by Robert Leyland
A very nice day preceded a very nice evening for astronomy. Touches of thin clouds near the horizons marred an otherwise pristine sky.
Over the last couple of sessions I've been trying out a variety of 5" telescopes, and brought one with me, however the seeing was so good, and the big Dob so enticing that I never even set it up.
When I arrived at Grey Pine Flat (Lake Sonoma), shortly before sunset, Steve Gottlieb and Matt Marcus were already set up, and two or three others had also just arrived. Altogether we had an even half dozen telescopes, from 5" to 17.5", and a couple of tripod mounted big binoculars.
In breaks during the evening we chatted, and socialized, as several folks hadn't been out since the fall. Karen had her new 16x70 binoculars, Matt and Dave had 8" SCTs, Eric and his daughter Rachel had their 5" ETX. Bringing up the bigger scopes were Colins' C-11, and the three 17.5" Dobs of Steve, Jim and myself. We all shared views of nice eye candy, or challenging, objects at several times.
I do need to get a taller step-ladder, as there were a couple of times that fun things were just a bit too high, and two steps up without a guide rail is a bit much for unsteady feet.
| Observer | Robert Leyland |
|---|---|
| Date | 9 Feb 2002 |
| Time | 1900-0130 PST (UT -8, or 0300-0930 10 Feb 2002 UT) |
| Location | Lake Sonoma CA, 38°43'N 123°02'W Elev ~900 (Grey Pine Flat) |
| Weather | 7-11°C Temp, 55%-65% Humidity |
| Seeing | LM 6.5+, transparency 9/10, steadiness 8/10, sporadic breezes late |
| Equipment | 17.5" F5 Dob, Telrad + 9x50 finder scope, Pentax XL EPs |
As soon as I completed my setup, and really before the telescope had a chance to cool, I snagged a look at the new "hyper nova" in Pisces (SN 2002ap), on the outskirts of M74. Four of us had charts printed from the AAVSO web site to find the SN. Interestingly the magnitude values for the neighboring stars had changed, on my week old chart they were consistently lower than on Matt's chart, printed that day.
The Sn is the second brightest star in the field next to M74, brighter than all but the mag 11 outlying field star. It is easy to see this, by defocussing the view, because it is much easier to compare brightness of an unfocussed area, rather than a point source. It looks to me, to be about the same brightness as last week (mag 12), or perhaps just a tad brighter, possibly near its peak. Of course it is "just a star" but it outshines the galaxy!
To get that early evening eye candy fix, I trained the telescope on M42, catching the E&F trapezium stars easily, and great bands of nebulosity in looping swirls, spreading like down drafts under the wings of the big M42 bird.
Zodiacal light is also quite prominent tonight, interfering somewhat in our views of M74, as it stretched in a large arc from the west up through Pisces and into Taurus.
Another easy early evening warm-up was Gamma Andromeda, a beautiful double star, last viewed in my 8", gorgeous yellow/blue pair with very strong coloring in the 17.5" scope.
To start my observing program I tracked down galaxy NGC 1744 in Lepus, which is a large diffuse oval, with a slightly brighter core seen with averted vision. The finder charts in NSOG are quite good for Lepus, and a correct image finder, makes finding 1744 an easy star-hop S from Epsilon Leporis.
Buoyed by an easy start, NGC 1964 was soon in view, it too is an easy star-hop, being almost midway between Beta and Gamma Leporis, and just a tad S. It's a galaxy with a diffuse elongated halo, and a bright stellar core, just off a tall triangle if field stars. Inside the halo, three very faint stars can be seen, and held with averted vision.
NGC 1832, another galaxy in Lepus, has a bright stellar core with a a nice circular halo, next to a brightish field star. It too, is an easy find next to Mu Leporis, the star at the base of the hare's ears.
Once again the chart in NSOG is very good, allowing me to find NGC 1784 fairly easily, this isn't always the case, as one of the few failings of NSOG are poorly placed finder charts. 1785 is adjacent to the triangle asterism that makes up one of the bunny's ears at the feet of Orion. This galaxy has a good oval shape, with a visibly elongated core.
Collin Colins sidetracked me at this time, as we tracked down NGC 891 in Andromeda. It is a low surface brightness, edge on galaxy; with a prominent dust lane running the length of the galaxy. We viewed this one though a variety of telescopes, but the best description was from Rachel, who thought it looked like a CD on its side, pretty astute for a 10 year old.
Other distractions included Abell 12 in Jim Shields 17.5", and a collection of odd galaxies and planetary nebulae in Steve Gottlieb's telescope.
Returning to Lepus, we shared views of M79 (already logged in a prior report), and then back in the ears, IC 418, a really nice planetary nebula. This is very bright, a sharply defined circular nebula around the bright central star. It is easy to see at 100x, and took magnification well, showing best at 210x. Surprisingly an OIII filter did very little, if anything at all, to improve the view. The central star is very sharp, and the edges of the PN are quite distinct, with or without a filter.
An easy star-hop from IC418, is a galaxy pair NGC 1888/1889, one is edge on (1888), the other a small circular (1889) butted up next to the center of the elongated galaxy, looking rather like a Homberg hat. Averted vision separates the two easily adding to the hat-like effect. 1888 is also sharply edged on the side opposite 1889.
Lepus was now getting low, and lost in the tree line, So I started looking elsewhere, I picked out NGC 2204, a large loose open cluster in Canis Major, but realized that it is a better sight in a smaller telescope, as it is larger than I can comfortably encompass in one view.
Matt Marcus provided me with the next target, NGC 3319 in Ursa major. This had been discussed on TAC a few times, and many were wondering why NSOG gave this a three star rating. At 100x the galaxy shows up as a distinct streak of core, plus a diffuse halo. Two pointer stars direct your eye to the center of the core, which crosses the T. The core is nice and distinct, but the halo is quite diffuse, while averted vision shows a couple of knots, one at each end. Also a very faint field star can just be seen at 160x. It is a good galaxy in a larger telescope, but a challenge in an 8".
Back in Canis Major, I found NGC 2283, a faint galaxy next to a bright triangle of stars just S of Sirius. The galaxy itself is surrounded by three faint stars, that encompass the halo, but no core can be seen.
Seeing has softened dramatically to the south, and star around CMa are twinkling merrily. In other areas though the sky is steady. So Steve Gottlieb, always ready with a interesting thing to look for, suggested perusing the galaxies in the bowl of the dipper, NGC 3698 rang a bell with him, as being a particularly fine sight.
This turns out to be a group of galaxies, easily found just inside the bowl from Gamma UMa. (Side Note: Are the Gamma stars in each constellation always interesting?). The base pair of galaxies 3990 and 3998, are a pair of oval galaxies, paralleled by a pair of field stars. 3998 is distinctly brighter, and larger. This is one end of an arc of 5 galaxies that I can make out. The largest is NGC 3972, which is an elongated oval, possibly an edge on? Alongside 3972, is a small faint smudge being NGC 3977, and almost due S is NGC 3982, a fairly bright oval. This pair was the first of the group I spotted, and maneuvering the telescope, all can be seen in one FOV at 100x.
Pushing further into the bowl, and a little bit E, from Gamma UMa (Phad), is another bright pair of galaxies NGC 3898, and NGC 3888. Looking these up in Uranometria the next day, 3888 has a companion 3889, which I did not notice in a quick glance. Numerous faint globules are scattered through this area, which whets my appetite for further appreciation. In Arnold's words: "I'll be back"
It was getting a bit late for me, as I had a soccer game at 9AM the next morning, but Matt Marcus had a nice target of opportunity to seek out. NGC 3344 in Leo Minor right at the border of Leo. Ok, so I might have to play half asleep tomorrow!
3344 turns out to be a very nice, face on, galaxy, with two pointer stars, and a bright core. A second faint star is adjacent to the core, and some arcs of darkening in the halo hint at a spiral structure.
Last, but not least some eye candy. We got a pretty good view of M104 rising above the light glow in the SE. The Sombrero doesn't disappoint us, and promises good views for summer observing.
I packed up, finally, at about 1:30am, leaving Matt to soldier on alone.
NSOG is Night Sky Observer Guide by Kepple & Sanner
All observations at 100x, unless otherwise noted.