Lake Sonoma last night (10/08/05)

by Steve Gottlieb

I ended up at Lake Sonoma last night after first driving up Mt Tamalpais for a public star party. It was quite gusty and unpleasant at the Rock Springs parking lot so I opted not to set up and was on my way home home (in Albany) at sunset when I decided to give Lake Sonoma a try. Arriving around 8:00 with the moon fairly low in the west, I found a couple of folks set up including Matt Marcus in the same gusty, windy conditions I had left on Mt Tam!

Fortunately, conditions slowly improved and by 10:30 or so, we just had an occasional gust. Seeing was fair, but very useable at the 225x I generally use to search for galaxies, there was no dew and transparency was good but not excellent. We still glimpsed a few mid-13 magnitude range galaxies in Matt's C8 and I got down to a mag 15.6 globular in M31, so I was pretty pleased with the way things worked out in the end.

Here are a few highlights with my 18-inch f/4.3 Starmaster.

IC 10	00 20 23.2 +59 17 35	V = ~11; Size 6.3x5.1; Surf Br = 14.0
18" (10/8/05): picked up fairly easily at 115x as a large, low surface brightness hazy region with a mag 13 star superimposed. Good view at 160x using the Mead 14mm Ultrawide. Appeared faint, large, slightly elongated, ~4'-5' diameter (though no distinct borders) with a patchy, mottled appearance, very weak concentration. Several faint stars (besides the mag 13 star) are superimposed. Situated within a rich star field and appears similar to a low surface brightness emission or reflection nebula. This dwarf is a probably local group member but lies only four degrees from the galactic plane! It was discovered to be a galaxy in 1935, but has still been listed more recently in lists of galactic nebulae.

HCG 2 (00 31.3 +08 28)	This was my one Hickson group for the night and the 4th time I've observed this group since 1993 . I spotted 3 members which have been previously picked up.	HCG 2A	faint, moderately large, elongated 2:1 N-S, 0.8'x0.4', low surface brightness. This is the largest galaxy in HCG 2, but has a lower surface brightness than 2b. Just over 2' SE is an extremely faint and close double star that appears nebulous and initially I thought this was another Hickson member.
		HCG 2B	fairly faint, small, slightly elongated, 20"x15". Compact with a fairly high surface brightness. Located 1' SW of a mag 13.5 star. This is the easiest galaxy of the three visible in HCG 2.
		HCG 2C	extremely faint, very small, round, 0.2' diameter (only core seen?). Requires averted vision to glimpse. A very close (generally unresolved) pair of mag 15-15.5 stars lies 2' N. Located 4.3' SSE of HCG 2A and faintest of trio.
M31 globulars	I went after a couple of globulars in M31 that are superimposed on the bright central region of M31 and pretty tough to spot against the background glow which ruins the contrast. These were the 33rd and 34th globulars I've now nabbed in M31:	M31-G222	appears as a mag 15-15.5 star just 8' ESE of the center of M31! Difficult to glimpse as viewed against the bright background of the core of M31. Located 2' SE of a mag 11 star. A fairly faint star is between G222 and the mag 11 star. M31-G235 lies 2.4' ESE.
M31 globulars		M31-G235	this mag 15.6 M31 globular lies 2.2' SE of G222 to the east of the center of M31 and although fainter was easier to view than G222 as it is not superimposed on as bright of a background glow. There are two mag 15.5 stars within 1' of the plotted position and the globular is the NW of these two "stars".

Abell Galaxy Cluster 193 (= Shakhbazian 40)
Two members were viewed in this distant cluster in Pisces
IC 1695	01 25 07.7 +08 41 57	V = 14.0; Size 0.7x0.7; Surf Br = 13.1
18" (10/8/05): The brightest member of AGC 193 and Shakhbazian 40 appeared faint, small, irregularly round. Situated just 43" SE of a mag 13 star. In moments of better seeing this galaxy appeared double with an extremely faint knot or extension to the NE of the core of the main galaxy. The next day I checked the DSS and this observation matches the image! This distant cluster has a redshift of z = .048 which corresponds to a distance of over 700 million light years. The only other member seen was UGC 967, located 7.5' NW.
UGC 967	extremely faint, small, round, 15"-20" diameter, required averted to barely glimpse. Located 2' NNW of a mag 11.5 star and 7.5' NW of UGC 967 in AGC 193 = Shkh 40.

Posted on sf-bay-tac Oct 09, 2005 16:32:42 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 14, 2006 20:25:59 PT