Friday April 7 was another good night at Henry Coe State Park: temperatures in low 50s, only moderate breeze, no dew, and fog settling into the valley to suppress much of the light below. There was a good turn out of observers and scopes, including Rashad with a new Nexstar 8. I only looked through the scope briefly, but thought the stability of the mount was suprisingly good given the one-arm fork arrangment (damping times only a second or two after a rap on the scope).
Coe's darkest skies are to the East, perfect for looking at new spring objects. I spent the night working in the darkest region of the sky with a my Starmaster 7 inch Dob, mostly hunting Herschel 400 stuff in Canes Venatici, Coma, and Virgo. Between 9pm and 3 am, I logged 36 new and 47 total objects, three of which were particularly interesting:
A tight cluster of 3 contrasting galaxies visible in the same eyepeice view in Canes: NGC5353, 5354, and 5350.
NGC4697 in Virgo: a bright face on disc with an obvious halo, brightening to a stellar nuclus. This pretty galaxy is located between two linear rows of stars, 3 in each line, making a beautiful star field to go with the galaxy.
NGC4902: I was getting tired around 3 am, and I initially had some trouble digging this one out of Virgo. It turns out to be an interesting little galaxy located in a striking position between a matched set of double stars. Each double has a brighter star and a dimmer easy companion, with the magnitudes of both the primaries and secondaries closely matched, though in opposite orientations. The galaxy is nestled between this interesting double-double, offest slightly to one side (see crude diagram below).
O*
Galaxy
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The juxtaposition of stars and galaxy, and the symmetry of the doubles made this a great view, and a nice way to end the night.