by Jamie Dillon
Liam Dillon, Bob Jardine and I met up at the SW lot last night for a very refreshing good time. It was my first time on a hilltop with the scope since 9 February and high time. Feel much more human now
We started with Ikeya-Zhang after sunset. Very bright condensed coma with a round even mantle, and the tail extending out to about 2 degrees now in the scope. Was easy naked eye. The other ephemeral highlight was the SN in 3190. Sure enough, the galaxy showed two cores, with the off-center one being somewhat brighter of the two. Cool, two supernovae this year, up from zero in 50 years for this observer. Real glad of Bob's prompt to go look there.
Bob'll tell you he found Alnitak's (zeta Ori) close partner, at 2.4" separation. He did. Never seen it myself nor heard of anyone splitting the close third companion, and I've spent plenty of time in that neighborhood on the Flame, sigma Ori, other sights. Hang out with smart people you see cool things.
Took a planet tour, getting re-acquainted. On Jupiter, the GRS was centered, and that white oval was contacting the ESE edge of the Spot. Could see 4 moons around Saturn. Mars was still red.
The marine layer had the coast nicely covered, but there must have still been high haze, as the transparency stayed around 5.7 at best overhead (checking the BM charts in Herald-Bobroff at home after, this is pretty close). Seeing was good, 4/5. Didn't dawdle much, with the Moon due up around 2222. This was with Felix, a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with a primary made by Discovery. Was using a 22 Pan, 10mm and 6mm Radians.
3190 and friends I'd spent time on last 21 April at Dino, the brightest of the Hickson clusters. The brightest 3 were easy last night; 3187 was there by insinuation. 3177 is off just a short way from the row, no idea why I didn't see it last year. First, though, I'd gone into Sextans for the first time, to get 3166 and 3169. Close interacting pair, even together in the same field at 210x, within a 17' diameter field. 3166 showed a bright stellar core, fairly round halo with hints of arms. 3169 was more irregular, assymetric, with dark swirls around the core, and a dark zone on the eastern edge by a following star. Interesting strange galaxy.
(SkyAtlas Companion mentions these as brightest of a group, but only the two are charted there. Sure enough, left the new U2000 behind for the first time, it being a short night, and it would have been handy. Shows 3165 in the same field, at just above 14th mag for VM and SB, so it should show in Felix. Also, 3156 is a short ways off. Must go back there.)
Then 3115. Oooh. No wonder this edge-on gets onto people's lists. Bright spindle (and yes this is the Spindle Galaxy) with a very bright even strip along midline, distinct dust lanes. Big, complex view.
Just at moonrise got another new galaxy, also in a new constellation for me, Leo Minor. Hey, it's a big sky! 3344 is weird looking, with two superimposed foreground stars over a blotchy halo.
Real fun night, great to be out listening to the coyotes. Warm, no coats. Company was great, with sharing views and interesting conversation.