Dino Point Gathering - Great Fun, Company, and Skies.

Mark Johnston

Appreciated was the rather large lot and vast sky as well as porta-toilets ('ripe' as they were). Greg LaFlamme and I did many side-by-side SQM measurements to get 21.0 mag/ArcSecSq give or take 0.05. My 11" was able to pick out mag 15 galaxies at best and very easily get 6 stars in trapezium as well as be convinced of the directly overhead split of both Epsilon Lyra pairs with 165 to 230mag about the same in my 11" (but no truck to drive between)

Nice site, I will go back. Prefer Fremont Peak for raw observing ability but Dino has it's + points.

Talked with a lot of folks but mostly only in the row I was in so I missed out on visits with Jamie and Mark(W) and others. Shared many views with Greg LaFlamme, Matthew Marcus and from time to time Rob ( Mr SJAA ). Overall a great social/astro night.

Starting with the 'just for fun' catagory we have ... 7331 apparent deerlick cluster was good to me as I was able to pick out 7335, 7337,7340 but no 7336 (mag 16.8) also I thought it was funny that 7338 is tagged as 'Non Existant' in my Megastar 5 so I guess it was ok to miss that one ... Forgot to visit Stephan's Quintet but I bet at mag 13-14 it would have been nice.

253 was right near my planned targets and 'Who can resist?' It was a bit low so due to atmosphere was 'just ok' but still impressive.

Comet Holmes was the best I have seen so far and as others have mentioned is starting to get some tail.

Have been waiting for the better part of a year to have a good shot at the Fornax galaxies centered about NGC1365. Very nice place to visit even though the sky was not as nice as I would have liked in the deep south. All the DeepMap600 galixies in the Ngc1365 area were ripe for the picking. Grateful that Matthew Marcus was my neighbor as he reminded me of the Fornax area.

Objects that were on my list of goals were done with a late start due to the darn lights on the Dam so I had to wait for the deep south targets for them to look halfway nice. I am happy though because the deep southern ones would have mostly been impossible or quite poor from Coe or the Peak (SW lot for us non FPOA guys).

All objects listed with NGC assumed and all are Herschel 400 list objects: NGC247, 253 Already mentioned but visited these H400 galaxies 'while I was in the neighborhood'. and they all line up nicely off of Beta Cetus so it's a 'nice trip' to 288.

NGC 288 Glob 8.1 13.0' 12.6 15.3 --- --- BAA 00 52 45.5 -26 34 51
3Nov07: About a degree south left of NGC253. low and bit washed out

NGC 613 ESO 413-11 MCG -5-4-44 VV 824 IRAS 1319-2940 PGC 5849 Glxy 10.7b 5.5x 4.1' 128 SB(rs)bc RC3 01 34 17.5 -29 24 58
3Nov07: elongated 2x1 or less at 45 degrees.

NGC 488 UGC 907 CGCG 411-33 MCG +1-4-33 IRAS 1191+459 PGC 4946 Glxy 10.2v 6.6x 5.3' 5 SA(r)b RC3 01 21 46.8 +05 15 25
3Nov07: Fairly small and appears round.

NGC 524 UGC 968 CGCG 411-51 MCG +1-4-53 IRAS 1221+916 PGC 5222 Glxy 11.3b 2.7' -- SA(rs)0+ RC3 01 24 47.8 +09 32 19
3Nov07: Small with bright core. Spherical. Also spotted 532 which is 4x1 elongation at 45 degrees (very near my limits)

M 76 NGC 650 NGC 651 PK 130-10.1 PNG 130.9-10.5 Plan 12.2p 167.0" 15.9 3+6 STE 01 42 19.9 +51 34 35
3Nov07: Distinct peanut shape. Reminds me of the 2371/237 PN duo in GEM (which I could have seen but never went to later in the night).

NGC7814 Peg (This one was NOT written on my H400 list but is an H400 member, glad I stumbled on it from the recent Stephen O'Meara book 'Herschel 400 Observing Guide' that came in the mail just this last week). 3Nov07: Some elongation at angle of around 40 degrees.

NGC772 Ari
3Nov07: Fairly round with a non-round extension from one end.

NGC 908 UGCA 29 ESO 545-11 MCG -4-6-35 IRAS 2207-2127 PGC 9057 Glxy 10.8b 6.0x 2.6' 75 SA(s)c RC3 02 23 05.3 -21 13 59
3Nov07: Distinct 2x1 east west elongation, maybe more.

NGC 1501 PK 144+6.1 PNG 144.5+6.5 Plan 13.3p 52.0" 14.3 3 STE 04 06 59.6 +60 55 11
3Nov07: Fairly even disk for an even PN. Easy find from 1502

NGC 1502 Cr 45 Open 6.9 7.0' 45 7.0 I 3 m LYN 04 07 50.0 +62 19 54
3Nov07: Very bright open cluster with not so many stars. A sort of curvy line forms a swirl towards the core. Can almost make out a body with legs and 2 bright stars for 'member'

Great fun, great skies (for Dino) and great company ... what more could one ask for? (And expect to get).

Clear Skies,

Mark Johnston