Dinosaur Point, 3/17/2009

Julien Lecomte

The sky remained pretty much unworkable until about 10:30pm, time around which it started clearing up nicely. Around 2am, I did a limiting magnitude test in Leo. I counted 20 stars in that triangle (that's mag 6.3) However, as my eyes were sweeping that region of the sky, I was able to catch glimpses of many more fainter stars, but decided not to count them as I could not reliably keep track of where they were and how many I was seeing. Anyway, as you can see, the conditions were pretty good.

I spent most of the night in Leo, looked at some eye candy through Mark Johnston and Greg LaFlamme's scopes, talked shop while waiting for the sky to clear up, and caught my first glimpse of M13 and M57 right before packing up. Overall, it was a good night, with 18 new H-400 objects logged. Cheers!

NGC 3900 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h49m40.5s Dec. +26°58'02", 12.3 mag, Alt 56°
10:35p - Best seen with a Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') Elongated N-S 2x1 with a pretty faint non-stellar core surrounded by a very faint uniform halo. Located near the middle of the hypotenuse of a right angled triangle formed by 3 stars of similar magnitude.

NGC 3626 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h20m35.2s Dec. +18°18'11", 11.8 mag, Alt 61°
11:00p - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy showed a fairly bright almost stellar core surrounded by a much fainter halo elongated almost N-S 2x1.

NGC 3607 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h17m25.9s Dec. +17°59'58", 10.9 mag, Alt 63°
11:10p - Using a TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1'), this galaxy shows a fairly bright almost stellar core, surrounded by a roundish uniform halo. This galaxy forms an interesting group with slightly dimmer NGC 3608, located only 5' N, and much dimmer NGC 3605, located only 2' S-W. NGC 3599 is located about 15' W.

NGC 3608 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h17m30.4s Dec. +18°05'42", 11.6 mag, Alt 63°
11:10p - Using a TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1'), this galaxy shows a fairly bright stellar core, surrounded by a roundish uniform halo. This galaxy forms an interesting group with slightly brighter NGC 3607, located only 5' S, and much dimmer NGC 3605, located only 2' S-W of NGC 3607. NGC 3599 is located about 15' W.

NGC 3681 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h27m01.0s Dec. +16°48'33", 12.4 mag, Alt 63°
11:25p - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears round, with a faint almost stellar core surrounded by a fairly uniform halo. This galaxy forms an interesting group with NGC 3684 and NGC 3681. These three galaxies are almost aligned on a N-E/S-W line, and are separated by about 8' from their nearest neighbor. Much fainter NGC 3691 is also visible, about 10' E of that line.

NGC 3684 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h27m42.3s Dec. +16°58'34", 12.3 mag, Alt 63°
11:25p - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears round and fairly uniform, with no obvious core. The halo seems to become slightly brighter toward the center. This galaxy forms an interesting group with NGC 3686 and NGC 3681. These three galaxies are almost aligned on a N-E/S-W line, and are separated by about 8' from their nearest neighbor. Much fainter NGC 3691 is also visible, about 10' E of that line.

NGC 3686 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h28m15.1s Dec. +17°10'12", 12.0 mag, Alt 63°
11:25p - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears elongated 2x1 N-S. It looks fairly uniform, with no obvious core (a slightly brighter central condensation was suspected) A faint superimposed star is visible using averted vision, about 1.5' S of the center of the galaxy. This galaxy forms an interesting group with NGC 3684 and NGC 3681. These three galaxies are almost aligned on a N-E/S-W line, and are separated by about 8' from their nearest neighbor. Much fainter NGC 3691 is also visible, about 10' E of that line.

NGC 3242 - Ghost of Jupiter - Planetary Nebula in Hydra, R.A. 10h25m14.7s Dec. -18°41'34", 8.6 mag, Alt 34°
11:40p - Using a TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7'), this planetary nebula appears very bright, round and very uniform. It shows an almost surreal fluorescent blue-green color. When using a TeleVue Nagler 5mm (305x, 16.1'), the nebula loses its color, but starts revealing details, especially an elliptical ring, elongated 2x1 N-S, nested inside the nebula. The central star was suspected during very brief moments. Its visibility seems extremely dependent on the seeing.

NGC 3655 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h23m25.9s Dec. +16°32'08", 12.3 mag, Alt 68°
12:05a - Using a TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1'), this galaxy appears elongated 2x1 N-S with a non stellar core surrounded by a uniform halo. Located about 2' W-SW of a star of comparable magnitude.

NGC 3489 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h00m49.9s Dec. +13°50'55", 11.1 mag, Alt 67°
12:20a - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears elongated 2x1 E-W with an almost stellar core surrounded by a uniform halo.

NGC 3628 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h20m47.9s Dec. +13°32'14", 10.0 mag, Alt 66°
12:25a - This is an edge-on spiral. As such, it appears very elongated E-W. Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, the dust lane was detected, but not easily at all! The galaxy does not appear perfectly symmetrical like some other edge-on spirals do. It looks like its disc is warped a little. A faint superimposed star is visible near the eastern end, 1' south of the center line. This galaxy is a member of the splendid Leo triplet, which also contains the much brighter M65 and M66, located about 20' south. All three galaxies fit within a single field of view of the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and show distinct morphological differences.

NGC 3412 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 10h51m24.7s Dec. +13°21'37", 11.5 mag, Alt 64°
01:00a - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears fairly bright, with an almost stellar core surrounded by a faint roundish uniform halo, very slightly elongated N-S.

NGC 3593 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h15m08.1s Dec. +12°45'52", 11.8 mag, Alt 65°
01:05a - In the field of view of the TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1'), this galaxy appears pretty faint with a non stellar core surrounded by a faint uniform halo elongated 3x1 E-W.

NGC 3384 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 10h48m48.3s Dec. +12°34'37", 10.9 mag, Alt 61°
01:15a - Seen using a TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7'), this galaxy appears fairly bright with an almost stellar core surrounded by a uniform halo elongated 3x1 NE-SW. This galaxy forms a beautiful tight triangle with brighter M105 and smaller and much fainter NGC 3389. The members of this group are separated by only 4' approximatively.

NGC 3810 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h41m29.5s Dec. +11°25'01", 11.3 mag, Alt 64°
01:25a - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears pretty faint, with a low surface brightness. The halo looks pretty uniform, with only a slight brightness gradient toward the middle. The halo is slightly elongated 2x1 NE-SW.

NGC 3640 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h21m37.4s Dec. +03°10'51", 11.3 mag, Alt 54°
01:35a - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy shows a fairly bright and large core, surrounded by a roundish halo.

NGC 3521 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h06m19.2s Dec. -00°05'17", 9.9 mag, Alt 49°
01:45a - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7') and TeleVue Nagler 9mm (169x, 29.1') eyepieces, this galaxy appears fairly bright and large, with a bright stellar core surrounded by a fairly uniform halo elongated 4x1 N-S. The western portion looks slightly dimmer. I confirmed this later by looking at actual photographs. Dust clouds seem to be more prevalent on the western half of this spiral galaxy.

NGC 3912 - Galaxy in Leo, R.A. 11h50m35.5s Dec. +26°25'28", 13.2 mag, Alt 76°
01:55a - Using the TeleVue Nagler 16mm (95x, 51.7'), this galaxy is hard to find. A good finder scope is of great help! It appears tiny, faint, and elongated 2x1 N-S.