by Jamie Dillon
We had one night at Lake San Antonio with the Quality, the 12th; next year Liam and I are highly likely to come down Friday night for casual larking about, pre-serious work Saturday. Can't say enough how much fun it was.
Along with seeing M15 naked eye for the very first time (Everitt spotted it first, no kidding he was right, we showed Nilesh who picked it up inside a second) I found NGC 7006 in Delphinus. Along with the Intergalactic Wanderer in Lynx, it's outside of the main sphere of the Galaxy, at over 100 kly from here. It was pretty as well: compact, bright, decent-sized with a definable core. After staring at this distant globular we played a while with Kemble's Cascade in Camelopardalis, around NGC 1503. I'd read that this chain of stars actually share proper motion, that they're a cluster that forms a curve. Gorgeous in binocs and scopes. An easy hop from 1503, 1501 is a big bright planetary with mottling in the inner third of its disk. Nilesh at this point hit his groove and disappeared down the eyepiece of Papa Joe. He might be short of practice but still has his chops.
Once folks were fading off, it so happened that Cetus was transiting, so I got down to business finishing pg 4 of my Dickinson atlas, Edmund's Mag 6. Several highlights here. Best of all was NGC 908, in SE Cetus, a gratifying galaxy, with a big fat fancy spiral and twirling dust lanes, no clear core, but otherwise like a junior version of 253, much farther away at 64 mly. On the other end of Cetus, 246 also demands return visits, a big interesting PN with bright central star and structure in the disk. A run at the TAC archives turned up 15 mentions of 246 as a worthy tourist stop.
NGC 1407 in Eridanus turned out 6 galaxies for the price of one. 1407 itself is paired with 1400, both with bright cores and round haloes (yes they both turn out to be ellipticals). 1393, 1440 and 1452 are all within 2 degrees or so. To the West 1359 took some time, a warning object, dim at 126x, just brighter than the background mottling, with averted vision and jiggling (the scope). Luginbuhl and Skiff called it "inconspicuous" in a 10" scope. No kidding.
For dessert, Saturn was incredible at zenith after 0430. Seeing was rock steady, and the view at 420x in Felix held still. Details for days in the rings, 5 clear moons, and lovely shading across the southern hemisphere of the disk, tans and browns. Kingsley came over, then we compared views in his light dumpster, and sure enough there was Mimas, a 6th moon, just off the rings.
It was also a treat gazing at the core of M42 at 420x, picking up hints of color and swirls for days. And yes while picking off galaxies in Fornax I did duck back into the Fornax Cluster. Some neighborhood. Can tell I'm gonna be spending a chunk of my life in that general part of the sky. Inexhaustible.
This was all with Felix, well-collimated and making for crisp views, 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, with a Lumicon OIII. Limiting magnitude was out past 6.0, seeing consistently 5/5 excellent.
Big fun all around.