by Tom Campbell
| Observer | Tom Campbell |
|---|---|
| Location | Iola, Kansas (Long: 95 30' W Lat: 37 55' N) |
| Equipment | 8" Discovery DHQ dob |
| Eyepieces | 1.25" Plössls (25mm, 15mm, 10mm, 6.5mm, 4mm) |
| Time | 10:00pm - 11:45pm CDT |
| Transparency | Clear |
| Seeing | Fairly Stable |
| Weather | Temperature in 50s. There was little to no wind. |
The sky was a near-repeat performance of last night. The TiL (Trio in Leo) test revealed all three galaxies, so I knew seeing was at least at acceptable levels.
I was out of town at sunset tonight. Therefore, it was after dark before I had a chance to get my telescope out. But on the way home, I noticed that Jupiter, Saturn, and Aldebaran were in a roughly Cancer-shaped pattern tonight, with the beautiful 2-3 day old Moon doing a reasonable impersonation of The Beehive Cluster, right between them. Neat!
| O M37 [Auriga] - 10:00pm CDT |
|---|
| While waiting for my eyes to dark-adapt and the telescope to cool down, I decided to take a peek at the Messier open clusters in Auriga before they disappeared for the summer. M37 is one of the more impressive open clusters, so I started there. My best view of this cluster is at 81X. It's powerful enough to reveal a lot of stars, and wide enough to still show the cluster in its entirety. Right in the center of the cluster is a pale yellow-orange star, shining like a beacon. In telescopes of larger aperture, I notice that this star appears a darker orange. The other stars in the cluster look like curving strings of pearls, spiraling in toward the center. This gives its appearance an overall pinwheel shape. For an open cluster, this one is fairly compact, and the overall appearance is that of a large globular (although with far fewer stars). |
| O M36 [Auriga] - 10:05pm CDT |
|
This cluster is about the same physical size as M37, but a lot less
impressive. M36 is a pretty loose cluster. It's stars, in general, are a lot
brighter than M37, but only a few dozen stars are visible. There are a few
nice doubles strewn throughout, however.
One unexpected bonus was that I caught a satellite passing through the field of view while I was looking at this cluster. Just for the record, it didn't appear quite as bright as some of the cluster stars. |
| O M38 [Auriga] - 10:15pm CDT |
|
This cluster is kind of a mixture of the properties of the other two
clusters. It's a little larger than the others, but consists mainly of
fainter stars, similar in magnitude to those of M37. Also similar to M37 is
the fact that there is a fairly bright central star, the the cluster is
roughly circuler in shape. The cluster is similar to M36, however, in the
fact that it's fairly open, and has relatively few stars.
The first shape I saw when I looked at this cluster was an X. There are short strings of stars in four "corners" of this cluster that point towards the center. When combined with the central star, it forms a sort of broken X shape. |
| @ M108 [Ursa Major] - 10:20pm CDT |
| This is a long, thin, cigar-shaped galaxy. It is pretty close to M97 (The Owl Nebula). I forgot to look for it last night, so I figured I better pick it up before I forgot it again. At 49X, there really isn't any detail except for a faint, thin smudge. One of its sides seems to almost be pointing at a couple of the nearest field stars. At 81X, it is a bit more pronounced, and a stellar core is visible. The arms appear to be about equal lengths on each side of the core, and one of the arms just about reaches to the nearest field star. At 122X, the galaxy is much more difficult to detect much more than the core and a little bit of the arms. |
| # M97 (Owl Nebula) [Ursa Major] - 10:30pm CDT |
|
The nebula is a little easier to detect tonight than last night, and the
edges are rather sharply defined, but I still can't see any sign of the
"eyes". There is just a hint of color variance throughout, but nothing real
definite. About the best view was at 122X.
A field star lies right next to one edge of the nebula. The star appears a little brighter than the nebula itself, and is a little distracting. However, I made good use of the star by focusing my eyes on it, and letting my averted vision try to glean details from the nebula. Unfortuneately, I didn't have much success tonight. |
| @ NGC 2768 [Ursa Major] - 10:40pm CDT |
|
This is a rather small galaxy, and is oval in appearance. By increasing the
magnification to 188X, I still couldn't see much detail. Basically, I saw
the general outline of the galaxy, and with averted vision, a brighter core
popped in and out of view. The view didn't really improve at 305X. It seems
like it is right on the verge of showing some detail, but I couldn't quite
see it.
NGC-2742 is supposed to be nearby, but I wasn't able to detect it at all tonight. |
| @ M51 (Whirlpool Galaxy) [Canes Venatici] - 10:50pm CDT |
| At 81X, I could detect two fairly bright cores. The core of M51 appeared to be a little more diffuse than the core of the interacting galaxy NGC 5195. Around both of these cores, you can see some hint of structure and can make out generally circular shapes, but the spiral arms and/or dust lanes weren't going to show themselves to me tonight. |
| : a CVn (Cor Caroli) [Canes Venatici] - 10:55pm CDT |
| From M51, it's just a short hop to this pretty double. Even at 49X, it is easily split. Both appear to be white in color, and the secondary is only about half as bright as the primary. The secondary also appears slightly more yellowish. Despite the lack of color contrast, this is still one of my favorite doubles. Maybe the moderately close separation at low powers adds to its luster. |
| @ M63 [Canes Venatici] - 11:10pm CDT |
| Just to confirm my suspicions from last night, I revisited this galaxy again. By upping the magnification, I was able to determine that the other nearby faint fuzzy was indeed three stars, closely spaced, and not another galaxy. At 122X, this galaxy shows hints of a stellar core. I am only able to detect a gradual dropoff in brightness, and there is no definite break between the core and the arms. |
| @ M94 [Canes Venatici] - 11:20pm CDT |
| Although listed as a Spiral galaxy, through my telescope, it appears as a slightly elliptical galaxy. In fact, it more closely resembles a small and compact globular cluster. The core is real bright, and quickly fading to nothingness. |
| * M3 [Canes Venatici] - 11:30pm CDT |
| At 305X, hundreds of stars are visible. Some could even be seen across the center of the core. The cluster is roughly globular, with a few strays along the edges. Its size is smaller than that of M13, but it is still a nice little cluster. |
At this point, it was getting a little late (tomorrow was a workday), so I took a quick peek at a few of my favorites, including M13, M44, and Mizar.