Boony Doon Airfield, 9 Mar 2008

Tony Hurtado

Since the first time I tried Bonny Doon Airfield we didn't have that a great a luck with the weather, I thought I'd give it another go. It sounds as though the conditions we had up there were much the same as at Coe: periods of rather good seeing, later rather than earlier in the evening, peppered with passing high cirrus banks. Contrails were very long, bright and persistent indicating a lot of high level moisture. Even in the good times the seeing was a bit soft - I never saw a 6 star Trapezium in my 18" dob, but did catch 5 stars. Later on I caught the Horesehead with reasonable detail. Temps were brisk but never cold and wind was just not a factor.

The big deal about Bonny Doon is the western sky - it's just inky black with a really low horizon to the SW (I'm talking all of Puppis and Columba here) and stars all the way to the horizon. This would be the place to be for a look at Omega Centauri and Centaurus A coming in June.

A spectacular display of the Zodiacal light was present for a long time after sundown reaching all the way up to the Pleides. I don't think I've ever seen it last as long and be so bright as it was last night.

I spent the early hours looking at eye candy with a group of UCSC students two of which were astrophysics majors. That made for some good conversation since they stayed until about midnight. There was a nice view of Saturn at about midnight in which 5 moons were visible along with banding on the planet's surface. Otherwise, I was chasing Hershells.

Hope you all had as nice a night as I did.

-Tony

ID Date/Time Const Type RA Dec Eyepiece

NGC2266 2008-03-08 9:05 PM Gem Open 06h 43m 12s +26°58'00" Panoptic 22mm
Rather small but somewhat bright cluster. Three brighter stars in a line mark one side.

NGC2304 2008-03-08 8:30 PM Gem Open 06h 55m 00s +18°01'00" Panoptic 22mm
Small but very dense cluster. Roughly square in shape and rather dim overall, but very dense. Uniformly bright.

NGC2395 2008-03-08 8:42 PM Gem Open 07h 27m 06s +13°35'00" Panoptic 22mm
Somewhat large and loose cluster in an elongated arrow-like shape. Bright stars outline the shape. Nice cluster.

NGC2859 2008-03-08 11:08 PM LMi Galaxy 09h 24m 19s +34°30'49" Nagler 9mm
Difficult to find. Small eliptical with a very small bright central core. Halo region, however, is very extended (more than most).

NGC2903 2008-03-08 11:55 PM Leo Galaxy 09h 32m 10s +21°30'03" Nagler 9mm
Pretty obvious barred spiral - the S shaped arms that form the bright bar is very bright. Other arms can be seen but are dimmer. Extended halo region as well. Nice specimen!

NGC3226 2008-03-08 9:59 PM Leo Galaxy 10h 23m 27s +19°53'54" Nagler 5mm
Dim spiral with a bright core and perhaps some bright HII regions. Immediately next to NGC3227; in fact, there may be some nebulousity between the two that would indicate interaction.

NGC3227 2008-03-08 11:13 PM Leo Galaxy 10h 23m 31s +19°51'54" Nagler 9mm
Larger of 2 galaxies that are in the same 9Nagler FOV. Larger spiral that is uniformly bright throughout.

NGC3377 2008-03-08 11:46 PM Leo Galaxy 10h 47m 42s +13°59'09" Nagler 9mm
One of a pair of galaxies but I don't see the mag 13.6 companion. Spiral galaxy with a small bright core and extended halo. No detail beyond determining that it's a spiral.

NGC3379 2008-03-08 10:09 PM Leo Galaxy 10h 47m 50s +12°34'55" Nagler 9mm
Bright eliptical with a large, dense core that fades abruptly to the outer halo. In the same 9Nagler FOV as NGC 3171 and 3173. Nice trio! Hmmmmmm.... NGC 3371 is also labled as 3384 and 3373 as 3373 as 3389. Some research required.

NGC3384 2008-03-08 10:14 PM Leo Galaxy 10h 48m 17s +12°37'43" Nagler 9mm
Part of the group of 3 containing M105. Dimmer but similar eliptical to M105.

NGC3412 2008-03-08 9:26 PM Leo Galaxy 10h 50m 53s +13°24'43" Nagler 9mm
Very small eliptical with a brighter core that dims steadily towards the outer regions. Closer to edge on than NGC 3489 but not absolutely edge on.

NGC3489 2008-03-08 9:17 PM Leo Galaxy 11h 00m 19s +13°54'04" Nagler 9mm
Very small but relatively bright eliptical. Spans ~50% of the FOV of a 9Nagler. Tilted but not edge on.

NGC3593 2008-03-08 11:33 PM Leo Galaxy 11h 14m 37s +12°49'03" Nagler 9mm
Spiral that has a large bright central region and a halo region that extends very far. Nearly edge on so little detail.

NGC3608 2008-03-08 9:38 PM Leo Galaxy 11h 16m 59s +18°08'55" Nagler 9mm
Part of a group of 3 including 3607 and 3605. 3607 is brighter and larger. Nice eliptical.

NGC3621 2008-03-08 10:56 PM Hya Galaxy 11h 18m 16s -32°48'42" Nagler 9mm
Just a streak of light - lost in the light dome of Santa Cruz. Looks like an eliptical that is tipped but not edge on. No detail and no contrast.

NGC3626 2008-03-08 10:48 PM Leo Galaxy 11h 20m 04s +18°21'25" Nagler 9mm
Dim spiral with a very small, but very bright pinpoint core. Can see some spiral arm detail - bright arms and dark interspersed areas. Nice galaxy! Need to revisit rhis one under better skies.