by Albert Highe
I didn't get to spend much time at the eyepiece at the mega-star party and food fest the previous night (Saturday) at Coyote. So I headed back to Coyote Sunday night. A few other observers (Marek, Denny, James, and Carl) had the same idea and were already setting up at the boat ramp parking lot when I arrived at 7:30PM. I rolled my 17.5" f/4.5 ultralight out of the van and then had dinner with the gang. It looked like it was going to be a pleasant evening. By 9PM the temperature was still a warm 76°F with a relative humidity of 47%. The sky was absolutely clear and there was no hint of wind.
After dark, someone with a 12.5" dob and a couple with a newly-acquired Meade 10" Starfinder set up just south of me.
Seeing was very good and the sky was a bit darker than on Saturday. With the smaller crowd, and better conditions, there was far less talking as observers pursued their goals.
The sky is darker to the East, so I initially focused on Cassiopeia, hunting down open clusters. I have revisited a number of open clusters with the larger aperture. Often I am pleasantly surprised how much better they appear than during my earlier visits.
One somewhat challenging object in Cassiopeia is the planetary nebula IC1747, just 0.5° SE of 45-epsilon Cassiopeiae (the left-most bright star in the "W"). It was a small fuzzy ball at 267X. With mediocre seeing, it would be difficult to distinguish from a star.
Later, I jumped over to the constellation Andromeda. The galaxy NGC404 (mag 10.3, 3.5' X 3.5') was a blazing ball, despite the extremely bright star 43-beta Andromedae (Mirach) just 7' away. However, this was just my starting point. My interest was drawn to a cluster of galaxies 2-3° south of Mirach, just over the border into Pisces. Sky Atlas doesn't show anything in this area. However, the galaxies are so densely plotted on page 62 of Uranometria, that an enlarged section is devoted to this region on page A7.
In particular, I noted two tight galaxy trios.
The first trio comprises galaxies:
| NGC410 | 11.5, 2.4' X 1.3' |
|---|---|
| Distinctly the brightest, and the central member, in this trio. Bright oval with no visible details. | |
| NGC414 | 13.8, 0.8' X 0.6' |
| Can hold this small, faint oval with averted vision. | |
| NGC407 | 13.4, 1.7' X 0.4' |
| Somewhat brighter than NGC414. Can see the elongated shape with averted vision. | |
The second trio comprises galaxies:
| NGC394 | 13.8, 0.7' X 0.4' |
|---|---|
| NGC392 | 12.7, 1.2' X 0.9' |
| The above two appeared as a close (1' separation), nearly equal magnitude pair. They were moderately bright and rather easy to see. A faint star falls in line with these two. | |
| NGC397 | 14.8, 0.7' X 0.5' |
| This galaxy was much more difficult to see. I could glimpse only about 30% of the time with averted vision, lying perpendicular to the other pair. A target for darker skies. | |
The highlight of the night was a chain of eight galaxies, running roughly N-S, that spans a mere 0.25°. The chain has a kink in it halfway along its length, breaking the chain into two groups of four. I wandered up and down the chain at 267X.
The northern four has brighter members.
| NGC379 | 12.9, 1.4' X 0.8' | Fairly bright, small oval. |
|---|---|---|
| NGC380 | 12.5, 1.3' X 1.3' | Fairly bright, small circle. |
| NGC383 | 12.4, 1.4' X 1.4' | Fairly bright, small circle. |
| NGC382 | 13.2, 0.7' X 0.7' | Moderately bright, very small, close companion to NGC383. |
| NGC387 | 15.5, 0.4' X 0.4' | Did not see. Have to try again from darker skies. |
| NGC386 | 14.3, 0.5' X 0.4' | Very faint and small. Can detect with averted vision about 50% of the time. |
| NGC385 | 13.0, 1.1' X 1.0' | Moderately bright. Almost identical to NGC384. |
| NGC384 | 13.1, 1.1' X 0.9' | Moderately bright. Almost identical to NGC385. |
In addition, there are a few other galaxies just a few arc minutes on either side of the chain that I was able to glimpse with averted vision.
By the time I left at 2:15AM, the temperature was still in the low 60's with a % relative humidity in the high 60's. Marek, James, and Carl were still going strong.