Fremont Peak 13 Nov 2004

by Bob Jardine


I observed as a guest at the pads area (thanks, James and Phil!). About 6 scopes. Turned out to be a fine night. Everyone fought dew early on, but it got warmer and dryer as the night went on. Seeing was at least fair, mostly good, but never excellent. At one point early on, I split Struve 2780, a 1.1 arcsec seeing test star in Cepheus, but just barely. Just before packing up at around 2:15 AM, I got a pretty nice view of Saturn at over 400X -- not the best view ever, but pretty stable.

I observed with my 12.5" f/5 Portaball with tracking platform.

I worked a bit on the Herschel-2 project, but I also checked out one asteroid and just poked around at galaxies in Fornax and Eridanus and elsewhere.

Highlights included that group of galaxies in downtown Fornax (AS373) and a nice curved chain of faint(er) galaxies in Eridanus.

I observed until around 2:30, and then left Jeff Crilly alone (sorry Jeff, but I had to work the next day). It was quite foggy down below, and I had to periodically slow down to 40 or 50 MPH on the drive home to get a reasonable ratio of visibility to speed.

NGCs 7172, 7173, 7176galaxies in PsA. 176x. Two galaxies pretty obvious; small, dim, very close together (1-3 arcmin?), both brighter in center, both suspected elongated. Another one farther away, like 10 arcmins; larger, dimmer, not much brighter center, suspected elong.
Asteroid (27) Euterpewhat can you say about an asteroid? About 9th mag. Formed a nice backwards question-mark asterism with some mag 8-10 stars. 45x.
Limiting mag check8-9 stars in the Pegasus triangle. High 5.Xs.
NGC 151Gal, Cetus (H-2). Small, dim, oval, slightly brighter center (broadly). Elong about 2:1 E/W. A star just off the Eastern side. 176x and 226x.
NGC 175Gal, Cetus (H-2). Medium size, dim, low surf. br.; dimmer than 151. Not much brighter center. Needs AV. Maybe elong E/W. Forms a near equilateral triangle with 2 pretty dim stars of about = mag. 176x.
NGC 337Gal, Cetus (H-2). Pretty easy to see. A bit larger, maybe brighter, than 151 and 175. But pretty low surf. br. Uniform, not brighter center. Elong SE/NW. Large almost Isoc. triangle asterism to the East.
NGC 1201Gal, Fornax. Small but bright. Needs power. 226x: brighter center, a little bit elong, SSW/NNE.
NGC 1350Gal, Fornax. A long, somewhat difficult hop; few bright stars (and no optical finder on the PBall). Reasonably bright and obvious, very near a pretty bright star. Elong N/S. Brighter center, pretty small. Nearby star is not quite in line with the major axis.
Group in Fornax (AS373)7 galaxies, all pretty obvious at 93X, not quite in same FOV, but close. NGCs 1404, 1399, 1380, 1374, 1379, 1381, 1387. Four of them form a parallelogram, the other three in a line with a pretty bright star. Nice field. None of the galaxies individually anything to write home about.
NGC 1832Gal, Lep (H-2). Pretty obvious, small, medium bright; slightly brighter center. Maybe slightly elong N/S. Right next to a star on its E. 176x. Another Lepus Herschel-2 object was not up high enough yet, so back to Eridanus.
NGC 1395Gal, Eri. Nice bright galaxy; roundish; brighter center. Maybe face on? 176x.

Starting at 1395, a nice little chain of galaxies, all quite dim. Probably NGCs 1415, 1426 and 1401.

NGCs 1531, 1532Gals, Eri. Two side-by-side smudges, about 2-3 arcmin apart. Both slightly elong, about 60 degrees relative difference in PA. Not much brighter in center. One slightly bigger and/or brighter.
NGC 1537Gal, Eri. Just slightly North of 1531/2. Pretty small and dim, but looks a little elong and a little bit brighter center.
SaturnLast object of the night, after it got up high enough. My first decent look of the season, so I spent some time getting the tracking platform speed adjusted just right. A pretty darn good view, even if not the best ever. Seeing was good, but not excellent. Used 176x, 226x, and finally 440x. It wavered a little bit at the highest X, but not so much that I wanted to drop back down. A band occasionally seen on the sphere, South (I think) of the ring. The Crepe ring was pretty easy to see, but again not the best ever. No Encke anything. A fine way to end a fine night.


Posted on sf-bay-tac Dec 09, 2004 20:56:29 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Jan 22, 2005 12:10:59 PT