Bolivia, August 2005

In August 2005 I attended the tenth annual
Southern Skies Star Party held in Bolivia.
I arrived there on August 1st with 11 other
hard core observers. They included Gary Myers
owner of Stellar Cat, the drive system found
on Obsession Telescopes, Dennis Young an amazing
astro photographer, observer and astro tour guide
out of Sedona Arizona, George Freidman who
brought an epic "hit List"  he acquired with
the help of Mega Star, a computer star atlas,
Fred Espenak aka Mr. Eclipse, and others who
all shared our love for the southern skies.

From La Paz airport to the dark skies takes less than
2 hours. On the drive out I could tell this was a
very magical place. As you drive west on the two
lane highway you see to the north is a beautiful
glacier mountain range with peaks up to 20,000 feet
high. These Andean high plains are dotted with small
picturesque villages and farms.

A 22" Starmaster sits on the shore of Lake Titicaca
in Bolivia at the 12,500 foot elevation under very dark,
very dry skies. The scope has Argo-Navis & Stellar Cat to
handle the GOTO. As a present owner of a 28" Starmaster
with Sky Commander and GOTO. I can tell you the scope
was GREAT! Gary owns a 30", Dennis owns a 28" and along
with myself, we all agreed that this scope under these
skies performed as well as our 28-30s under 6.5 magnitude
skies!

The first thing that strikes you is the awesome
brightness of the Milky Way contrasted by the inky
black dark lanes within it! We could see Sagittarius
and Scorpius at the zenith. The large Sagittarius
cloud being the brightest of all the Milky Way
clouds for sure. Then south into Norma's very bright
medium size star cloud with the bright open cluster
NGC 6067 embedded inside. This is one of the finest
open star clusters that I observed. Further
south were the very bright stars Alpha & Beta Centaurus.
The dark cloud of the Coal Sack is flanked by the Southern Cross
with the beautiful Jewel Box Cluster off the easternmost
star Beta Crux. Further down into the Milky Way
is the amazing Eta Carinae Nebula Complex! This large
extended nebula is a rich mix of bright and dark
nebulas and open clusters. The keyhole nebula near
its center sits on a bright section in a rich star
field. South of Eta Carinae on the edge of the Milky Way
rest the Southern Pleiades, IC 2602 a bright open cluster
with half a dozen naked eye stars seen at only 20 or
so degrees above the flat SSW horizon of Lake Titicaca.
Also of note outside the Milky Way you will find two Great
globular clusters NGC 6397 of Ara and NGC 6752 of Pavo.
Both of these 5th magnitude clusters would easily been
Messier objects in the Northern Hemisphere.

Another thing that I was struck by at this location
only 16 degrees south of the equator is the great view
of the northern skies. You can still get the great
galaxies in Andromeda M31 and Triangulum, M33 at a
very nice height over the northern horizion. Even the
Perseus Double Cluster made it into the southern sky.
This has got to be the best of both worlds!

I came down here to WORK! I spent every night with
the 22" until I dropped, which was dawn or moonrise.
The SSSP was over too quickly and everyone left after six
days back to the States. So then it was me and the 22"
inside a rustic adobe structure with, get this, a
grass and reed roll off roof on Lake Titicaca's edge.
In the stillness of the night you could hear the waves
gently lapping the shore.

This was the beginning of the 2nd week of August with
the Perseids becoming more and more frequent. Every night
at sunset I would give Sky Tours to the many visitors
who would stop by for a look. They were from all
over the world. Japan, Germany, England, France, Canada,
the US, and who knows where else. With the help of
translators I pointed out Venus, Jupiter, close together
in the western evening sky. The bright constellations
and of course gave them all tours of the bright deep sky
objects with the 22" Starmaster.

The most awesome object we saw, after the sheer
magnificent brilliance of the Milky Way was the naked eye
globular star cluster 47 Tucane!  I had the privilege to
see the Omega Centauri globular cluster under great skies
too, and yes, it is larger. BUT if Omega is The King, then
47 Tucane is The Queen! She has the curves! Her central
concentration and beautiful star chains were amazing!
The resolution at the core was awesome! It was a
perfect amount of lumpy concentration that sucked
you into her depths without becoming too crowded so
that you could make out tiny paths to her large blue halo.
One Night Dennis Young had us do a comparison of M13
and 47 Tucane. Both globulars were up at about the same
height off the horizon. 47 Tucane in the south and M13 in
the North. After we all took turns looking at each of them
we cried: "THERE IS NO COMPARISON!!!"

47 Tucane is in a league of her own. Sitting naked eye
as the fuzzy "companion star" to the Small Magellanic
Cloud. So after the Milky Way set with Scorpius and
Sagittarius setting upside down! Now that's a weird sight.
The SMC rose to put on a show! When scanning this cloud
with binoculars you notice two bright nebulous objects
even at seven power. They sit in the eastern section,
where it thins and tapers down. These are from east
to west open cluster NGC 371 and the bright nebula
NGC 346. Also in the SMC in binoculars just a little
west of NGC 346 is the very small and compressed bright
open cluster NGC 330. Under power with the 22" it looks
like a tiny bright globular with a halo but only a hint
of resolution.

I would spend the wee wee hours until dawn with a
photo copy of the 2nd edition of Urano Metria bagging
every open cluster, bright nebula and globular cluster
plotted! By the way this 2nd edition has a great enlarged
SMC chart in the back of the Atlas (LMC too) that helped
relieve the over crowded labeling. So as I cluster
hopped through the SMC with Urano I would shade in the
objects on the atlas and write down my observations of
each and every object. By the way, the SMC as plotted on
Urano contains 33 OC's, 10 bright neb's and the in line of
sight GC's NGC 362 and of course 47 Tucane. Also as a side
note just North of 47 Tucane is a small bright globular
cluster (listed as an OC on Urano but is for sure a GC.
See "Sky Catalogue 2000.0") This tiny bright globular
goes by NGC 121 and again is only half a degree north
of the awesome globular cluster 47 Tucane. And just like
the small galaxy NGC 6207 near M13, just south of 47
Tucane, again by only half a degree is the 10th or 11th
magnitude galaxy ESO 28-12. It is small, with a gradually
brighter middle and a hint of a nucleus. What a great view!

OK, now the Large Magellanic Cloud is following the Small
Magellanic Cloud and ready to trump it! Yes, I know, what
can I say! At first I casually sweep through with binoculars
then with the 22". I am floored by the sheer number of
objects that I pick up field after field! I count well over
20 bright nebula fields and dozens and dozens of small
bright open and globular clusters! Now this is crazy!
I go to the Urano Metria and count the following number of
objects plotted on the charts just for the LMC:

225  Open Clusters

93  Bright Nebulas

6    Globular Clusters (plus add another 6 globs that are
     listed as globulars on Argo-Navis and/or Sky Cata. 2000.0)

Along with 13 distant field galaxies I am going to be busy!

Remember, these numbers are just for the LMC alone!

So after 18 long mornings and 50 hours on the cloud
I can tell you, I nailed every object plotted on the
Urano charts, except for 8 of the 13 field galaxies plotted.
But I did make up for it by finding some more open clusters
that were not plotted. The Sky, The Scope and my relentless
observations all came together in a dance with The Infinite
on those nights.

The most awesome object, hands down in the LMC is NGC
2070. The Tarantula Nebula. I cannot find words to
convey to you the extremely fine detail of this extended
nebulas object. It has loop after loop of bright and
dark nebulas! A bright star near its center, 30 Doradus
with a tiny tiny star cluster behind it. The sight is
one you must see for yourself to believe! After seeing
the Great Orion Nebula, by the way, up high in the morning
sky at the same time as the Tarantula. And Eta Carina
Nebula Complex in the evening sky, I will tell you this:
M42 The Great Nebula in Orion is the brightest nebula in
the sky. Eta Carina is the largest of these three bright
nebulas with many bright and dark details and wins for
the best "extended bright nebula." But, The Tarantula wins,
hands down as "the most complex bright nebula in the whole
sky." Again the Tarantula Nebula is truly amazing to say
the least!

The following is an excerpt from "The Stars and Planets"
by Ian Ridpath regarding The Great Tarantula Nebula:
"The Tarantula is larger and brighter than any nebula in
the Milky Way. If it were as close to us as the Orion Nebula,
the Tarantula would fill the entire constellation of Orion
and cast shadows on Earth!"

Well now, the Perseids Meteor Shower is rocking! 50 degree
long silvery streaks are blazing out of the north. They
are leaving long smoky white trails hour after hour! On
one night even before the peak, during SSSP Dennis Young,
myself and others saw a BRIGHT GREEN FIRE BALL go south in
between the SMC and LMC. It breaks into TWO GREEN BLAZES OF
LIGHT. This meteor was by far a great highlight of our
observations and in our utter joy and dismay, we all
screamed at this sight in total astro delight!

Well now I've been getting ready for the second Star Party.
Oh, I forgot to tell you, another group of just five more
hard core observers are on their way down to Bolivia. It
is headed by Comet Guru, SL9 co-discoverer, the one
and only........ David Levy! David has a shirt on that
reads; "My Damm Comet Crashed!" of course referring to
the Shoemaker-Levy9 comet that hit Jupiter in July of 1994.
So I'm going through my notes and making a list of all
the goodies in the best fields I can think of that I've
seen in the last 27 days to show them!

Its August 28th, I am star blinded. I crawl out of bed and
look out my 2nd floor window across the lake to an island
to check the visibility. It's another dry clear day, going
to be another all nighter! I stumble down the stairs and into
the lobby. I see suit cases, one has a bright colored tag:
"David Levy". I bound into the restaurant and rub my eyes
as a group of jet lagged astro-heads turns and greets
me. We introduce ourselves and I give them a rundown of
what the nights have been like and how the sky has been.

The next and last week of my stay there is a dusk to
dawn SUPER HARD CORE OBSERVING RUN, as if it could be
bumped up to another level? Well, we did it like Aces.

David Levy sweeps the sky looking for comets every single
night, all night long! He is the first one out in the evening
and the last one to put his scope away at dawn. In short
breaks or at the scope he  would tell us the best stories
of Gene Shoemaker, Barnard, Hubble and others that kept
you drooling for more. David is taller than I thought he
would be. 6 foot 3 or more, thin, lanky, soft spoken, very
kind, with a heart of pure gold and the most intelligent
person I have ever met.  A funny thing at one of our first
meetings together someone mentioned the Coldwell list. And I
jump in and say "OH I hate these guys who take objects
from other list and put THEIR NUMBER'S to them!" Not
knowing that David has a list he is compiling in a book
to come out this November! After a few more CHOICE COMMENTS,
David says: "I wish you would have told me this before I
sent MY LIST to the publishers!"

Needless to say the group had a great laugh! David
and  I became good friends despite our different
views on the subject. The next morning I come down
after yet another all nighter to the dinner table
to offer my idea of a GLOBULAR CLUSTER MARATHON!
Its August, we are -16 degrees south, the Milky Way
is high on the meridian it is Purrrrrrrrfect timing
for it. David says "Great idea, I've never heard of
anyone doing this before!" So the marathon is set
for the next night.

The 22" Starmaster, my 2 new found
friends, Bernard Arghiere and Simon Chung take up the
Marathon with the help of the Sky Catalogue 2000.0
globular cluster list and Argo-Navis powered by the Stellar
Cat GOTO. By the end of the night at 4:30 am we have
carefully observed 100 globular clusters and made careful
notes on each of them with the 22". IC 4499 the
southern most globular cluster was seen with
David Levy's 6 incher from the observing patio below
the 22" observatory due to the high south wall making
a total of 101 globular clusters seen by the group in
a dusk to dawn globular cluster marathon!

WOW! what a long and strange trip it has been! All in
all I have spent 34 days here in Bolivia. First the
Southern Skies Star Party. Then a 3 week solo mission.
Then the best of all: The David Levy Comet Workshop
where in our little slice of spare time David gave three
workshops covering his and others comet hunting history,
how to find them both with telescopes and CCD, and even a
"Lets Talk Stars" internet radio show that we all did
together telling our stories of the great nights in
Bolivia on the shores of Lake Titicaca at the 12,500 foot
elevation, under what Dave says are the best skies on the
Planet. None of us who have been under these skies could
disagree, they are AWESOME to say the least!

So in closing The 22" Starmaster with Argo-Navis and
I saw in 27 clear moon less nights, in 168 blissful hours
SIX HUNDRED AND TEN southern deep sky objects! This is
how it breaks down:

257  Open Clusters in both the SMC & LMC

93  Bright Nebulas, some in the above OC's some not,
     but all SMC & LMC objects

37   Globular Clusters (counting Milky Way and SMC & LMC
     objects)

38   Milky Way Open Clusters south of Scorpius - Carina

19   Planetary Nebulas

17   Bright Milky Way Nebulas south of Scorpius - Carina

149  Galaxies including members in 5 different Abell Galaxy
     Clusters

Now back home in Southern California at 4,200 foot elevation,
under 6.5 magnitude stars at the Zenith, I open my observatory
point the 28" out and keep asking myself: "When is it going to
get dark?"

I can honestly tell you my skies are now:

    (((((( H O R R I B L E ! ))))))

            Go South!