by Jamie Dillon
At least when those of us at Dino are working parallel with the Kiwi and the Animal, we gotta be doing something right. This was Saturday, 9 February.
Blanchard suggested IC 418 in Lepus as ornamental. Cool PN, showed annular shape and bright central star, at 210x and better at 420x. Transparency was 6.5 at best, great for this neck of the woods, and seeing often got to excellent, 5/5. 6 stars in the Trapezium at 210x to easy direct vision. Some crew out. Rashad and Bruce Jensen were warmly welcomed back after long ages.
While Robert Leyland at Lake Sonoma was at the SE corner of the Bowl, off Phad (gamma UMa, the thigh), I avoided a collision by working the SW corner, off Merak (beta, the loins). In Leyland's corner I've only seen 3888 and 3898, from Coe this past fall. But I spent a chunk of last spring poking around 3610 and associates. Back again.
When you draw a line from Phad to Dubhe, alpha the Bear, then do a perpendicular from Merak to that line, put the Telrad right there, you're plop in a sea of little galaxies. I have no idea how many hours I've spent there, and each time it looks completely different. Endlessly fascinating. There was a cool arrowhead shape of galaxies I stumbled on at Cone Peak last May, and haven't since found either in the charts nor in the sky. There are ongoing suspects (most likely hypothesis is now 3613, 3619 opposite 3625 leading to 3610). 3625 is a Cone Peak kind of object. No bright asterisms, no big landmark galaxies like in Virgo and Fornax, great woods to get lost in. This time I traced an arc of galaxies laid out in SkyAtlas from 3613 and -19 to ole 3610, on to 3642, 3690, to 3669, then over to 3683 and -83A by a bright pair of stars.
3690 is worth a special stop because it has a little interacting companion, IC 694. Then, from a real rural dark spot, as with 3625, there are more of 'em peppered around the field. This is with an 11", Felix, a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians and a TV 2x Barlow. The new Uranometria swung right into service last night. Real useful tool. Thing is, past the NGC's in there it shows scads of MCG galaxies. Later, later, down the line, no aperture fever now, no.
Finished a month's project in Fornax for now, with one more galaxy, 1427, a member on the outskirts of the main cluster. What an area. I'm working on a summary report that's meant to serve as a back pocket Fornax guide for medium apertures. A bit to the North, discovered (in the sense of finding in the sky first) a really interesting planetary, NGC 1360. Looks like a narrow rectangular rag flying in the wind, with a sharp foreground star. Other highlights included my first landing and second-ever view of Jupiter's Ghost, big pale blue PN in Hydra. I hunted again for and Blanchard found 2818 and 2818A, one of the very few OC's with a resident PN (unlike M46 where 2438 is in the foreground). Sailed into Markarian's Chain for dessert. Stuck around after packing up, watching Cygnus and Scorpius and Centaurus rise, and Cassiopeia wheel back up. This stuff is addictive.
Major mondo highlight was the Horsehead in Jim Everitt's 15, with an Orion Ultrablock. Real clear, amazing. Not of course like in the photos but with distinct orientation. A rare treat.