Last night I decided to join Dean and his friend Rich for a small star party at the Vekol Road site northwest of Tucson. One reason we went was that the clouds were present in Tucson, but it was likely to be clear up there. Also, Rich is from Phoenix so it was easier to meet him there.
Rich and Dean both have Epsilon 160's which are fantastic imaging scopes. I set up my 105mm refractor. The clouds did clear out and it was a beautiful dark night, a bit hot but the sky background was a nice dark 21.34.
I messed around for a while and then started imaging M16. Unfortuntately it turns out that I did not bring enough battery power (all this electronic gear takes a lot of juice!) and I ran out around 1:00 a.m., before I had completed the M16 run. I had hoped to shoot M31 as well so that didn't work out.
Actually I was not the only one - Rich ran out of power about an hour earlier than me. So two out of three of us were stopped much too early. Dean ended up putting Rich's STL-11000 on his scope and they continued to image through the night.
I was a bit tired from an imaging session in my backyard the night before last, I shot the Bubble Nebula and M52 under partly cloudy skies.
Since I forgot to bring any eyepieces or a diagonal, once the power ran out I was unable to do any visual observing either. So I learned two important lessons last night: 1) Always take more power to the field than you think you will need, and 2) Always bring visual accessories as a backup even if the plan is for an astrophotography session!
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