by Jamie Dillon
Thanks for the vivid report, David. Put me right there!
We did have a real good night, friendly and dark. The seeing was 5/5 to 4/5, excellent to good. M51 and the Sombrero and M5 were flat astounding in Bruce's scope, and Sandra's scope put out lovely images of the Owl and M51. Richard showed off Jupiter's Ghost, which was showing off a pale blue tint. David was glued to his eyepiece, and we checked periodically to see if he was breathing.
Transparency overhead was 5.0 at best. There are stories of really dark nights at Coe and I'd like to see one. 31 and 32 Vir, the guide stars I was using for M49, flickered at the edge of naked eye. It was StarMaster Night, with two Trusstube Babes and an Oak Classic. The 10" Ozer sure has a fine primary. And yes, Randy, there was Felix the 11" Celestron f/4.5 Dobs, flying a 22 Panoptic with a 17mm Celestron Plossl and a 6mm Radian.
After going back to M85 in Coma, a new favorite, I had 3 different jobs in mind, all in Virgo: a) cruise the main line from 6 Coma to rho Vir for galaxies not yet seen, b) explore the area around M49, and c) the same around M61, esp looking for that trio of galaxies I'd seen on the chart NW of M61. First times looking at M49 and M61. Here are some of the highlights.
M85 is described as Ep/SO in the NGC 2000 list, so I suppose we're focusing on the p (peculiar) part. It sure shows structure and dust lanes. Its nearby spiral, 4394, is captivating as well. So I'm naming M85 the Carnival Galaxy for its lurid surprises. 24 Coma was full of color, and new to a couple of the partners.
The method thru Virgo that emerged, fellow rookies, was to use the Messier galaxies for guideposts and move in arcs around them. Surely that's not a newly invented wheel, but it's handy. SSW of M58 I hadn't yet split 4567-8, and in the fine seeing they came into clear view. Are they colliding? Burnham's cites L.S. Copeland, who must be funny, naming them the Siamese Twins. But Burnham mentions that they have "no sign of tidal filaments or distorted structure as is often found in gravitationally interacting pairs." In his Palomar photo they sure look linked, and in his table they're listed as a 'contact pair'.
Anyone have updated info on this intriguing pair?
On the way to M49 I took a fun wrong turn, heading NNW rather than WNW off those flickering guide stars, naturally found a set of galaxies, but none of them looked Messierish. Turns out I'd stumbled onto rho Virginis itself, with 4608 and 4596 right there, pretty in their own right. Bruce came over, took a peek, and we mumbled together. Got onto the right track and found the field around M49. As folks mention, it's bizarre to be using galaxies rather than stars to navigate fields.
M61 was easy, on the straight line between 16 and 17 Vir, which cooperates by being a nice double, with dim little 4324 right next to it. Just to the E, 4378 is nicely nested in a triangle of stars. The big payoff there was as expected the trio of galaxies, 4270-73-81 all pointing inward in a tight triangle. Then 4261 and 4260 marched just off to the N.
Dark mystery, with all those big star islands crowded on top of each other. Imagine being on a planet around a star in 4567 and having a sky full of naked eye galaxies...
50 million years ago, when that light got on its way, eohippus, that little precursor to the horse, was running around.