Got It! ... Some observations from Deep Sky Ranch

Kevin Ritschel

I have been out chasing ANON's the last two nights (sleeping till moonset and viewing till ~5 am); Since the weather is so nice, I plan to follow this routine for the next couple of nights at least. The last couple of nights have also been really transparent - great views of NGC 1300 and 1365 (you know how low in the South 1365 is). Some notable observations:

* After trying to catch U394 on 4 different nights with Dobzilla, I finally nabbed the little guy (an ANON next to M110/M31) last night. Size isn't the issue, 200X was plenty of power, but it has a VERY low surface brightness, a nice challenge object. A GIF from the DSS is attached. I'd love to see a deeper shot of this galaxy, you can see from the DSS shot that it has a really strange shape. U522 just East of M31 is far easier.

* Aldebaran has an ANON about 1/2 degree NW. Pretty easy for an ANON.

* Caught NGC 1049, one of the globulars *inside* the Fornax Dwarf (like 1365, this is really low).

* U12491 is an easy ANON - and pretty easy to find. Look about 1.5 degrees West (and a bit north) of the Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) for NGC 7618, a GX. U12491 is immediately to the west of 7618, about 1/4 degree.

* Took a deep look at M42 when it was near the Meridian this morning. At 200X it's not surprising that you can see some small faint stars embedded in the nebulae around the Trapezium. What was surprising was that they had a distinct red color - you'd expect anything in there to be reddened by dust. I've noticed the red hue in the nebula on plenty of occasions with the 17 and other scopes, but never any color in the stars, especially such dim objects.

Now comes the fun part, seeing how small a scope I can duplicate these observations with ....


Observing Reports Observing Sites GSSP 2010, July 10 - 14
Frosty Acres Ranch
Adin, CA

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