by Bob Jardine
I observed with TOBY, 10" f/6.
| NGC 488 & 524 | two galaxies in Psc. Similar in size and magnitude; 488 shows about 2:1 elongation, but 524 seems circular. Both a little brighter in the center. |
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| NGC 520 | was a no-show. Must try again from a darker site. |
| Otto Struve 111 | Peter McKone referred me to this one. Nice tight double just North of Lambda Ori. Quite difficult, as the companion is both close and dim. I could see the companion about 50% of the time. |
| Adhara (dbl | back paw of CMa) -- Not quite as hard as OE 111, but another close, dim companion. I remember having real trouble splitting this in earlier years, but it was no real problem tonight. The seeing was very good. |
| Asteroid 6 Hebe | Another asteroid with a recent opposition. Viewed in 10X50 binocs. |
It was around 11:00 now, and my main targets were up - H400 OCs in Puppis.
| NGC 2421 | 2-3 doz stars, similar mag, rough triangle shape, no color seen (but then, I'm somewhat color blind). |
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| NGC 2482 | 2 doz stars, roughly equal mag, also roughly triangular, but with a dark space in interior; again, no color. |
| NGC 2489 | dimmer, smaller, richer, more compact than 2482 and 2421; lots of very dim stars, roughly circular; just a ghostly glow at low power, starts to resolve around 90X. |
| NGCs 2477 and 2451 | I took a break by viewing these, wonderful as always. And there's enough color in 2451 that even I can see it. |
| Hind's Crimson Star (R Lep) | dim, but another star with enough color for me. |
It was now after midnight, and I considered going home, since I had work the next morning. But the night was just too nice. I decided to wrap up the night with a couple of H400 objects in Pyxis, which was now up nice and high.
| NGC 2627 | a small dim OC, roughly triangular, long and narrow; brightest star at the apex, several brighter stars along the major axis, otherwise mostly very dim stars, 2 dozen or more. |
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| NGC 2613 | galaxy in Pyxis, easy location east of Rho. Not too small, but dim and low surface brightness. Barely seen in 17mm eyepiece, but better in 9mm; need AV to see the extent. Elongated roughly E/W. A little, but not much brighter in the center. |
I finally packed up around 1:00. Everyone else had left earlier. I was dreading leaving a little bit, because it would mean fiddling the lock in the cold and dark, and there had been rumors that all three locks had been left in the locked position. But someone had kindly unlocked the TAC lock, so all I had to do was close the gate and snap the lock shut. Thanks to my anonymous benefactor.
It was a very nice change from all of the clouds recently - 6 solid hours of clear skies, and good seeing if not super darkness.
Posted on sf-bay-tac Sat Jan 24 14:43:44 2004 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.0 Sun Jan 25 08:51:20 2004 PT