Perseus Cluster - Abell 426 in an 11"

by Jamie Dillon

(TACos, I just sent this to amastro as a first report on that list. Rather than rewrite, thought you'd enjoy seeing it as written to a more dispersed audience.)

Last 15 September at Lake San Antonio during CalStar, our 2nd annual California star party, during the night I was seeing the highlights in Sculptor, visiting 253 and getting acquainted with 288 the globular and 247 the big close galaxy. My buddy Albert Highe started making funny noises. He was observing with this own 12.5" f/5 Ultralight, and was onto his Birthday Cluster in Perseus. I ambled over to make sure he was all right, and there he was with 9 galaxies in the same eyepiece.

So then and there I started a winter project of exploring Abell 426 in Felix, my 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. For this project I used a 22 Pan and a 10mm Radian. Got started the next 13 October on Fremont's Peak. Seeing was 5/5, excellent, and the limiting transparency was 5.2. Descriptions are at 126x.

1275 - This is Perseus A. Bright and oval. Brightest of the 3 in a row, sitting on top.
1272 - gradually brighter toward center
1270 - more diffuse
1273 - off to the side of 1272, little blob. "This'll be fun!"

This is the end of my 3rd year with a telescope, and there's still a fair novelty to be seeing objects at ca 200mly, 4x farther away than the Virgo Cluster. Perseus A's reputation had proceeded it. Burnham's has an interesting photo comparison of a visible light shot from the Palomar, and a red light picture showing extending filaments. I know the hipster saint Burnham doesn't get mentioned often on this list, but he's still held in some esteem in our local parts.

Next weekend, at Henry Coe State Park, 20 October seeing 5/5+, really great, with limiting magnicude 5.7:

1267 - Just W of 1270. Teeny, there ca 50% of time.
1278 - Finished the parallelogram. Much less bright than the 3, go figure.
1281 - Just north of 1278. Little guy. That makes 7.

Used the central set of 1275, 1278, 1272 and 1273 to navigate. Meanwhile I'd made the delighted and useful discovery that Lugenbuhl and Skiff sure enough has a detailed finderchart for this very area. Combined that with data off Adventures in Deep Space. There was one more galaxy that looked like very likely Felix fodder, but bad weather ensued.

...Dinosaur Point in Pacheco Pass, 15 December, seeing 5/5, again excellent, l.m. 5.8:

1282 - Ah hah! 8th galaxy in Abell 426, no clear core, fairly round. Earlier in the evening, we had high diffuse stuff going thru, and those galaxies in the Perseus Cluster kept losing their halos. After midnight, Perseus had turned upside down, and the sky was crystalline. Sat there and got 1282 off to the south of the main bunch.

In Albert's scope that same night, 1267 and its neighbor 1268 split easily, forming a triangle with 1270. He's found over 20 galaxies within a square degree in that area.

My idea is to see how much I can find with the one scope. Admittedly I've formed an attachment with my first telescope, which does have excellent optics, good contrast and sterling performance on all the regular star tests. So these 8 are a good start, and a decent guide for anyone with medium-size optics. My first Abell cluster, and also first report on amastro. Thanks for listening!