Southern skies from PAS site 1Feb2008

Mark Johnston

1Feb2008 PAS Site (Oakridge). This site is for Peninsula Astronomical Society and is really the 1st local dark site I used to frequent all the time before finding the TACos. The site is just on the other side of the ridge near Black road/Skyline crossing in a gated community and requires PAS membership. PAS is the group that runs the weekly Friday night Foothill College observing sessions. This was a 'homecoming' to me but I was alone which was typical back then as well.

Best skies to the south at 40-80 degrees with very large North light dome. Observing from 7:40 till 11:30 when sky went almost instantly from nice to fog. South was very good and darkness was 19.8 Mag/ArcSec2. Mag 9 type clusters were resolving and to the area being observed things were fairly steady 70% of time. Light breeze with fairly cold temps estimating around 40 degrees or less. All alone but had a blast at this priviate/safe site compared to most others I know.

14 objects logged but later I figured out 2 had been logged last year and 1 was M48.

First off were several galaxies in the mid Eridanus area from DeepMap600 list which were objects I wanted to catch this month or wait a long time. Next was over to clusters in Puppis and a favorite which is NGC2477.

Moved north to a sweet spot in Pyxis to catch a few H400 stragglers still needed. NGC2627 was a nice find there.

Off to M48 (quick peek) and then another H400 straggler of NGC2185 .

Looked down at my notes and filled in some entries then looked up and total haze everywhere at 11:30 ... time to go.

A very pleasant night but I missed the TACo gang as NOBODY goes to this site except maybe in summer.

Mark

Detailed Observations follow if interested:

NGC 1201 ESO 480-28 MCG -4-8-23 PGC 11559 Glxy 11.7b 3.6x 2.1' 7 SA(r)0^: RC3 03 04 08.2 -26 04 09
20:30 DM600 object. Fairly bright N-S elongated core even in appearance.

NGC 1097 UGCA 41 ESO 416-20 Arp 77 MCG -5-7-24 IRAS 2441-3029 PGC 10488 Glxy 10.2b 12.7x 9.4' 143 SB(s)b RC3 02 46 18.9 -30 16 21
NO-GO: Could not get it due to muck and then treetops. Some other day.

Now the main mid-Eridanus group ... (skipping 1232 which was previous find)

NGC 1300 UGCA 66 ESO 547-31 MCG -3-9-18 IRAS 3174-1935 PGC 12412 Glxy 10.3v 5.9x 4.9' 102 SB(rs)bc RC3 03 19 40.8 -19 24 41
20:40 DM600 object. Very difficult to see with averted 50% of time. Seems to be more or less round but no real structure of this barred 2-leaf galaxy.

NGC 1332 UGCA 72 ESO 548-18 MCG -4-9-11 IRAS 3240-2130 PGC 12838 Glxy 11.3b 4.6x 1.4' 112 S(s)0-: sp RC3 03 26 17.3 -21 20 09
20:44 DM600 object. very noticable with star just to east. Elongated E-W.

NGC 1325 UGCA 70 ESO 548-7 MCG -4-9-4 IRAS 3221-2143 PGC 12737 Glxy 12.2b 4.7x 1.5' 56 SA(s)bc RC3 03 24 25.1 -21 32 38
20:50 This I stumbled upon while looking for 1332. This was elongated and at the limits of my detection for this night with averted 40%. This object has a surface brightness of 14 from looking at MegaStar.

NGC 1395 ESO 482-19 MCG -4-9-39 PGC 13419 Glxy 10.6b 5.9x 4.4' 93 E2 RC3 03 38 29.6 -23 01 40
21:15 DM600 object. Easily spotted with circular shape and even falloff in mag. Is on the west edge of a slightly elongated triangle pattern of stars where the east and south-west sides have corners with 2 close stars.

NGC 1398 ESO 482-22 MCG -4-9-40 IRAS 3367-2629 PGC 13434 Glxy 10.6b 7.1x 5.3' 100 (R')SB(r)ab RC3 03 38 51.9 -26 20 14
21:30 DM600 object. Only detected the bright spherical core and not the much dimmer but broad outside region. Core lies 2/3 of way to west between two stars about 1/3 degree apart.

NGC 1360 ESO 482-7 Minkowski 1-3 PK 220-53.1 PNG 220.3-53.9 Plan 9.6p 6.4' 11.3 3 STE 03 33 15.4 -25 52 13
21:45 DM600 object. Central star is easy to see but the very large shell is at the limits of my abilities and averted only barely detects it 25% of time.

Next down to a few more DeepMap clusters in Puppis NGC 2546 Cr 178 Open 6.3 40.0' 40 7.0 III 2 m LYN 08 12 24.0 -37 37 00
22:00 DM600 object. Huge area but very open cluster of fairly high mag. Seen before.

NGC 2477 Cr 165 Mel 78 Open 5.8 27.0' 160 12.0 I 2 r LYN 07 52 10.0 -38 32 00
22:05 DM600 object. Very nice low-mag cluster. Over 100 stars of similar mag. Gives the appearance of a filled in triangle area of stars.

Things started getting mucky down way south and as I was entering these last two on my notes I saw I had already observed these so scooted on and skipped NGC2451 as conditions deep south were a bit hazy and wanted to move on anyway.

Off to points more north ...

NGC 2613 UGCA 141 ESO 495-18 MCG -4-21-3 IRAS 8311-2248 PGC 23997 Glxy 11.2b 7.2x 1.7' 116 SA(s)b RC3 08 33 22.6 -22 58 24
22:30 H400 object. Fairly dim with mostly E-W elongation obvious and surface brightness fairly even out to it's limits.

NGC 2627 Cr 188 Mel 87 Open 8.4 11.0' 60 11.0 II 2 r LYN 08 37 15.0 -29 57 00
22:45 H400 object. Very rich cluster of low mag stars. Wide range in magnitudes. What looks like a separate but smaller cluster lies only a quarter deg south.

M 48 NGC 2548 Cr 179 Open 5.8 54.0' 80 8.0 I 3 r LYN 08 13 44.0 -05 45 00
23:00 H400 object. Broad and sparse open cluster with central bright members forming a sort of elongated shape with a star point on each end.

NGC 2185 LBN 997 BrtN 2.0' R LBN 06 11 06.0 -06 13 00
23:15 H400 object. Tiny 4-star half-circle asterism and 1 main star. Very dim nebuloscity and requires averted vision.