by Bob Jardine
After lots of rain and cloudy skies, it was finally time to observe! Short night, moonrise before 11 PM, but I had a serious case of photon deprivation to solve, so I made the drive on a Sunday night.
It was glad I did; it turned out to be a pretty nice night. Cold, but not miserably so. I got a little dew on charts and papers, but no problem on optics. Seeing was only so-so. Not bad, but nothing to write home about. Trap E was solid, but F was intermittent. Skies were pretty dark for Coyote -- I got 5.9 in the Taurus triangle at about 9 PM.
I spent most of the time hunting Herschel-2 objects, but I took a peek at the comet and tracked down one (easy) Asteroid.
I didn't log too many objects, mainly because one stumped me, and I spent quite a bit of time not finding it: NGC 2283. A dim galaxy in CMa. I checked the TAC archives -- only three reports, and all report either "suspected" or "tough" (and in larger scopes), so I don't feel so bad.
Moonrise was supposed to be about 10:45, but the East hills at Coyote blocked it. I packed up at around 11:00. On the way out, I could see the moon, about 2/3 lit, rising with a very bright object very near (one to two moon diameters away). I hadn't looked for Jupiter yet this season, but I knew that it would rise about that time, so I suspect that was it; also, there aren't very many objects that can withstand the moonlight that close.
Big fun for a short night.
Some details follow.
Observed with 12.5" f/5 Mag1 Portaball.
| Comet Machholz | getting up near the Dbl Cluster -- just East of it. Still marginally nekked eye. Nearly fills the 9mm Nagler. Using 35mm Panoptic, I can see quite a long tail, but very dim and indistinct -- just hints mostly. Tail points more-or-less due East (drift method). |
|---|---|
| NGC 821 | Gal, Ari. Not seen in 35mm. With 9mm, very small, pretty dim. Can see it with direct vision, but just barely. Grows with AV. Immediately East of a pretty bright star. Possibly elongated N/S. Slightly brighter center, nearly stellar. |
| NGC 1012 | Gal, Ari. Not too hard, hop from obvious nekked eye triangle 35, 39, and 41 Ari. Exactly one FOV (9mm) NW of a charted star (mag 8? -- SA 2000). Dimmer than NGC 821, larger & lower SB. But can see it direct (barely). Hint of elongation, more-or-less N/W. A very dim (mag 12-13?) star on East edge. Not much brighter center. Just a diffuse oval smudge, appearing slightly asymmetrical due to the adjacent star. |
| NGC 1156 | Gal Ari. Found, but a pretty difficult hop from 52 Ari -- not many stars on SA2000 between them. Not seen in 35mm. With 9mm, pretty large, pretty dim, diffuse, low SB. Not brighter in center. No elongation seen. Nearly circular (?). Again, an adjacent star, maybe mag 10-11 this time. |
| NGC 2283 | Gal, CMa. NOT FOUND. Suspected in 35mm, but disappears in 17mm and 9mm. Position is obvious due to easy upside-down "V" asterism that shows on the chart, just South of Sirius. What's wrong with this (non) picture? |
| (192) Nausikaa | Asteroid, currently in Auriga. Easy location, near M37 (just outside the field of view). Complex field, but Nausikaa is about mag 10, and I have a chart (from SNP) down to mag 12.8, and I can see every star on the chart, so confidence is high. Estimated mag between 9.9 and 10.5. |
| NGC 2359 | Bright Nebula in CMa (Thor's Helmet or Duck Nebula). Visible in 35mm as a large rectangular patch of light. Also visible in 17mm Nagler with Orion Ultrablock. The filter helps a bit. Best view is in 9mm with DGM Optics VHT filter. Looks like an upside-down boot or sock, pinched a little at the ankle, and with a few stars at the "top" and one pretty bright star at the heel (South-East). On the way to 2359, I passed NGCs 2360 and 2374. |
| NGC 2360 | OC, CMa. Nice bright, large, splashy OC. Rich in fine little pinpoints, mostly similar mag. |
| NGC 2374 | OC, CMa. 17mm. Large, loose, well resolved. About 2 dozen stars of similar magnitudes ( 9 to 11?). Not much color. Irregular shape. |
Posted on sf-bay-tac Feb 01, 2005 23:06:31 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Feb 02, 2005 21:39:26 PT