On Sunday night October 18 I joined the SF Orion store staffers for their monthly dark sky observing session at Fiddletown. This was the first time I was really able to use the light gathering capabilities of my brand new 17.5 inch LITEBOX reflector with a small group of observers at a dark site. Conditions were really great - no breeze, not too cold. The sky was very dark, the seeing was very good. It was exciting to anticipate the hunt, preparing the tools we would use in our search, while awaiting the darkening night. My fellow observers were Matt Tarlach, the Sacto TAC-o, and Ken and Casey, also from the SF Orion Store. Ken and Casey concentrated on astrophotography. Ken's image from last month of the Horsehead we spotted without a filter was a nice reminder of my first Fiddletown adventure. Matt and I concentrated on globular clusters in M-33, M32, M-31 and M-110, and the galaxies surrounding NGC 7331 in Pegasus.
A big scope at a dark site is such a treat, I almost didn't know what to look for first. A month of Fiddletown Sunday nights wouldn't even begin to scratch the surface of my observing wish list! During breaks between the intense intergalactic search, we peppered our observing logs and our eyes with other fantastic finds or familiar favorites. Some intermissions from the visual symphony which surrounded us.
I was surprised how much fun the hunt for these dimlits was. I really didn't expect that the views of a far away mag 15 object would be so soul stirring. Many times during the night we had to sit down and think about what we were seeing. And remind ourselves how long it took for the distant light to reach our eyes. Quite a lot to ponder. This is no project to rush, and we were constantly amazed as the hours just flew by. We savored each "find" and I made notes and sketches in my observing log. We used the Webb Society book on galaxies, and a David Eicher observing guide from Deep Sky magazine entitled "Galaxies and the Universe" - Steve Gottlieb contributed some of the observing projects in this fantastic book. Why we even referred to Burnham's Celestial Handbook once or twice.
My first project for the night was also my first foray into the globular clusters in the Andromeda galaxy, M31 and two of its companions - M32 and NGC 205. Following close behind was the hunt for globulars surrounding M33, the Triangulum or Pinwheel galaxy, and finishing off the serious project work with the ambiguous galaxy companions of NGC 7331 in Pegasus, just a hop away from Stephen's Quintet, some of the brighter objects on our list this session. Just a taste of the hundreds of clusters and galaxies which are just waiting to be glimpsed through my eyepieces. But one taste was all it took - I'm hooked! All observations were with my 17.5 F4.5 reflector and most seen with a 16mm Nagler yielding about 125X, and closeup using a 13mm Plossl and a barlow for 308X. Beautiful! Undescribable!
We started with M-31, which the Persian astronomer Al-Sufi described as "little cloud" in 964 of the modern era. Tilted 12.5 degrees from edge-on, the spiral structure is difficult to discern. The dust lanes along the northwestern side show that this side is closer to us. The arms are spinning towards us on the northeastern side and away from us on the southwestern side. The spiral arms are dominated by star clouds or young and loosely bound collections of stars having a common origin. The brightest of these and our first target was NGC 206, 50' southwest of the galactic center. No Hll regions however, and I hate to admit it but it was so bright we were afraid our dark adapted vision would be ruined. M31 will have to be observed towards the end of an observing session on another night.
Two of the 8 companions were another story. M-32 is a fuzzy and compact elliptical galaxy, and at high power it resembled a planetary nebula to me. No core and irregular edges. Two of the brighter clusters G (for globular)163 and 142 were two non-stellar objects we were easily able to verify using direct vision and our Andromeda Charts.
NGC 205, the other large companion is also known as M-110. G73 is a mag 15 cluster easily seen. Also tagged were G51 and G54. G55, G56, G57. G61 and G63 are maybes, leaning towards solid verification, but requiring another look.
Our first project was such a success we delved right into M33, the Triangulum Galaxy and it's H11 regions. One of the brightest of the local group of galaxies, it is probably our nearest spiral galaxy after M31. It's spiral chunky arms are studded with emission nebula and open clusters. Most notable is NGC 604, a huge emission nebula containing a beautiful cluster resembling the Pleiades! This is one of the largest Hll regions known. IC 143 and 142, IC 139 and 140, NGC 595 and IC 137 were sure catches.
On to Pegasus! First a stop at NGC 7331, a highly tilted spiral, home of the supernova. Mag 10. Half a degree away was Stephan's Quintet. The five galaxies were easy to spot, and easy to tell which was which. I sketched them. Shining a between 13.7 and 15.3, we had no trouble seeing all five, NGC 7320, 7317 (dimmest at 15.3), 7318A and B, and 7319. The big dim one shining at Mag 13.7.
Next to the galaxies NGC 7325, 7326, 7327, 7335 - brightest of a group of 4 on the eastern side. 7336 - faint and elongated. 7337 - a barred spiral, 7338 - , 7340, a 14.9 - a little elongated galaxy. I don't have the magnitudes of many of these objects.
This was an eyepatch night, and I donned my black beret, draped stylishly over my right eye for a comfortable eyepatch that kept my head warm at the same time, and in between the hunts described above, we went back and found those objects we misssed last month at Fiddletown.
Hubble's Variable Nebula, a comet shaped nebula if ever I did see one was a familiar find from last year. The Christmas Tree cluster and the cone nebula, finally! The other most spectacular sights through my new scope were the magnificent colors. Dusty Rose/Brown subdued around the Orion nebula, and green around the Ring nebula. The Saturn Nebula and Saturn weren't too shabby either! Now I can't wait till the next time!