A Darned Good Evening, Considering...3/12/1999

by Bruce Jensen

An intrepid (or perhaps more precisely, photon-starved) group of observers gathered at Fremont Peak, California on Friday evening, March 12, 1999 to attempt to squeeze some faint objects out of a somewhat luminous and milky sky. The cirrus clouds had held off until about noon, but seemed to come off the broad Pacific with a vengeance by the time the sun's light turned golden, and local astronomers were uncertain whether the sojourn to the Peak would be worthwhile at all for this prime viewing weekend. As it turned out, the skies were good enough most of the night for some serious work, and the calm winds and mild temperatures made for a very pleasant evening altogether.

The uncertainty over the weather kept many away, and the group was small, about nine observers total. There were seven large dobs ranging in size from 10" up to 20" in aperture, and two high-quality refractors in the group. Mark Wagner's 20" Obsession was there sans a single upper cage clamp (quickly remedied with a wingnut, thanks to Dave Kriege's adaptable design) and Jim Bartolini's splendid new incarnation of his 16" dob, an even more impressive masterpiece than his previous blue-green beauty (nice work, Jim!). For this observer, despite the weather the evening turned out to be one of the most productive of all, yielding 45 new objects and almost as many old favorites.

Equipment used in this report includes an 0.457 meter/18" Starmaster telescope, various widefield eyepieces for magnifications ranging from 92x to 290x, an 8x50 finderscope and a Telrad, and Uranometria and SkyAtlas2000 and their respective guides (Uranometria Field Guide and the SkyAtlas2000 Companion) for resources. In the report below, magnitudes for objects are listed as "m.(numerical value)."

The first members if the cast to appear were the planets, of course, and Venus showed it's usual blank pan (in a gibbous shape) while Saturn revealed much nice detail in the reasonably stable atmosphere. Best views of this jewel were at 225x shortly after sunset. Jupiter was by now getting too low to obtain good views, but it was still inspiring to see these three twilight beacons as a good omen for the coming darkness.

The deep-sky players then took the stage. Since I decided to concentrate on galaxies in Leo this evening, I first looked at NGC 2903, the large bright spiral galaxy off the nose of the Big Lion. The view was, as expected, slightly washed out in the late twilight, but the center shown as a bright spot in a graduated oval haze, and it appeared that some dimmer denizens of Leo would be visible this evening. The very next object proved this to be correct - Leo I, (UGC 5470, m.10.2), a large galaxy of very low surface brightness, was spotted with some effort about 20' north of the star Regulus at 225x. This 9' x 12' stain on the sky was also noted in the 20" scope, and the smaller 0.7' x 1.2' galaxy close to the west (IC 591, m13.1) was also noted as a very faint smudge with averted vision. Next, about 1.5 degrees east of Lambda Leo, was found a series of three faint but not too difficult galaxies that made a nice view at 225x. NGCs 2929 (m.13.7), 2930 (m.14.1) and 2931 (m.13.9) were all in direct view and a made lovely trio.

A brief break from new found the scope aimed at IC 443, a faint supernova remnant in Gemini that nonetheless revealed it's glow with an O-III filter at 92x. On a clear night this object is a splendid graceful arc that fills the view in the eyepiece, but tonight it appeared as little more than a smudge. Not so for nearby NGC 2174 in far northern Orion, a splendid large cloud of nebulosity that gives a good show even in only fair skies, revealing dark mottling and embedded stars that fill the field, and that look like a tattered pie crust in a dark sky.

Back to faint galaxies, Copeland's Septet was found once again in Leo. Despite the presence of seven notable galaxies in this group, the view on this night included but the five brightest, NGCs 3746/3750/3751/3753/3754. One other was suspected (unidentified NGC) at 290x, but the filed was washed out enough to make this sighting uncertain. A better night will doubtless reveal all seven using this aperture. Next, 1.0 degree of 92 Leo, NGCs 3743 (m.14.5) and 3758 (m.14.2) were spotted as a pair, the latter with direct vision and the former with averted vision. For the remainder of the evening, this magnitude range seemed about the lower practical limit in these skies, and few galaxies of fainter countenance would be visible. Luckily, Leo is replete with galaxies of this brilliance, and hunting would be fruitful.

Leo is packed with galaxies in groups of two, three and more, and this is evident by flipping through the pages of Uranometria that cover Leo. Page 143 was keeping me busy this night, and two NGC pairs whose narrow separation are given testimony by designations as letters were next to take the stage. Pair NGC 3808 & 3808a (m.13.4 and m.11.5) made a nice couple separated by only 1' of arc, although the listed magnitude for the latter seems rather bright comparted to the view in the eyepiece. Pair NGC 3861 & 3861b (m.12.7 and ,14.0) were so close together that they appeared as one object. This latter pair was found 45' WSW of 93 Leo.

Leo has some grand agglomerations of galaxies, including the spectacular group Abell 1367 near the Lion's hindquarters. A look at the center of this galaxy cluster at 225x reveals a multitude of galaxies, some not identified in Uranometria and listed as "nearby galaxies" in the Field Guide. Even on this night, the hear of this cluster found me scrambling to identify and understand what I was seeing. The view of the core in my consisted of nine rather bright galaxies, all of which were generally visible at times with direct visions (occasionally fading to averted vision), with many outliers spreading in all directions. Among the core galaxies I identified included NGCs 3837 (m.13.2), 3840 (m.13.8), 3841 (m.13.6), 3842 (m.11.8, the brightest of the bunch), 3844 (m.13.9, exhibiting a distinctive elongated shape at 0.2' x 1.3'), 3845 (m.14.0) and 3851 (m. 14.4). Two other galaxies were plainly visible in this group, although the lack of plotting on Uranometria and sketchy information in the Field Guide did not lead me to a firm conclusion about their identities.

After this rigorous effort, I briefly treated myself to a view of M82, which provided a dose of splendid, brilliant, field-filling joy at 290x. This irregular galaxy has much detail packed into it's form, and its view makes for a rejuvenating tonic for weary eyes.

Back to Abell 1367 and more involved galaxy pairs - NGCs 3760 & 3760b (m.13.4 and m.14.3) are an interacting pair, one bright and one pretty faint, that nonetheless reveal their interaction fairly readily. Another galaxy, anonymous to me, shared the field about 5' NE at roughly m.14. Another pair, NGCs 3873 & 3875 (m.12.8 and m.13.9) were of high surface brightness and showed very brightly as a nice close pair. They were surrounded by, in the words of Mark W., a good deal of "lumpy darkness," and I would wager that a clearer evening would help to bring out some of those supporting players.

Slightly farther afield, the scope took in a nice group of six galaxies ringing a bright star about 65' SW of 93 Leo. NGCs 3857 (m.14.1), 3859 (m.14.1), 3862 (m.12.1), 3864 (m.14.1), 3867 (m.13.2) and 3868 (m.14.3) made an appearance, with each of the m.14.1 galaxies being visible by averted vision only. Interestingly, the compact NGC 3868 was of high enough surface brightness to appear with direct vision most of the time. Uranometria notes several other fainter galaxies nearby, and these apparently contributed to more of the "lumpy darkness" effect near this group.

A few more isolated galaxies also were seen in this region. NGC 3886 (m.13.1) showed up with a bright nucleus, while NGC 3884 (m. 13.4) revealed both a bright nucleus and a very faint disc. About 4' NW of this galaxy was IC 732, a double system that shines at a combined photographic magnitude of 15.1, but which was nonetheless more than a bit player, being readily visible at 225x. To round out these galaxies, NGC 3883 was a large diffuse spiral, appearing as a faint haze with a bright center.

More eye candy was in order after these faint objects. By now, the brighter Messier objects of late spring were rising, including M51 (The Whirlpool Galaxy), M104 (The Sombrero Galaxy) and the M3 globular cluster. Each of these is a favorite, brightly showing much detail and breadth, and as an added treat Richard N. brought over his new Lumicon binoviewer to try out. The big scopes present, including Richard's own 12" dob, provided plenty of light and resolution to yield amazing 3-dimensional views of these splendid objects at 200x to 300x. Globular clusters such as M3 are especially striking, I think, although every bright object seems to benefit in some way from the dual-eye view. The views in the 18" were simply stunning despite an expected slight loss of contrast and resolution (due to the additional layers of glass and reflective surfaces the binoviewer inserts into the optical path), and while I probably won't purchase one myself, I will always welcome Richard's neat toy at my focuser.

At about midnight, I had decided to turn away from dim galaxies to pursue somewhat different objects. As a prelude to the highlight of the evening (for me anyway), three bright galaxies found their ways into my field of view, NGCs 4291 (m.11.5), 4319 (m. 11.9) and 4386 (m. 11.7). NGC 4319 was especially distinctive, showing substantial spiral structure across a broad face. Most importantly, however, it is the primary guidepost to a fascinating object over which it is apparently superimposed, the probable quasar Markarian 205. MK205, appearing as a faint 15th magnitude bright point in one arm of the galaxy, is one of the easier quasars to see in amateur scopes and also one of the most controversial. The following notes are adapted from Jim Shield's "Adventures in Deep Space" website, the specific location of which, along with pictures, may be found at http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/arpredshift.html:

[NGC 4319/Markarian 205 in Draco (RA 12 22 DEC +7519) is the most famous galaxy-quasar pair in the sky.] (The quasar-like object MK 205 is also listed in Markarian's catalog of galaxies with strong ultraviolet emission.) At magnitude 14.5, Mk 205 lies less than an arcminute southwest of the core of NGC 4319. According to the standard interpretation of redshift, it is more than 12 times further away.

When [astronomer Halton Arp] took a deep exposure of the pair at Mt. Palomar, he discovered a luminous bridge of gas between the two objects that caused a furor in professional astronomy. At first it was claimed that the apparent connection was not there, but it was later confirmed by CCD imaging. The currently favored explanation appears to be that it is a background galaxy that just happens to lie in exactly the right position on the sky to appear like a connection.

Although not in Arp's Atlas of Peculiar Galaxies, NGC 4319 is itself a very strange-looking galaxy. Its spiral arms seem to be coming off at the roots, as if the galaxy were exploding from within. X-ray maps of the area also show apparent connections with three other nearby quasars of much higher redshift. Arp believes that MK205 and the other nearby quasars were ejected from the galaxy, like the knots in optical jets in galaxies like M87.

Next, the Antenna Galaxies in Corvus, NGCs 4038 and 4039, showed wonderful detail at 290x. Two lopsided lobes were obvious with streamers spiraling away in disarray from these two interacting galaxies. In my old 8" telescope, this object was already a worthy quarry; in the 18" it is simply a showpiece. A wonderful object under conditions fine enough to permit fine features to shine through.

Feeling refreshed, I returned to Leo for a few more peeks at the galaxy show. NGCs 3805 and 3816 (m.12.7 and m12.5) both showed small and hazy patches without much detail, while NGCs 3821 and 3787 (m.12.9 and m.13.9) both revealed bright nuclei lying within their faint discs. For a final faint galaxy, I chose UGC 6670, at m.12.9 a mysterious little haze that barely revealed itself.

As the evening wound down, I edged toward conclusion with some bright galaxies in Canes Venatici. NGC 4631 (m.9.2) is a very large and bright edge-on spiral, a spectacular sight, flanked closely by the much fainter and smaller NGC 4627 (m.12.4), which was nonetheless quite visible and made an interesting juxtaposition with its mighty neighbor. Close by and in the same widefield view, the irregular looking "galaxy" NGC 4656 & 4657 consists of two very close galaxies that are superimposed one atop the other, giving the impression of an edge-on spiral with a portion of one end pulled away in another direction. The overall view of these four individually striking galaxies is most pleasing.

By 2 AM, this old dog was getting tired. I took some quick looks at M5, my favorite globular cluster in Serpens and a true picture of magnificence at 290x, and at M13 (Great Hercules Cluster) and its small neighbor the m.12 galaxy NGC 6207, a delightful pair at low power. It had been a very satisfying evening despite the presence of high clouds and modest light pollution, and I think we all were fairly pleased with the results of our observing session. While a few others stayed up to squeeze the last bit of observing out of this not-so-bad night, I covered up the 0.457 and crawled into my makeshift car bed for a few hours of sleep before proceeding down the twisty mountain road and the freeway home at dawn with the morning sun off my right shoulder.