by Ron Bhanukitsiri
Well, everyone seems to talking about the coma within the Comet Ikeya-Zhang. After having bagged the Comet Ikeya-Zhang, it's time for the TV-102 Light Cup to look into the coma, Coma Berenices that is ;-).
Under the LM of 5.3, twinkling stars, lots of light pollution from the south, lots of clouds and moisture ealier, the first stop was M53. Salt & Pepper look at 110x, bright. Only a few stars along the outer edge are resolved at 176x. Strangely enough, the mag 9.8 NGC 5053 globular was nowhere to be seen! Yawn...ok, moving right along.
Continuing with the nadering in the "Land of the Giants", the next stop is NGC 4565, a very large edge-on galaxy. Could just be seen as elongated smudge at 22x (40mm Pentax XL). Much better at 44x (20mm TV Plossl), very long, needle shape quite evident with bright center. The galaxy forms a shape with the following stars that looked awfully like a miniature version of Coma Berenices itself: SAO 82406, SAO 82399, GSC 1990:1709, GSC 1990:1038 (at 110x), GSC 1990:432. The miniature “constellation” (mirror reversed) through the TV Everbrite diagonal barely fits the FOV at 73x (12mm TV Radian). The view looked a lot like this sketch I found on the web.
http://www.jwebdale.btinternet.co.uk/ngc4565.htm
Very dim at 110x (8mm Radian), but the star very close to the center of the galaxy can be seen and kept popping in and out. See this beautiful photo I found for confirmation of the star.
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n4565.html
Unfortunately, the saucer shape (i.e. the central bulge) so prominent in many photos was not seen. Can anyone see this bulge?
Last stop is NGC 4559, a spiral galaxy. An elongated oval smudge at 22x. But an interesting intoxicating cocktail dipper shape is seen as the TV-102 Light Cup dipped into the galactic drink and scoped up the galaxy. The stars forming the dipper are: SAO 82392, SAO 82404, SAO 82380 and SAO 82384 with the dipper handle being SAO 82366, SAO 82359, SAO 82348. Note the very interesting portion of the handle which is made up of the asterism GSC 1991:1830, GSC 1991:1709, SAO 82341, GSC 1991:962, giving the impression of clipping onto the side of the cocktail bowl. At 73x, the galaxy looks more like a gray fish without a stellar core, floating to the surface of the dipper in which it was caught. Yeah, I see them; there are two stars on each side of the galaxy that looked like the bulging eyes of my Koi fish in my backyard pond! Too dim at 110x. See this beautiful photo I found on the web used to confirm the two stars.
http://www.noao.edu/outreach/aop/observers/n4559.html
Suddenly, what’s this? The view began to blur, perhaps, because the intoxicated TV-102 has been gulping the galactic cocktail? Oh, never mind, the wind has started to pick up ;-).
PS - Round 1 with M64, the BlackEye, galaxy goes to the TV-102 Light Cup with a Radian jab to M64's left eye ;-) Awaiting Round 2's bell.