by Bob Jardine
The weather reports looked grim for the new-moon weekend, so a mid-week trip was the only option. On Thursday, I took the 12.5" PortaBall to Coyote lake.
I arrived late (having waited for the commute traffic to die down).
Five other observes were already there: George Feliz, Peter Natscher, Rich Neuschafer, Steve Winston, and another Steve whom I did not know.
It was completely clear, and stayed that way all night. The seeing was very good, although the transparency was off. It was a little cold, but not bad. There was not a bit of wind, and no dew to speak of. A nice night was in store.
I had four main groups of targets:
Of course, as always, I threw in some eye candy in and around the other targets. I had a frustrating time with DNFs for some of my Herschel-2 objects, but I had good luck with Hyperion (first time for me) and the supernova. I wrapped up with a a few double stars, ranging all the way from difficult in the scope to easy in binoculars.
I packed up around 3:00 AM and headed out.
A very nice night between winter storms.
Details below.
| NGC 2302 | OC, Mon (H-2) -- This was a repeat from the night before at MB, where I had seen it, but I thought that it might be better under a bit darker skies. A relatively poor cluster, but easy to locate, pretty well resolved. |
|---|---|
| NGC 2309 | OC, Mon (H-2) -- Another repeat from the night before. About the same size as 2302, but richer and dimmer. A near equilateral triangle plus a wheel that just follows the triangle; the wheel has a “central star” and some spokes. Still not resolved 100% with 7mm, at least 18 stars resolved, but there are definitely more on the edge of resolution. |
| NGC 2232 | OC, Mon -- Just noticed this OC on the charts (and in binoculars) on the way to my next target. Three very bright stars, plus a dozen more pretty bright stars. Quite large, irregular shape, pretty poor. |
| NGC 2170 | Nebula, Mon (H-2) -- DNF. I looked and looked with multiple magnifications and multiple different filters (NPB, VHT, Ultrablock, OIII). Nothing helped. Unfortunately, this isn’t the best direction at Coyote, so I may have lost this in the light pollution. |
| NGC 2182 | Nebula, Mon (H-2) -- DNF. Real near 2170. Again, probably lost in the sky glow. |
| NGC 2316 | Nebula, Mon (H-2) -- DNF. Third one and I strike out. What’s the deal here? This one is marked as brighter on the HB atlas. |
| NGC 2346 | PN, Mon (H-2) -- finally, one I could find. Easy location, but easy to pass over, because the bright central star hides the nebula. The NPB filter helps a lot, although the central star is still bright. OIII filter almost completely hides the central star. Small and round, fuzzy, edges indistinct. 176X and 226X (9 and 7 mm Naglers). |
| Saturn | The seeing was unusually good, as judged by some killer views of Saturn at 317X (5mm Takahashi LE). The Encke minima is visible, as is the crepe ring. |
| Hyperion | Moon of Saturn -- I was able to see this moon about 25% of the time with averted vision. It was on the following side of Saturn, and about 1/2 way between Saturn and a mag 13.6 star. So I put Saturn in the field and then watched for the mag 13.6 star to show up. Hyperion, at about mag 14.0 and closer to Saturn’s glare, only showed up just as Saturn drifted out of the FOV, and then not always. Used 5mm Tak LE (317X). |
| 139 Juewa | asteroid -- verified it wasn’t in same place as night before and re-located. |
| 324 Bamberga | asteroid -- verified it wasn’t in same place as night before and re-located. |
| 53 Kalypso | asteroid -- verified it wasn’t in same place as night before and re-located. |
| SN2006X | Supernova in M100 -- I was a little bit dubious about
getting a peek at the recently-discovered Supernova in M100, because
the transparency was off a bit. I gave it a try anyway.
Sure enough, SN2006X was visible, although I wasn't sure at the time. I had rushed out of the house in such a hurry that I hadn't taken time to print a chart. I just remembered that it was supposed to be slightly brighter than mag 14 and less than one arcminute South of M100's center. I was doubtful, but I drew a little sketch, just in case. The other field stars I drew (a pair of mag 14.2 stars) made it pretty easy to match up with the AAVSO chart and photographs on the web. You just have to avoid getting confused by the different scales (in order to see the SN, I had to use pretty high power to darken the sky background, so my eyepiece view and diagram had a tiny scale compared with the photos and charts). (see http://www.supernovae.net/supernova.html or http://www.seds.org/messier/more/m100_sn2006X.html for more info on the supernova) |
It was a little after midnight, and I did a limiting mag check in Leo, which was nearly directly overhead. I counted only 11-13 stars (mag 5.6 to 5.7), confirming the poor transparency.
| NGC 4369 | galaxy, CVn (H-2) -- pretty easy to find near 6 CVn. Shows in 17mm. At 176X: small, medium bright, shape uncertain, slightly brighter center. |
|---|---|
| NGC 4244 | galaxy, CVn (H-2) -- Wow! impressive large pencil of light. Moderately bright, very elongated, PA about 45 deg. Not brighter center. Visible (obvious) in 17mm. Almost half the 9mm FOV in length; that works out to around 14 arcmin. |
| M94 | galaxy, CVn -- Wow! Pretty small, very bright, much brighter center. Roundish. |
| NGC 4868 | galaxy, CVn -- small, dim round, without brighter center; not much to write home about. |
| NGC 4914 | galaxy, CVn (H-2) -- just East of 4868 in same FOV (9mm). 4914 is a bit brighter than 4868, also quite small, has a brighter center, elongated maybe 2:1 N/S. |
| NGC 4956 | galaxy, CVn (H-2) -- a small, dim, almost nothing of a smudge; shape uncertain; not much brighter center. |
| M63 | galaxy, CVn -- Big and bright. Elongated 2:1 or more, brighter center. Star on preceding end. |
| NGC 5103 | galaxy, CVn (H-2) -- DNF. |
| 51 (mu) Boo | triple star, Boo -- the seeing was still very good at this point (about 2:15 AM). Triple star clean at 226X. |
| Izar | double star, Boo -- pretty clean split at 317X, although the primary is “hairy”. |
| M53 | glob, CVn -- medium size, bright, round. Not resolved at 176X; just a bit grainy. 226X makes it really grainy. One definite bright star and a bit of resolution, but still very dense. |
| NGC 5053 | glob, CVn -- DNF. Tried 9mm and 7mm. Pretty sure the location is right. Just need darker skies? |
| 2 CVn | double, CVn -- Easy wide split (176X). Secondary is 2 mags dimmer and precedes. |
| 15, 17 CVn | double, CVn -- Binocular double; equal magnitudes. |
Posted on sf-bay-tac Mar 01, 2006 23:55:22 PT
Converted by report.pm 1.2 Mar 02, 2006 20:03:28 PT