by Rob Hawley
The new 15" is really incredible. It is opening an entirely new realm of objects to look at. I had been borrowing the SJAA 17" scope from August of last year. I have not used it since March when I picked up the Plettstone. Before that I was using my 10" SCT and 8" travel scope. The 8" scope got most of the usage at Shingletown last year.
I was interested in galaxy groups. My goal was to get the scope on a galaxy group and then have the tracking allow me to walk over the members of the group. I had been doing this with some galaxies in the past, but without tracking it is really hard. I also found that keeping a consistent field of view allowed me to see dimmer objects then when I was fighting with the earth's rotation.
Last week I started with a series of Hickson groups as detailed in my FP OR.
This last weekend I started on Abell 1367 that I tried to observe at Kitt Peak last year http://ephemeris.sjaa.net/0406/f.html
Time Object Type Magnf Notes 03-04 Jun 2005 Abell 1367 22:11 NGC 3861A Galaxy 136x dim no distinct shape 22:29 UGC 6719 Galaxy 136x dim noticed by moving maybe some sw ne shape 22:29 NGC 3844 Galaxy 191x dim not sure of shape 22:29 NGC 3840 Galaxy 191x dim no definite shape easier to see in 10 mm eyepiece 22:46 NGC 3845 Galaxy 191x dim forms triangle with 3841 no shape 22:47 UGC 6697 Galaxy 191x definite edge-on in shape 22:47 NGC 3862 Galaxy 191x fairly easy 22:47 NGC 3860A Galaxy 191x maybe hint of sw ne elongation 22:47 NGC 3857 Galaxy 191x averted vision 22:47 NGC 3842 Galaxy 191x fairly easy hint of brighter center 22:47 NGC 3841 Galaxy 191x dim no definite shape 22:47 NGC 3837 Galaxy 191x about same bright as 3842 22:47 IC 2955 Galaxy 191x averted vision splits from 3862 23:32 NGC 3875 Galaxy 191x in and out pairing w 3875 23:32 NGC 3873 Galaxy 191x easy 23:32 NGC 3868 Galaxy 191x averted vision 23:32 NGC 3867 Galaxy 191x dim 23:55 9P Tempel Comet 191x dim brighter center 23:58 C/2004 Q2 Machholz Comet 191x brighter than temple fairly easy 00:31 NGC 4494 Galaxy 136x fairly bright but otherwise unremarkable 00:31 NGC 4490 Galaxy 191x large showpiece object from overlooked objects book 00:31 NGC 4485 Galaxy 136x 00:31 NGC 4449 Galaxy 136x fairly bright unusual object definite size with bright center section elong 01:29 NGC 5466 Glob 136x large obj dim haze with few brighter stars 02:01 NGC 6804 P Neb 136x small but easily seen with o3 filter maybe a little wider in one direction 02:01 NGC 6772 P Neb 136x faint without o3; with o3 moderate uniform brightness 02:27 PK 38-25.1 P Neb 136x very dim obj even w o3 02:27 NGC 6826 P Neb 136x could not see blink w o3 4-5 June Abell 1656 22:16 NGC 4908 Galaxy 191x 3 in row 22:16 IC 4051 Galaxy 191x 3 in row 22:16 IC 4045 Galaxy 191x 3 in row 22:16 NGC 4907 Galaxy 191x averted vision 22:16 NGC 4898-1 Galaxy191x faint glow next to 4884 22:16 NGC 4895 Galaxy 191x moderate definite nw-se elongation 22:16 NGC 4884 Galaxy 191x moderate bright no structure 22:16 NGC 4882 Galaxy 191x glow on side of 4884 22:16 NGC 4881 Galaxy 191x 22:41 NGC 4923 Galaxy 191x averted vision 22:41 NGC 4921 Galaxy 191x dim 22:41 NGC 4919 Galaxy 191x averted vision 22:41 NGC 4911 Galaxy 191x dim 00:23 NGC 3921 Galaxy 136x dim 00:23 NGC 3913 Galaxy 136x uncertain averted vision if at all Trio 29 00:51 NGC 4615 Galaxy 191x some nw to se elongation 00:51 NGC 4615 Galaxy 136x did not see at first. averted vision and movement 00:51 NGC 4614 Galaxy 136x see 4615 00:51 NGC 4613 Galaxy 136x see 4615 last of group to see 01:02 NGC 5142 Galaxy 191x dim 01:02 NGC 5141 Galaxy 191x dim 01:16 NGC 5504 Galaxy 191x dim only member of group detected 01:21 NGC 6207 Galaxy 191x bright definite edge shape 01:51 NGC 5486 Galaxy 191x averted vision plus motion 01:51 NGC 5485 Galaxy 191x moderate bright 02:15 NGC 6781 Planetary Nebula 136x 02:15 NGC 6760 Glob 191x very dense stars not obvious 02:27 NGC 6712 Glob 136x 02:42 NGC 7243 Open Cluster 136x 02:43 NGC 7331 Galaxy 136x 02:45 NGC 40 Planetary Nebula 136x
Posted on sf-bay-tac Jun 06, 2005 09:32:15 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Sep 24, 2005 17:07:16 PT