by Bob Czerwinski
Conditions were very good last night at BC. [snip...]
Well, better late than never.
As Brian pointed out, Monday presented a fine evening at BC, even with the 90%-plus humidity. On that note, I'd like to personally thank Jim Ster for bringing along his BC moisture-collector, sometimes referred to as a Meade LX200 12-inch corrector plate, thereby keeping the rest of our optics dew-free. The early-evening ISS and Shuttle joint-pass was certainly a wonderful nake... er, nekked-eye sight to behold, a first for me. The brightness of the Shuttle was truly incredible, and it's great that Jim could check its orientation in his 'scope. A nice Iridium flare (mag -1) presented itself around 18:18, too.
I certainly owe Brian big-time, as he spent a fair amount of time assisting me in confirming a very dim galaxy siting I'd previously made in Andromeda, 2-arcmins SE of UGC1319, designated UGC1319 NED01 in the NASA/IPAC Extragalactic Database (NED). When the seeing would permit, this particular galaxy could be held steady with averted vision in Brian's 22" Starmaster, while it was visible less than 20% of the time with my 18". It was amazing to see the difference that 4-inches of aperture made in this siting. I'm not certain if UGC1319 NED01 is a member of the area's Abell 262 cluster, or if it's simply a background galaxy. Although NED-listed with a magnitude of 14.5, the galaxy appeared much dimmer than this to me. Sure would be interesting to know its surface brightness. The USNO database, when applied to TheSky program running on my laptop, actually places a mag 13.4 "star" at the galaxy's location! Good thing the NED database is around. :)
About 15-arcmins to the NW of UGC1319, the closely-grouped galaxies previously noted by Jim, near the core of Abell 262, were NGC708 (the biggest/brightest), 703, 704 and 705, with NGC710 further to the south, about 6-arcmins from the group of four. CGCG522-33, listed at mag 15.5, less than 2-arcmins SE of NGC704, was also visible, and this may have actually been the "5th" galaxy noted by Jim. There are a great number of galaxies in this area; I just love visiting this Abell group!
Working on my on-again/off-again Triangulum project, with my 'scope pointed at the edge of Dobson's Hole, I confirmed five more Triangulum galaxies on Monday night, bringing my total up to 91. Someone with a bit more dedication could probably double this figure pretty easily. For a small constellation area, Triangulum sure has it's share of island universes. :) I also did a little more work on my H2500 list, checking off a few more items.
All in all, a very fine night. The views I had of the Helix (NGC7293), the Blue Snowball (NGC 7662) and the Horsehead (B33) through Brian's 'scope were just outstanding; aperture does win, doesn't it. ;) Thanks for sharing, Brian!