It was a beautiful night in Santa Cruz, stars were sharp and many as I waited for the moon to set behind the line of eucalyptus 1/4 mile to the west. About 9:30 I decided I could wait no longer though I wanted completely dark skies for my planned galaxy hunting in Virgo. Seemed like a good time to try something different so I began my 3rd sketch ever from the eyepiece. I¹ve wanted to sketch for a while and have recently spent some time practicing and learning a few tricks form web sites and Akanna¹s helpful astrosketch egroup. Reading about NGC2903 on BDOG got me to thinking it might be fun to sketch, and except for proximity to the moon tonight it was in a good position to from the old Pleasure Point Observatory. I spent about 45 minutes observing and sketching and decided I¹d better leave it alone before I messed up anymore. You can take a look at http://homepage.mac.com/jeff/PhotoAlbum.html
(pardon the cheesy web page but the cookie cutter approach was the best I could do for now) Surprisingly to me I thought it was a good first effort, and certainly gives a good feel for what I actually see at the eyepiece which is what I like so much about sketches.
As the moon set behind the trees I swung the scope through Leo and entered galaxy central. I have so many Virgo galaxies to complete my Hershel 400 from home survey it doesn¹t really matter where I go at this point. The area arount M49 was well placed in the sky, and with bright, large M49 as an easy to find anchor I decided to take a backdoor approach. The cruise on the out skirts has enough to wet your appetite without being overwhelming. I worked a 6 degrees swath of sky with a few bright asterisms to easily find my way around the 11 galaxies on my list. Not everything on the H400 list is eye-catching, and this area was no exception, but there are a few I found noteworthy:
With a finder M49 is an easy find. Locate a bright 45¹ long trapezoid asterism between Vindemiatrix and Omicron Virginis, to the northwest is a pair of mag 6 stars separated by 1.5 degrees which cradle the bright, core heavy, elliptical M49.
NGC 4535 and 4526 - Check out M49 for a few minutes (if applicable turn of your drive), go write a quick report or sketch, grab a sip of coffee and come back 5 minutes later, nudge the scope a FOV north or south. If you look north you¹ll notice a round 6¹ patch of light only slightly brighter than the surrounding sky. With patience and perhaps a bit less magnification than normal, this low surface brightness (13.7) galaxy takes on the familiar oval shape of a tilted spiral disc. There is a bit of increase in intensity towards the core and some mottling suggest arms especially to the north and south of the core (to be investigated further from dark skies :-)). A similar (though smaller) view to Barnard¹s Galaxy in Sagittarius. If you choose to nudge to the south after your coffee you¹ll find a striking spindle galaxy 6¹x1.5¹ framed by 2 bright stars (part of the trapezium used to located M49 originally). There is an elliptic 2¹ core gradually brighter to the middle, just to the southeast of the core there appears to be the arc of a dark lane.
NGC 4365 and friends: After visiting NGC 4570, 4698, and 4596, I swung the scope to the west of M49 to catch NGC 4365, not particularly noteworthy alone, I did notice some stray photons 30¹ south and happened upon a cute little chain of mag 12.1 - 13.6 galaxies NGC4341,42,43 and IC3259 and 3267.
NGC 4647 and 4638 - Back to M49 and then northeast through the visual double of Rho Virginis and 27 Virginis I puttered around M59 and M60. NGC4647 is the small and low surface brightness companion of M60 faint and round it can be found 3¹ northwest of the monster elliptical. The two contrast between the two was visually pleasing to me and I made a note to try a sketch some time. 15¹ southwest In the same FOV is NGC 4638, a 2¹x1¹ slash with averted vision there is a bright stellar core. I was disappointed not to log a sure hit of the tiny mag 14 companion, but the fog had begun to roll in.
I returned an hour later after the fog dissipated again and spent the rest of the evening gawking at easy bright globulars (M3, M93 and NGC5466) waiting for the Milky Way in Sagittarius to rise over my blind. I missed this area last summer and won¹t have much of a chance at it this summer so I was willing to stay up until daylight. Unfortunately, the fog returned and I called it a night. Getting just enough memories to keep me going until my next shot of observing with the ³big² scope in May.