Dino point 1Dec2007 - A productive and fun night.

Mark Johnston

Dino Point 1 Dec 2007 Observations from 7pm -> 1:15AM

Overall a clear night with some light, high clouds from time to time on areas to the south or west. About 5 cars and 7 observers (approx). Temps down to 34 F and 90% humidity Dew not a problem. Light occasional winds.

George and Jamie judged a 6 to 6.2 skies using the triangle star counts. SQM measurements typically 21.0 and at best 21.12 (close match to Greg's meter)

Lost my drive and tracking by 10:30 for some odd reasong (not battery) so I 'Went Dob' after that which is ok because my goal is finding these objects manually. Missed tracking the most missed slow controlled moves after that (Push-to with a very heavy dual-scope on G11 is not 'ideal' but is ok).

Just For Fun All through the night meteors generally ran from Polaris to Deneb. Rate was higher than I would expect for casual detection and I would say I saw about 8-10 total.

Mars and then much later Saturn were observed but only for a short time by myself.

Comet Holmes was about 1 degree dia and was very near a target of mine (Ngc1245)

Comet Tuttle was found by George Feliz and was fairly faint but present. This comet will be best in about 1 month.

M42 was explored with OII filter to test the limits of just how far that Nebula goes. Orion nebula extends far beyond where the casual observer may notice. The trapezium yielded stars A-F this night.

7331 area: George and I tried to see NGC7336 which is very small but has a bright core of surface brightness of mag 12.5 but it illuded us. We saw ... NGC 7331 Glxy 9.4v 14.5x 3.7' 168 SA(s)b RC3 22 37 04.5 +34 25 00

NGC 7337 Glxy 15.2p 1.3x 0.9' 134 SB(rs)b RC3 22 37 26.7 +34 22 29 NGC 7340 Glxy 14.7p 1.1x 0.7' 162 E? RC3 22 37 44.2 +34 24 37 NGC 7335 Glxy 14.4b 1.7x 0.7' 148 SA(rs)0+ RC3 22 37 19.3 +34 26 56

Double cluster NGC864 and NGC884 (very near several object I was viewing)

My project for the night was a few SAC110 objects but mostly objects from DeepMap 600 from a list made last week (Thanks for help SteveG). The list was DeepMap 600 objects that are not Herschel 400 or Messier. This will keep me busy while I wait for my last 35 or so Herschel 400 objects to come round.

DeepMap 600 (some SAC110 list that overlap) NGC 7129, 7133, 7142 7129 is a diffuse nebula and the desired target. 7133 is said to be the nebula in MegaStar5 but I think that is wrong. 7133 was said to be a 'defunct' object in Starry Night pro.

Funny story: I called over Jamie and George came along to look at 7129 because there was an issue over this object in an earlier OR. This object is difficult to see from Montebello due to lights in the north. While looking at it one of them (name withheld) started discussing how the galaxy had these foreground stars but was detectable. George and Jamie had been busy with mag 12-13 galaxies beforehand. So you could argue it resembles a galaxy AND a diffuse nebula ...

LBN 497 Another name for same 7129 it seems. BrtN 2.0' LBN 21 42 59.0 +66 06 24

NGC 7142 Cr 442 Open 9.3 4.3' 100 11.0 I 2 r LYN 21 45 12.2 +65 46 23
Faint but full cluster of mostly dim stars. Some apparent lines.

NGC 188 Cr 6 Mel 2 Open 8.1 13.0' 120 10.0 I 2 r LYN 00 47 30.0 +85 14 30
Many stars of dim magnitude. No particular pattern comes to mind.

NGC 281 SH2 -184 LBN 616 BrtN 28.0x21.0' E SH2 00 53 00.0 +56 38 00
Irregular shape with sharp cutoff in nebula to the east.

M 103 NGC 581 Cr 14 Open 7.4 6.0' 25 9.0 II 2 m LYN 01 33 22.0 +60 39 30
This was on the way to TR 1 so had a quick peek again. This is not an exciting object.

Cr 15 TR 1 Open 8.1 4.5' 20 10.0 II 2 p LYN 01 35 40.0 +61 17 12
4 stars across one side form a distinct edge. On the other side of an open area there are 2 stars forming the other side of a rectangle with a third continuing to form a line of 3 stars on the other edge. Nice little shape. Made drawing which includes several other much dimmer stars.

Stock 2 Open 4.4 60.0' 50 8.2 I 2 m LYN 02 15 35.0 +59 32 00
About 2.5 degrees north of double cluster, NGC864 and NGC884. Will rember to look again. Never really knew this was here (or did not pay attention).

IC 1805 SH2 -190 LBN 654 BrtN 96.0x80.0' E LBN 02 32 48.0 +61 30 00
Huge area and photos are spectacular. But out here, dim and fuzzy with irregular shape.

NGC 1027 Cr 30 Mel 16 Open 6.7 20.0' 40 9.0 II 3 m n LYN 02 42 36.0 +61 35 42
This was very close to IC1805 so pulled it up for fun.

NGC 957 Cr 28 Open 7.6 11.0' 30 11.0 III 2 m LYN 02 33 20.0 +57 34 12
Mostly dim stars in this cluster but 2 bright stars in it's bounds may be forground stars. No specific pattern comes to mind.

NGC 1245 Cr 38 Mel 18 Open 8.4 10.0' 200 12.0 II 2 r LYN 03 14 42.0 +47 14 18
Very rich and it seemed to contain at least 4 distinct circular loops. This object was very close to comet Holmes 17P on this night

Cr 36 TR 3 Harvard 1 Open 7.0 23.0' 30 --- III 2 m LYN 03 12 00.0 +63 11 00
Open and spread out. By chance I noticed a structure that resembled TR 1 within a half degree or so of TR 3 which was spooky to say the least.

all in all a great time.

mark