by Bob Jardine
I decided to make the drive to Fremont Peak, in spite of “iffy” weather, because it would probably be the last time for this year, and the CSCs showed that it would be clear until about midnight and that it would have the best seeing of any nearby site. While I don’t completely trust the CSCs, they do seem to provide relatively good guidance a lot of the time. So I decided to take the chance.
In this case, I really doubted the CSC prediction on the drive down to the peak, because it looked like clouds rolling in. But I kept going, and it turned out well. Mostly clear most of the evening, poor transparency, clouded up not long before midnight, and very good seeing towards the end.
Jamie and I had the SW lot to ourselves. We had a grand time.
My first object was asteroid 61 Danae. In Perseus! While I was preparing a chart earlier that day, I thought that this was odd -- Perseus is a pretty long way from the Ecliptic. What was an asteroid doing there?
I tracked Danae down at about 8:20 PM. Jamie had a look too. Then he told me the story of Danae. Turns out she was the mother of Perseus! I hadn’t known, or I'd forgotten (even though I knew much of the story about Perseus, Andromeda, Cetus, etc.).
Now what kind of coincidence is that? This asteroid named after Perseus' mother is in the constellation named after him? Could it be that this asteroid was named Danae because it is unusual in that its orbit takes it into Perseus? I guess the orbital plane must have a significant tilt, and maybe this is the most extreme Northern part of its orbit. Since it was the 61st asteroid discovered, perhaps it was the first one (or the first one known) to ever have any part of its orbit in Perseus, so perhaps the person who named it knew this and named it for Perseus’ mother. This is all speculation of course. I’ll have to do some research on this and find out if it was something like that.
But still, an interesting coincidence that on the first night I tried to observe this particular asteroid it was in Perseus!
BTW: my estimated mag for 61 Danae is close to mag 12. It seemed just a bit dimmer than a mag 11.7 star nearby.
Next I tracked a few H-2 objects in Perseus. Here's the brief version. I have more notes if anyone is interested. Using 12.5" f/5 Mag1 Portaball.
| NGC 1582 | OC, Per -- a surprise! This one is visible in binocs, pretty rare for an H-2. Note that this is not 1528, also a binocular OC in Perseus! Another coincidence? |
|---|---|
| NGC 1605 | OC, Per -- pretty dim and pretty small. Just hints of a few dim stars and some unresolved glow. |
| NGC 1624 | OC + neb, Per -- this was nice; pretty obvious very small glow, visible even at very low power -- resolves into about 1/2 dozen stars at 176x, with some definite nebulosity. |
| NGC 1579 | RN, Per -- Did not find. Perhaps not the night for this, transparency was poor. |
| NGC 1300 | gal, Eri -- OK; not Perseus, and not an H-2 object; Jamie was looking at this, so I went there too to compare views. Quite large, low SB, quite elongated, brighter center. |
| NGC 1297 | gal, Eri -- bonus object in field with N1300. |
| h 3565 | dbl, Eri -- another bonus object, a fine double star, just North of N1297. |
Finally, wrapped up with some Mars. Seeing was very good, perhaps even excellent at times. About the most detail I’ve ever seen. I saw a fleeting glimpse of a full “dark” ring around Hellas. Syrtis Major was rotating out, but was still prominent. Mare Cimmerium and Mare Tyrrhenum were separated by a lighter band. Saw Syrtis Minor occasionally. The best thing was a “hook” (and occasionally apparently a closed loop) in Mare Cimmerium. Used around 200x (7mm Nagler) and a #21 Orange filter or around 300x (5mm Tak LE) without filter.
A better night than I expected. Lots of fun.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Nov 07, 2005 06:50:55 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 16, 2006 20:16:45 PT