by Matthew Marcus
Seeing and transparency were variable, with Saturn sometimes showing excellent detail and other times not even showing Cassini's division. Naturally, I spent considerable time looking at the Big Planets. I found that an H-beta filter cut down the light to something bearable and made the planets a pleasantly-warm orange. It also popped up color contrasts nicely. Jupiter showed a big dark spot in the NEB, looking like the GRS is supposed to and never does. I tried 400x but settled on 250x as best for the conditions. By the time Saturn rose to a respectable altitude, the seeing was good enough to hold Encke's minimum solidly.
Kevin Sherman set up his 13.1" Dob (formerly on G-11 mount) with the fancy woodgrain tube next to me, so we traded objects. He wanted to do non-eye-candy stuff, so I introduced him to a couple of things he hadn't seen before (v.i.). Trading views is one of the nice things about the star-party environment.
I logged 16 DSOs, a couple of them repeats. These were:
| 1055 | Gx in Cetus, near M77. It seemed harder than I expected for Mv=10.6. A short streak near a star. This object was off a short list of Aries-Cetus-Pisces objects in the Jan. S&T. |
|---|---|
| Pi Arietis | This triple star was also on that list. It consists of a mag 5.8 star 3" from one of mag 8 and 25" from a mag 10 star, with the middle-brightness star on the line between the other two. |
| 1792 | One of three objects in Columba (dec -37 to -40) on my Deepmap 600 target list. I cut this list off at dec -43 because I was able to see Cen A (dec=-43) from Dino. This is an elongated galaxy which I suspect would be really something if it were higher up in the sky. |
| 1808 | Another galaxy in Columba. See above comments. |
| 1851 | A mag 7.2 GC in Columba. Despite the low altitude, I saw hints of granularity in the outer reaches. It's undoubtedly a showpiece for the southern sky (envy!). |
| R Leporis | Hind's Crimson Star. This carbon star varies between 5.7 and 11 magnitude (NSOG). I think it was somewhere in the middle, but the reddish color was visible. |
| M79 | I didn't log this, but while I was fooling around in Lepus, I of course had to take a look at this. |
| 1964 | Gx in Lepus. Since I was in the area, I went through the Lepus section of NSOG and went for everything I thought reachable tonight. This 11-mag galaxy was one such object. A previous observation noted a 'stellar core', but NSOG points out, and the newer observation confirms, that this is actually a star. |
| 2017 | NSOG isn't sure whether to call this a very sparse OC or a multiple star. I noted 6 members of a possible 8. |
| 2179 | 12-mag Gx in Lepus. |
| 2196 | 11-mag Gx in Lepus. |
| 3359 | A large, round GX in UMa. The Dipper had cranked around far enough to put the Bowl in good position. One of my Deepmap 600 targets. |
| 4096 | Large elongated GX in UMa. Another Deepmap object. |
| 4100 | This UMa GX is long enough so that drawn from a view at 36x, it looks like many of my views of other galaxies at 125x. It's big enough to be plotted in true shape in Uranometria. |
| 4244 | Let's really jump the seasons! By now it was about 0200 and this one is in CVn. I'll have to do this one again when it's much higher. Deepmap describes it as an "extremely long, narrow ray" and it's right. It extends ~30'. It must be one of the most edge-on bright galaxies. |
| M74 | My last logging of this was at Montebello almost a year ago (I've seen it since w/o logging), and it didn't show any more detail this time. It was on the S&T January list. |
| Do-Dz 1 | It takes longer to spell the full name of this OC than it does to draw it. A sparse collection of middling-bright stars. |
| I418 | A nice little round PN in Lepus. The central star is conspicuous. It really does look like Neptune at low X. A previous log entry for this notes that it's the 'spirograph' nebula shot by Hubble. |
| Horsehead (B33/I433) | I first got this using Kevin's scope, but with my 32mm
Erfle EP and H-beta filter and my navigation, so I logged
it, even though I usually don't log observations made
through other people's scopes. The keys were:
I then did it on my C8. At first, I didn't get it, but then I remembered that I had a 40mm EP I never use because it has a small FOV. Still, the low power was what was needed. The observation was confirmed by Kevin. I therefore logged it again. I was really pumped about getting this because I've been trying for years. |
Other objects not logged or described above included 7027, the California Nebula, and various eye candy observed through sucker holes while waiting for clearing. Nebulosity was seen around every star in the Pleiades :-) The California was easy through my Ranger (with Hbeta, of course), harder through my C8, and not seen through Kevin's 13".
Kevin and I were the last to leave, at 3AM.
Thanks to Albert for arranging access for us and giving me the combo.