Astronomy-- Grinch style

by Mike J. Shade


Taking advantage of the mostly clear sky here in Sonoita, I decided to do a rare thing for me...use the DT(dysfunctional telescope) for visual work. I generally have my trusty SBIG ST7 CCD camera attached but tonight I would just look.

Conditions were OK but not great for this location. There had been fairly annoying high clouds most of the day and jet contrails-an indication of the moisture content of the upper atmosphere-were quite long and slow to dissipate. Since this is shaping up to be a weird weather year, we will take what we can get. During the observation period-roughly 9:30 until about 1:30 AM. Temperature was about 47 degrees, humidity 35%-43%, and dew point 22 to 24.

All observations are with a 22mm Panoptic (126X) unless otherwise noted. Since Orion was well placed, I spent many a happy hour there ferreting out rather dim and obscure objects, objects that are seldom seen in observing reports. First of course was M42...mainly to synchronize the computer...22 Panoptic...very green with a slight pinkish tint...really, 22" telescope, fairly dark sky, let your mind take over. Next was IC423, the "ear" nebula. This object was somewhat oval in shape, pretty dim, with an ever so slight darkening in the middle. It seemed that a UHC filter did not help with this object. IC426 was even dimmer, nothing more than a slight change in contrast in the sky. NGC1788, yet another of Orion's nebulas was reasonably bright with a much brighter southern portion, with much dimmer filaments to the north. The shape reminded me of a potato. NGC1990 was nothing more than a bright star. There is supposed to be a nebula here but numerous observing guides offer that there is some controversy surrounding this object (I can see why). IC430, a very dim and difficult nebula, slight brightening of the sky made more difficult by the presence of a bright star in the field. The horsehead (B33) was detectable with a 12 Nagler (231X) as a very dark area against the sky background. In looking up I noticed that the high clouds were yet on the increase again and this might have contributed to the less than outstanding view. The planetary NGC 2022 was small, very slightly oblong with a darker center, almost like M57 through a 4" or so telescope. M78 was fan shaped, almost even surface brightness, similar to a glow around a planet in thin fog. Also noticed the smaller and less impressive NGC 2071. A new object for me and one that might need to be photographed was the area around NGC 2174. I gather that 2174 is a cluster but there are little, almost deceptive patches of nebula in the field. They are not obvious at first but in scanning the field one will notice something and wonder how it was missed in the first place. Almost like the Rosette nebula-deceptive but careful study will show numerous objects worthy of further study.

Since by this time Orion had drifted quite a bit, we zipped over to Gemini. We had to peek at M35 and NGC 2158. 2158 was resolved into tiny small grains of sand on a black background. This-and M35 were a nice view after straining on fainter objects. IC443 a supernovae remnant was a dim ghostly arc, similar to NGC 6888 in Cygnus only thicker and more extended. The dimmish galaxy NGC 2339 showed the very slightest hint of spiral structure with a 9 Nagler (309X). There was a stellar nucleus surrounded by a very dim glow with very indistinct darker gaps within the glow. By this time the wind had come up a bit but we did manage to peek at NGC 2371 which does indeed look like a peanut. There was a dim central star surrounded by an irregular dark area and two lobes or nodes slightly triangular in shape, about the same size and color, a very pale green.

So, about 1:30 closed the roof, parked the telescope, turned of the computers (BTW I have had two donated within the last week, perfect for running positioning software), and went in the house. It was not a bad evening in spite of the classical station I listen to while in the observatory insisting on playing holiday music. Humbug!