by Bob Jardine
This was the weekend when several TACOs went to Plettstone on Saturday. I was stuck in town with family stuff, but I decided to make the drive for Sunday night, even though it would mean missing most of a day at work Monday. Oh, the sacrifices we have to make...
Rashad was the only holdover from Saturday, so it was just me, Rashad, and Michelle. The night was cut short by clouds, as we suspected it might be, but we still got in nearly 4 good hours in great conditions.
I observed with my 12.5" f/5 Portaball.
| Moon | at about 6:40, not dark yet, just a sliver, about 3 degrees above the horizon. Very pretty. |
|---|---|
| Mercury | also about 6:40, about 8 degrees up, easily found with binocs, then nekked eye. |
| Venus | got the 'scope set up by this time (nearing 7:00); Venus was looking good. Very difficult to tell from a perfect semicircle (at about 170x). |
| Horsehead | using a 12.5 Tak LE, Astronomik H-Beta filter, and with tracking, I was able to see the little bugger, but just barely. Following Bob Cz, I used a hood to allow keeping both eyes open, which helped. There's a dark spot here for sure; moving the 'scope around a bit shows that clearly. Occasionally, I could even get a hint of a shape other than a little thumb, like it is slightly hooked. |
| NGC 2207 & IC 2163 | I had seen these at Montebello earlier this year, but only barely. Now they were pretty easy to see, even "obvious". An elongated glow, set off-center in a semi-circle of dim stars. Brighter towards the center, but not stellar. With averted vision, there are apparently two lumps of brightness, one of which I take to be IC 2163. The dimmer lump is not quite on a line with the main elongation. |
| NGC 3912 | (H400 gal in Leo) I had missed this one a few days earlier at MB. Now I can see why! This one is very dim; needs AV, even at this dark site. Just barely in the same field of view as NGC 3900. Not much to see; shape uncertain, not brighter in the center; barely there at all. Viewed with 17mm and 9mm EPs; stands out a little better at the higher power, but still can't see any detail. |
| Io | At about 9:07, Io emerged from being eclipsed by Jupiter. It is always interesting to watch these events -- the moon slowly brightening, as if materializing from out of nowhere, well away from the planet itself. |
| NGC 4030 | (H400 gal in Virgo) quite bright and obvious; almost on a line between two stars set close to the galaxy. Brighter in the center, almost round, maybe slightly elongated. |
| NGC 4536, 4533, 4527 | revisited these these while looking for 3C273. Nice field. |
| 3C273 | not seen. Well, maybe I did see it, but I can't be sure, since I managed to leave the detailed finder chart at home. With just Uranometria, there are just too few stars plotted to be sure which object is the Quasar. |
All of the rest of my H400 objects are in Virgo, CVn, and Coma. In order to avoid any more "search and destroy" astronomy, I decided to tackle these without haste, savoring the whole Virgo/Coma experience. So I am devising a set of "galaxy hops", intended to find to all of the remaining H400 galaxies, while observing everything else of interest in the neighborhood. I started on my first one of these hops this night at Plettstone.
For the first Galaxy hop, the H400 targets were NGCs 4371, 4550, 4596. I decided to start from Rho Virginis and hop generally Westerly, observing everything nearby on page B1 of Sky Atlas 2000. In addition to the three targets, this included NGCs 4608, 4567, 4568, 4564, 4579 (M58), 4528, 4503, 4429, 4440, 4351, 4313, 4299, 4294, 4552 (M89), and 4551.
Details are below, if anyone is interested. The bottom line is that this is a nice way to explore Virgo. There are plenty of galaxies to use as hop landings (at least under dark skies), so I didn't get lost much. Either the galaxy sizes, magnitudes, orientations, or star fields always made it easy to confirm where I was. Big fun.
About the time I finished this hop and started preparing for the next one, some clouds rolled in. It was about 11:30. Michelle and Rashad and I chatted for another hour or so, occasionally enjoying Jupiter through Rashad's binoviewer. The clouds gradually increased, and we eventually gave up. But it had been a very nice night for such a short one.
As usual, Plettstone was wonderful. Many thanks, Michelle.
Bob J.
.... Details of the "galaxy hop". I did most of the hopping with a 35 Panoptic (about 40-some X) and most of the viewing with a 17 Nagler (about 90X). Occasionally used a 9 Nagler (about 170X).
| NGC 4608 | near Rho Vir. Small, bright, and obvious. |
|---|---|
| NGC 4596 | larger and brighter than nearby 4608; has a brighter center, but not stellar. Becomes somewhat elongated with AV. |
| NGC 4567 and 4568 | in busy field with M58. Using about 90X reveals them to be a pair of elongated galaxies in a V-shape, "touching". Neither very much brighter in the center. |
| NGC 4564 | same field as 4567/8 and M58. Much smaller than the others and brighter in the center. |
| NGC 4528 | also in the same (wide) FOV as 4564, etc. Much smaller and dimmer. |
| NGC 4503 | small, bright; same FOV as 4528. |
| NGC 4429 | brighter than 4503. Well elongated with brighter center. Right next to a pretty bright star. |
| NGC 4440 | small, medium bright, round, slightly brighter center. |
| NGC 4371 | same FOV (17mm) with 4351 and 4313. 4371 is the brightest of the three. Increased power to around 170X (9mm); small, bright, oval; slightly elongated, but not thin. Much brighter center, but definitely not stellar. Large bright center. No structure seen other than extended oval diffuse glow around brighter oval center. |
| NGC 4351 | same FOV as 4371. Barely there. |
| NGC 4313 | same FOV as 4371 and 4351. Very thin. |
| NGC 4299 | same FOV as 4313. Small and dim. |
| NGC 4294 | same FOV as 4313. Small and dim. |
| NGC 4550 & 4551 | same FOV as M89. These two are small twins. Both elongated, but not thin. Relative elongation angle is about 120 degrees. Both slightly brighter in the center, but not stellar. Both about the same size. They are separated by about 3 times the length of either one. (Notes include bad drawing.) |
Posted on sf-bay-tac Apr 12, 2004 19:27:43 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.1 Jul 10, 2004 18:28:38 PT