Welcome to a journey into our Universe with Dr Dave, amateur astronomer and astrophotographer for over 40 years. Astro-imaging, image processing, space science, solar astronomy and public outreach are some of the stops in this journey!
IC 1318, The Sadr Region, is the diffuse emission nebula surrounding Sadr (γ Cygni) at the center of Cygnus’s cross (left of center in this image). It contains many dark nebulae in addition to the emission diffuse nebulae. The brighter emission feature in the center with associated dark region is often referred to as the “Butterfly Nebula”. The intricate patterns in the bright gas and dark dust are caused by complex interactions between interstellar winds, radiation pressures, magnetic fields, and gravity.
The image was taken through the three narrow band filters Hydrogen alpha, Sulfur II and Oxygen III. Readers can refer to a detailed explanation of narrow band imaging I covered beginning in this post, the first of a 3-part series on the subject. Really the main issue with narrowband images is that the individual channels have to be “mapped” to the broadband channels Red, Green and Blue to yield a color image. In other words it is false color. It is usually described though as “mapped color” or “tone mapping” . That sounds like a really complex process but it’s really the wild west when it comes to this because you can make the colors anything you wish. Typically we amateurs use the “Hubble palette” which is derived from how the Hubble Space Telescope handles its’ images. The sulfur is mapped to red, hydrogen to green and oxygen to blue. The challenge arises with the hydrogen mapped to green because it is by far the strongest of the three in terms of signal. Therefore at first you have a bright green nebula which looks awful, but you can easily manipulate it to taste. After processing a few of these, this color palette kind of grows on you and you can begin to see how these colors can be manipulated and blended to yield a nice result.
Full resolution image can be viewed, as always, via the link on the right under “My astro-images”
IC 1318 is visible now in the northern hemisphere right as it gets dark. If you are in a dark enough sky to see the Milky Way, just trace the star cloud north to the “Northern Cross” which is the the central part of the constellation Cygnus the Swan. The brightest star there is Deneb, but the second brightest star which is quite bright at just over 2nd magnitude is gamma Cygni. This is the star at the right lower corner of that blue square in the image above. That is the location of the nebula! The nebulosity should be visible in small telescopes under a reasonably dark sky.
Just north of the Gila National Forest along the western edge of New Mexico lies the town called Pie Town. Its’ name comes from a bakery that specialized in dried apple pies back in the 1920’s. Today, continuing that “pie” tradition, it is still known for the popular Pie Town Annual Pie Festival held the second Saturday each September. While I certainly wouldn’t turn down a great homemade apple or cherry pie once in a while, my interest in the region is of course not about that, but about the fact that 15 years ago a couple of guys established the SkyPi Observatory and that gradually became one of the several telescope hosting sites in New Mexico. You could probably imagine that with a whopping census of under 200 people and sitting at an altitude of close to 8000 feet it might have potential for an observing site! Not to mention the famous Very Large Array radio telescope complex is very close by. That is a great sign if an outfit like the National Radio Astronomy Observatory found the area to be suitable for their observing needs!
I decided to pay a visit to Pie Town to see what their set-up was about. As I mentioned in previous posts, the seeing at my observatory is a challenge for my large telescope platform and after researching the various hosting sites, it appeared that the seeing at SkyPi, in particular, was consistently almost a full arc second better.
The drive from my home is not bad at all. If you live out here, driving 3-4 hours is nothing. Interestingly Pie Town is about the same distance from my house as it is from my remote observatory in Mayhill (image above).
It was a fantastic crystal-clear day with just some high thin clouds when I made the trip. I drove north on I-25 and got off at the Socorro exit after about 2 hours. Heading west on highway 60 I went through the town of Magdalena and right after entered the Plains of San Agustin. This is a flat stretch of desert far away from everything! The plains are ringed by mountains which kind of looked like a natural fortress of rock. It was really a majestic view while driving through there.
After another 20 minutes or so I looked toward the south and suddenly the iconic Y configuration of VLA’s telescopes came into view! It was much bigger than I imagined. Of course, I stopped at the lookout point to take these images. Unfortunately, the visitor center is still closed due to COVID 19. The Very Large Array is a collection of 28 radio telescopes, each about 25 meters in diameter, arranged in a Y shape along rails. That allows for 3 long arms of 9 telescopes each with one at center. Their position can be adjusted as needed. The VLA is one of the most active radio astronomy observatories in the world!
From there it was not far to my ultimate destination. After about an hour I drove into Pie Town, but there was not much of a town. A welcome center and general store was all I could see. The SkyPi facility was only about a mile from there, take a right onto a dirt road up a series of hills and I had arrived!
SkyPi is a very modest sized facility. It is run basically by two guys, the owner and the “technical expert” with the help of the owner’s daughter. The owner was off site so I had scheduled a meeting with Michael who was the one in charge of keeping the roll-off observatories running smoothly. They host about 10 telescopes currently, so not many, but plenty for the staffing that they have. Unfortunately for me they had just rented out their last available pier, but they are planning to expand once they have the necessary help. Michael told me that he and the owner John are “just getting too old for this sort of thing”. I could understand that. There is quite a bit that goes into running these types of facilities. I have enough to deal with just two telescopes let alone 10 or more!
I got the grand tour of the facility, the roll-offs and the equipment they were hosting as well as a couple of visual observing decks used for Dobsonian telescopes. There was also a privately owned 40” Dobsonian housed in a large roll-off at the bottom of the hill, and an observing site that was used for star parties where they had a few cement piers with power for anyone doing portable imaging.
After the tour we sat out on the deck of the main house which is where the two of them stay. There is a guest room for anyone needing to spend the night setting up equipment, etc. I had a great afternoon there with Michael. I had come there with a huge list of questions regarding setting up, operating logistics and other technical matters, but I could see that my host was a little weary probably from the previous night and since they didn’t have any available piers anyway, I decided to let the conversation just flow naturally. We talked about the community and the astronomers who lived there. It turns out they are going to host the Magdalena Astronomy Club’s annual Enchanted Skies star party which is in October.
It can get pretty cold up there in Pie Town. He called it “Canadian cold”. I certainly know what that is! The conversation then moved into music and electric guitars. They had a couple of instruments in the main house. It turns out John, the owner, is a bassist and Michael plays guitar. I told Michael next time I came out I could bring my own Fender Stratocaster which I play periodically. The afternoon wrapped up with a discussion of UFOs! All in all, a most enjoyable afternoon! The VLA, SkyPI Observatory and some very stimulating conversation all in one day. Perhaps the window for equipment moving has closed at least for now, but I have a place I can go for jam sessions and spectacular dark sky observing!
Located in Tucson, AZ in the US, the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) was incorporated in 1988 for the purpose of “preserving and protecting the night time environment and our heritage of dark skies through quality outdoor lighting.” It does this via many education and public outreach strategies as well as partnering with local businesses and municipalities. Despite the fact that the scourge of light pollution does not seem to be going away any time soon, the good news is the IDA remains the recognized authority on worldwide light pollution and the leading organization combating it. It has an International Dark Sky Places program that aims “to encourage communities, parks and protected areas around the world to preserve and protect dark sites through responsible lighting policies and public education”.
There are currently five types of designation (see below) for International Dark Sky Places which the IDA “awards” to those regions which have accomplished the goal of developing, preserving and protecting the night sky. While I am well familiar with the IDA (since I am only four hours away from their main headquarters!), I was not familiar with the specific categories of Dark Sky Places, and in fact did not know there were more than one!
The following information is courtesy of darksky.org, the IDA’s website:
International Dark Sky Sanctuaries- These are the most remote (and often darkest) places in the world whose conservation state is most fragile. A sanctuary differs from a Dark Sky Park or Reserve in that it is typically situated in a very remote location with few (if any) nearby threats to the quality of its dark night skies and it does not otherwise meet the requirements for designation as a park or reserve. The typical geographic isolation of Dark Sky Sanctuaries significantly limits opportunities for public outreach, so a sanctuary designation is specifically designed to increase awareness of these fragile sites and promote their long-term conservation. I am happy to point out that there is one Dark Sky Sanctuary located right here in New Mexico that is only about a three hour drive from here! It’s appropriately named the “cosmic campground” and is located in the Gila National Forest which is in the western part of the state.
International Dark Sky Reserves- Reserves consist of a dark “core” zone surrounded by a populated periphery where policy controls are enacted to protect the darkness of the core.
International Dark Sky Parks- Parks are publicly- or privately-owned spaces protected for natural conservation that implement good outdoor lighting and provide dark sky programs for visitors.
International Dark Sky Communities- Communities are legally organized cities and towns that adopt quality outdoor lighting ordinances and undertake efforts to educate residents about the importance of dark skies.
Urban Night Sky Places (seems like on oxymoron to me, but it is a legitimate designation!)- UNSPs are sites near or surrounded by large urban environs whose planning and design actively promote an authentic nighttime experience in the midst of significant artificial light at night, and that otherwise do not qualify for designation within any other International Dark Sky Places category.
And now the envelope please for the Dark Sky Designation recent winners!