by Renato Del Rosario
Too bad I missed the view of the Horsehead. Unfortunately, I was on the other side of the lot trying to avoid that distant lamp light.
After spending time on some familiar appetizer eye candies (M33, 891, M1, 253, 288), I gave my first shot at observing the Fornax galaxies. Since I've never observed in this sky region before, I became very disoriented trying to find my bearings and how it related to my Harold-Bobroff charts. I didn't realize how low these really were. (I live in a part of Benicia where the southern horizon contains at least 2 oil refinaries.) Once the locations of X(chi)3, X2 and X1 clicked in my head, I easily found 1365, 1316 and 1317. A bit northeast of 1365, I located 1399, 1404 and 1385. I think these were probably among the brightest members. There were instances where at least 3-4 more additional faint fuzz images seem to appear "in and out" (possibly 1378, 1379?).
Moving higher to Eridanus, I found 1300 (no arms visible) and 1400, 1407. I also found a double star northwest of 1300. In the field of view of 1400 and 1407, I seemed to detect another faint patch (which could be 1440 and 1452). I didn't have luck finding 1247.
Other targets I didn't find were 300 and 235 (northeast of 253). I also had difficulty finding 2183, 2183, 2170 (near kappa Orion).
I ended the night taking high power views of a very bright greenish M42 and some reflection nebulas in Orion. Overall, I felt the evening was a productive first time learning experience of the Fornax and Eridanus region.
Steve and I left just past midnight, probably about 12:15A.
Posted on tac-sac Dec 04, 2005 20:42:36 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 16, 2006 22:32:24 PT