was once nothing more than a fixed and changeless curtain of twinkling lights, allegorical tales and scientific misunderstandings that reached down to the very heart of human beliefs. By the 18th and 19th century, our view and knowledge of the universe changed and by the early 20th century, we had begun to develope a sense of our place within it. But not until recently have we been able to acheive, on a personal level, that inspiring awe gained by looking into the vastness or beauty of the great cosmos. Today the universe is no longer the unknown it once was nor is it the sole province of scientific institutions, for with this century came a technology that was not only afforable but capable of observing and imaging objects residing millions of light years out in all directions, bringing the complex and almost unfathomable universe right down into the backyards of individuals like Loyd Overcash and his DeerRidge Observatory.

The Universe In Your Own Backyard

Pierre François-André Méchain (1744—1804) was a French astronomer and surveyor who, along with Charles Messier, discovered and recorded many deep sky objects and comets, including the Sunflower Galaxy (M63 or NGC 5055 seen left) discovered by Méchain in June of 1779, and included into Messier's famous catalog; as are 25 other stellar objects Méchain had discovered. He later became editor of the French journal Connaissance des Temps from 1785 to 1792, and it was within the pages of that publication that Messier's list of stellar objects first appeared.

Two hundred and thirty years later, the Sunflower Galaxy again found itself under observation, not from atop the tower of the Hôtel de Cluny in Paris, France but from a small rise in an open area within the hills of Fort Davis, Texas. The observer is Loyd Overcash and while he also employed a telescope to observe this galaxy, his is a much more powerful and advanced instrument, recording the event not on paper but on the electronic medium of a CCD imager. fn1   Becuase the early telescopes of Méchain's time were not powerful enough to fully resolve the galaxies under view, M63 was described as a "Nebula discovered by M. Méchain in Canes Venatici. M. Messier searched for it; it is faint, it has nearly the same light as the nebula reported under no. 59 [M59]: it contains no star, & the slightest illumination of the micrometer wires makes it disappear: it is close to a star of 8th magnitude, which precedes the nebula on the hour wire. M. Messier has reported its position on the Chart of the path of the Comet of 1779." [1]   As is obvious from Loyd's beautiful image of M63 above, taken from the observatory in his spacious backyard, he had no problems resolving this Sbc spiral galaxy located 37 million light years away in the constellation Canes Venatici.
Darkest Skies in the West

It wasn't so long ago that spending some time relaxing in a comfortable chair on the front porch, a simple Mead Refractor in front of me, was a nightly routine. The telescope was fair and observering the lunar surface was very rewarding. Over time and with a small amount of patience I was even able to see the moons of Venus and the Pleiades, with it's blue reflection nebula, appear in that little eyepiece. The downside to the whole affair was that if anything bigger than a chigger dare step on that front porch, my viewing experience turned into a kaleidoscopic nightmare. My one advantage however was that I lived atop a mountainous region in northern California that was very lightly populated and hence, I enjoyed decently dark skies. So, chiggers and kaleidoscopes aside, it was still a very rewarding endeavour.

As anyone who has pursued this hobby for any length of time can tell you, viewing and creating photographs of distant galaxies, nebulae, clusters or planets requies some fairly dark skies; in fact, almost an absolute necessity. This is a fact that Loyd knows well for he not only has the best view in town, as is apparent from the image of his backyard below, but his night times are very dark. In fact, the area where Loyd lives is so dark that, after a little checking into, I found that this part of Texas is the destination goal of many star parties, astrophotographers, astronomers, scientists and students of the hobby who travel hundreds of miles each year in order to set up and observe the universe. I recently asked Loyd about this:


Q: Is your location within the surrounding hills (as seen in your panaromic image above) the "DeerRidge" area itself; I am not familiar with that part of Texas but you must have some wonderful dark skies up there?

A: The Deer Ridge Observatory is named after the country road where it is located which is just outside of Ft. Davis Texas in Limpia Crossing - only 7 miles from the McDonald Observatory. This area has numerous amateur astronomers drawn here by the darkest skies in the Continental United States.
Loyd's Image of NGC 1514, a Historic Nebula

Seen at right is an image of NGC 1514 that Loyd took in January of 2008. He notes that this is "...a planetary nebula located in Taurus. It has a bright inner shell with a faint outer shell. The bright star in the center of the nebula makes it a hard object to image. It is about 2300 light years away." When speaking of this particular stellar object, the National Optical Astronomy Observatory website notes, The morphology of this nebula is currently thought to be determined by a binary star (instead of a single star) in the center. Indeed, based on the likely masses of the progenitor stars (and possible separation) astronomers estimate these stars would orbit each other with a period of 4 to 9 days. If there are two stars at the heart of this nebula— the more massive one, which eventually shed its outer envelope, was probably 3-4 times as massive as our Sun.

Discovered by Sir Frederick William Herschel on November 13th, 1790 this particular nebula is noteworthy in that it caused Herschel to rethink then current scientific theory that these objects were composed of a mass of stars that were at distances so great as to remain unresolvable. Herschel's feeling after observing this nebula was that this was not the case but rather, the nebulosity was caused by a single stellar object exciting the gases around it. In this thinking Herchhel was not alone for earlier, Edmond Halley had also felt that nebulae arose from nothing else but the Light coming from an extraordinary great space in the Ether; through which a lucid Medium is diffused, that shines with its own proper Lustre. Herschel wrote that NGC 1514 was a "...most singular phenomenon! A star of about 8th magnitude with a faint luminous atmosphere, of circular form, and about 3 minutes in diameter. The star is in the center, and the atmosphere is so faint and delicate and equal thruout that there can be no surmise of its constituting of stars; nor can there be a doubt of the evident connection between the atmosphere and the star." The work of these two astronomers—as well as others during that era—formed the starting point of change in scientific thought regarding the nature of nebulae and their composition.   [2]

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Footnotes
1.   The CCD or Charged Coupled Device is a specialised type of integrated circuit (IC) which is located just behind the camera's lens. Due to the IC's efficiency, adaptability and low cost, the technology has spread very rapidly, seeing wide spread use amongst amateur and professional astronomers for nearly all UV-to-infrared imaging and guiding applications.