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Ah, this is exactly why I moved here. We have had almost a week of respectable weather. Mid 80s during the day and low 60s in the evenings. Humidity has been in the single digit range during the day, climbing into the low teens at night. Even the wind has subsided, allowing the level of particulate matter in the atmosphere to drop. In other words, it has been almost perfect weather for astronomy. I decided to use the NGT-18 for some visual work, which is rare for me since I took possession of the CCD camera. My observing run lasted from Sunday June 6 to Wednesday June 9. I was of course observing from my yard here in Sonoita Arizona, elevation 5050 feet.
I have discovered the fun of working an area around a more well-known object. For example instead of looking at M13, M104, M51, and so on, I decided to use several of the better known and observed objects as jumping off points for fainter (and in some respects less interesting) objects.
First on the list was the interesting galaxy NGC6166 at magnitude 13.3 (m13.3). This object was easy and seemed a roundish patch of light slightly brighter in the center (9mm Nagler, 228X). Slightly south of this is the Abell cluster 2199. The Sky shows its brightest member is about m13.9 and I did indeed see two distinct glows of light separated by a definite rift. Somewhat north of the NGC galaxy is MCG7-34-50 at m14.8. As might be imagined it was fairly small and dim (this definition should suffice for much of the following). South of here I did indeed look for and find the little galaxy MCG7-56, glowing at magnitude 15.9. The pair of galaxies V10404 at m15 and MCG7-34-75 at m15.4 seemed easier than their stated magnitude would suggest.
The next night, spurred on by my success the previous night and caffeine loading, I went after more little blobs of light. NGC 6686 m15.2 seemed tougher than its stated magnitude and I was not sure of V11319 at m15.65 in the same field. NGC 6685 at m14.5 was easy but IC 4772 was tough (M15.6, .3'X.4' in size). Ngc 6675 showed a alight brightening toward the core at 228X. It reminded me of a small M33. NGC 6695 at m14.28 was dim but had an irregular shape. NGC 6646 was LARGE but dim while IC 1289 at m15.42 and IC 1288 were in a nice field. IC 1288 showed a hint of a dust lane at 228X. Well, enough of this bright stuff on to dimmer stuff. Abell cluster 2299 is certainly dim, with a magnitude of 17 or so. Did I see it? Well, not exactly. Might I have seen it? Perhaps but I won't log this one as a definite find. Undaunted, I did look for and find the central star in M57 at some 456X. Oh, at this magnification M17 DOES look three dimensional.
Tuesday night was clear, really clear. As it got later, it got darker (around here things get significantly better after say 11 or so; the light domes drop 40%-60%). Near the globular cluster M5 is the little galaxy IC 4537 at m15.5. This was something of a tough object but easier was NGC 5887 at m14.9. This galaxy was certainly oblong, and seemed to taper at the ends. A nice little "system" was NGC 5486 and 5486A at m11.3 and 13.8, respectively. Reminded me of M51 through the 4" refractor with a definite primary and secondary member. There were numerous other objects in the area including NGC 5850 at m12.1 and NGC 5839 at m 13.65.
Wednesday evening was spent looking at brighter objects before the wind chased me into the house. There is bad news though: it is supposed to be warmer with less wind through next week, meaning outstanding astronomy weather. Problem is that I might not get enough sleep to make use of it.
Mike J. Shade Sonoita Hills Observatory, Arizona