Quick OR on Plettstone

by Rob Hawley


We had two good nights at Plettstone. The usual crowd was there. Both nights were clear and generally dew free with good or excellent transparency and moderate temps. The seeing was soft on Friday, but was better on Saturday.

The new 15" is really incredible. It is opening an entirely new realm of objects to look at. I had been borrowing the SJAA 17" scope from August of last year. I have not used it since March when I picked up the Plettstone. Before that I was using my 10" SCT and 8" travel scope. The 8" scope got most of the usage at Shingletown last year.

I was interested in galaxy groups. My goal was to get the scope on a galaxy group and then have the tracking allow me to walk over the members of the group. I had been doing this with some galaxies in the past, but without tracking it is really hard. I also found that keeping a consistent field of view allowed me to see dimmer objects then when I was fighting with the earth's rotation.

Last week I started with a series of Hickson groups as detailed in my FP OR.

This last weekend I started on Abell 1367 that I tried to observe at Kitt Peak last year http://ephemeris.sjaa.net/0406/f.html

Time    Object    Type   Magnf Notes


03-04 Jun 2005

Abell 1367
22:11 NGC 3861A Galaxy 136x  dim no distinct shape
22:29 UGC 6719  Galaxy 136x  dim noticed by moving maybe some sw ne shape
22:29 NGC 3844  Galaxy 191x  dim not sure of shape
22:29 NGC 3840  Galaxy 191x  dim no definite shape easier to see in 10 mm
eyepiece
22:46 NGC 3845  Galaxy 191x  dim forms triangle with 3841 no shape
22:47 UGC 6697  Galaxy 191x  definite edge-on in shape
22:47 NGC 3862  Galaxy 191x  fairly easy
22:47 NGC 3860A Galaxy 191x  maybe hint of sw ne elongation
22:47 NGC 3857  Galaxy 191x  averted vision
22:47 NGC 3842  Galaxy 191x  fairly easy hint of brighter center
22:47 NGC 3841  Galaxy 191x  dim no definite shape
22:47 NGC 3837  Galaxy 191x  about same bright as 3842
22:47 IC 2955   Galaxy 191x  averted vision splits from 3862
23:32 NGC 3875  Galaxy 191x  in and out pairing w 3875
23:32 NGC 3873  Galaxy 191x  easy
23:32 NGC 3868  Galaxy 191x  averted vision
23:32 NGC 3867  Galaxy 191x  dim


23:55 9P Tempel Comet  191x  dim brighter center
23:58 C/2004 Q2 Machholz Comet 191x brighter than temple fairly easy
00:31 NGC 4494  Galaxy 136x  fairly bright but otherwise unremarkable
00:31 NGC 4490  Galaxy 191x  large showpiece object from overlooked
objects book
00:31 NGC 4485  Galaxy 136x
00:31 NGC 4449  Galaxy 136x  fairly bright unusual object definite size
with bright center section elong
01:29 NGC 5466  Glob   136x  large obj dim haze with few brighter stars
02:01 NGC 6804  P Neb  136x  small but easily seen with o3 filter maybe a
little wider in one direction
02:01 NGC 6772  P Neb  136x  faint without o3; with o3 moderate uniform
brightness
02:27 PK 38-25.1 P Neb 136x  very dim obj even w o3
02:27 NGC 6826  P Neb  136x  could not see blink w o3

4-5 June

Abell 1656
22:16 NGC 4908  Galaxy 191x   3 in row
22:16 IC 4051   Galaxy 191x   3 in row
22:16 IC 4045   Galaxy 191x   3 in row
22:16 NGC 4907  Galaxy 191x   averted vision
22:16 NGC 4898-1 Galaxy191x   faint glow next to 4884
22:16 NGC 4895  Galaxy 191x   moderate definite nw-se elongation
22:16 NGC 4884  Galaxy 191x   moderate bright no structure
22:16 NGC 4882  Galaxy 191x   glow on side of 4884
22:16 NGC 4881  Galaxy 191x
22:41 NGC 4923  Galaxy 191x   averted vision
22:41 NGC 4921  Galaxy 191x   dim
22:41 NGC 4919  Galaxy 191x   averted vision
22:41 NGC 4911  Galaxy 191x   dim
00:23 NGC 3921  Galaxy 136x   dim


00:23 NGC 3913  Galaxy 136x   uncertain averted vision if at all


Trio 29

00:51 NGC 4615  Galaxy 191x   some nw to se elongation
00:51 NGC 4615  Galaxy 136x   did not see at first. averted vision and
movement
00:51 NGC 4614  Galaxy 136x   see 4615
00:51 NGC 4613  Galaxy 136x   see 4615 last of group to see


01:02 NGC 5142  Galaxy 191x   dim
01:02 NGC 5141  Galaxy 191x   dim


01:16 NGC 5504  Galaxy 191x   dim only member of group detected


01:21 NGC 6207  Galaxy 191x   bright definite edge shape
01:51 NGC 5486  Galaxy 191x   averted vision plus motion
01:51 NGC 5485  Galaxy 191x   moderate bright
02:15 NGC 6781  Planetary Nebula 136x
02:15 NGC 6760  Glob   191x   very dense stars not obvious
02:27 NGC 6712  Glob   136x
02:42 NGC 7243  Open Cluster 136x
02:43 NGC 7331  Galaxy 136x
02:45 NGC 40    Planetary Nebula 136x


Posted on sf-bay-tac Jun 06, 2005 09:32:15 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 24, 2005 17:07:16 PT