2002-9-7: Lacerta, the lowly lizard (17.5" Dob)

by Robert Leyland

We had a good sized group from all over the SF Bay Area, over a dozen telescopes from 4 to 18" of all types. SCT's, Refractors and Dobs, including a very nice little 4" Newtonian that was fun to poke about with.

A lot of good view sharing and mutual confirmations, as Dick Flasck went quasar hunting, finding four with distances in the 6-14 billion light years range. These were pretty faint looking stellar objects, that we matched up with charts he had produced from MegaStar.

However it was quite a bit cooler than the last couple of weeks, and this took its toll on some observers, who left earlier than usual.

Early evening views of Comet Hoenig (between Mizar and Alioth in UMa) were encouraging. The comet appears faint, without any obvious tail, but somewhat oval. Perhaps Monsieur Messier wasn't so far off cataloguing galaxies as "non comets" as this comet gave a respectable galaxy like view.

My primary observing region tonight is Lacerta, the lizard, tucked away between Princess, King, Swan and Horse with Wings. That's some tough competition for a lowly lizard.

Starting at the northern end of the constellation, near Beta LAC, I logged NGC 7296, a tight little open cluster, that was relatively easy as it is much more concentrated than the background star field.

Between Beta and Alpha LAC, is a small planetary nebula (IC 5217). It sets beside a distinctive star pattern, that I used as a base for further star hops. The PN looks stellar up to 200x then shows a disc and a bluish color.

Another open cluster, NGC 7295, due N or 7296, is not much more than a smattering of faint stars inside 3 bright field stars. Only a finder chart would convince me that this was anything at all.

Then PK 102-2.1, which is faint, really faint, needing 200+ power, an OIII filter and averted vision shows this as non-stellar with some extensions of nebulosity around the point. I had Matt Marcus confirm this one, as it was difficult.

Yet another open cluster, someone must really like these because the galaxy is full of them, IC1434 is a nice smattering of comparable brightness stars (at 125x) with two offset trails of stars leading away from the center grouping which is somewhat triangular. This gives the appearance of a human torso with legs attached.

Next up, a pair of open clusters, but each quite different from the other. NGC 7245 is a small concentration of 50+ stars with a solitary bright field star adjacent, while IC 1442 is a trapezoidal loose group of comparable brightness to the field star next to NGC 7245. Both fit easily into the FOV at 125x.

NGC 7243 is a nice loose open cluster, large and bright with a prominent double star near the center.

NGC 7394 another loose but bright open cluster, has a couple of chains of bright stars, but otherwise has little going for it.

NGC 7209 shows as a large broad scattering of uniform brightness stars. It easily overflows the field at 125x, with a pretty yellow star adjacent, and is visible in the finder scope.

After a run of open clusters, I had moved far enough south in the constellation to be clear of the Milky Way zone of avoidance, and into galaxy country.

My first galaxy for the evening was NGC 7250, a nice view, possible an edge on, elongated NNW-SSE (I am sill having a bit of trouble with eyepiece directions and, at Jamie Dillon's urging, attempting to get some practice, so please forgive my errors). It looks to have a small star like core when using averted vision (160x).

Nearby galaxy NGC 7248 appears elongated about 2:1 and is nice and bright, with a diffuse core.

A short hop away to NGC 7223, and egg shaped galaxy, set in a line of three faint field stars running NNE-SSW, with a large loose cluster of stars to the N.

Then a triple, NGC 7242, 7240 and IC 1441. The largest and brightest of these (7242) shows easily in a scattered field of stars, with a nice easy core. The two outlying galaxies form a little chain leading away to the west.

Lacerta had reached Dobson's hole, where a short move in the field of view requires rotating the telescope 180 degrees, and several trips up and down the step stool. So rather than get frustrated moving here, I thought what better time to get frustrated viewing somewhere else.

Steve Gottlieb had suggested looking for some faint galaxies near Vega, to follow up on my Lyra report last week. I tried for three that were plotted in Uranometria with mixed results.

UGC 11312 showed as an extremely faint patch, just below a small triangle of faint stars. This grouping lies on the short (top) leg of a trapezoid of stars next to Vega. It needed averted vision to get a glimpse, and was never steady in my view.

UGC 11278 (and 11281) appeared almost stellar, also very faint. A questionable result, as I believe I had the field correct (from Uranometria), but the view was unconfirmed. This could have been averted imagination.

UGC 11313 also showed as an extremely faint patch between Vega and a faint star ENE of Vega. Also a very questionable result.

After these toughies, and a quasar or two in Dick's scope, it was back to Lacerta.

Near the southern end of Lacerta, and close to the 7242 group is another triple galaxy group, being NGC 7263, 7264 and 7265. The latter of which is the brightest member, and shows up as a circular fuzzy patch with a with a stellar core, below a line of three modest field stars with a bright field star forming an L shape above the galaxy. The fainter members can be found using this group as a guide. One is directly off the end of the line of three stars, and the other is on the opposite side of 7265, directly below the bright star across the line of three. Another area of fuzziness directly W of this group looks to be a very faint pair of stars.

Directly west of this is another triple galaxy group, NGC 7273, 7274 and 7276, which are arranged in a nice N-S line. 7274 is the brightest of these having a faint but discernable core, all appear circular but easy to see at 160x in the the same field of view.

This completed the NSOG objects, but there are a couple more galaxies and a PN listed in the SAC database under mag 13 that I'll try for next time, plus a mess of UGCs in Uranometria that will have to wait for a second pass.

All in all a nice night, quite productive and enjoyable. As I drove home Orion was rising, his belt and sword easily visible despite semi-urban light pollution and freeway traffic.

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