Rambling the Obscure Globular Clusters and a couple Shakhbazian Groups

Alvin Huey

Well, Bill, Teri and Shneor already said who and how the wonderful skies at IHOP-4 are already. I won't repeat it here.

Some basics:
NELM = 6.8 - 6.9
Seeing 4/5
22" f/4.1 with mainly Tak LE eyepieces (10, 7.5 and 5mm) and a 20mm Pentax XW. I did use the 5mm TMB Supermonocentric on [PWM78] 2.

I decided to ramble over some of the summer obscure globular clusters. Then I got tired of looking low above the horizon all night, so I switched to Shakhbazian galaxy groups.

Here it goes.

Palomar 14 (16 11 00.3 +14 57 49) Mag 14.7 SB 16.7 Size 2.5'
22" ( 230, 306 and 459x) - Extremely faint. Intermittingly visible with averted vision as a 45" diameter round glow with a stellar core. A 12.3 magnitude star lies 1' NNW. MAC 1610+1455, lies 2.3' SSW. It appears as a very faint round glow with no central brightening. This galaxy is best at 458x.

Palomar 15 (16 59 50.7 -00 31 59) Mag 14.2 SB ? Size 3.0'
22" (230x and 306x) - Very faint round patch. Even surface brightness throughout its 1.5' diameter disk. It shows better at 230x. A 13.2 and 14.1 magnitude star lies about 3' east.

Haute Province 1 (17 31 05.2 -29 58 54) Mag 12.5 SB 12.9 Size 1.2'
22" (230 and 306x) - Faint round patch with a slightly brighter center. About 45" across. Several stars were detected on the disk. A nearly collinear trio of 12.1 to 12.6 stars lies 1' to the north.

Palomar 7, IC 1276 (18 10 44.2 -07 12 27) Mag 10.3 SB 14.8 Size 8'
22" (115 and 230x) - Faint low surface brightness large round glow. 4 stars detected on the mottled disk, otherwise no central brightening. It is easier to observe at 115x. About 4.2' across.

[PWM 78] 2 (17 58 39.4 -05 04 21) Mag -- SB -- Size 2'
22" (306 and 459x) - field is easily located. Took me at least 5 minutes to just detect this extremely faint round glow. Could only hold for 50% of the time with averted vision once it was detected. I wiggled the scope and the glow wiggled with the background stars. About 30" across.

Liller 1 (17 33 24.5 -33 23 20) Mag 15.8 SB 13.2 Size 0.3'
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - star field easily located, but not detected.

Tonantzinilia 2 (17 36 10.5 -38 33 12) Mag 12.2 SB -- Size -
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - very low above horizon and almost behind trees. Appears as a very small very faint round patch. No central brightening. About 30" across. A string of 4 11 and 12th magnitude stars line from the NW to SSE.

Djorgovski 1 (17 47 28.3 -33 03 56) Mag 13.6 SB 13.1 Size 0.8'
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - Not detected.

1636-283, ESO 452-SC11 (16 39 25.0 -28 23 54) Mag 12 SB 12.4 Size 1.2'
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - Not detected.

UKS 1 (17 54 27.2 -24 08 43) Mag 17.3 SB 18.8 Size 2
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - Not detected.

2MASS-GC1 (18 08 21.8 -19 49 47) Mag -- SB -- Size -
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - Not detected.

2MASS-GC2 (18 08 36.5 -20 46 44) Mag -- SB -- Size --
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - Not detected.

Arp GC2 (19 28 44.1 -30 21 14) Mag 13 SB 14.8 Size 2.3'
22" (115 and 230x) - Faint large round glow on a rich star field. The glow appears mottled, suggesting a loose globular. About 1.5' across.

Palomar 11 (19 45 14.4 -08 00 26) Mag 9.8 SB 14.8 Size 10
22" (230 and 306x) - considerably bright, large slightly elongated (3:2) patch. PA = 60 and about 1.6' long. The surface appears to be partially resolved, especially at 306x.

Palomar 12 (21 46 38.8 -21 15 03) Mag 11.7 SB 14 Size 2.9
22" (230, 306 and 459x) - Considerably bright round glow. It appears mottled and several individual stars could just be detected at 459x. No central concentration detected.

Palomar 13 (23 06 44.4 +12 46 19) Mag 13.8 SB 13 Size 0.7
22" (230x 306 and 459x) - surprisingly not seen. Must try again.

Pease 1 (in M15) (21 29 59.4 +12 10 26) Mag 14.9p Size 1"
22" (638 and 820x) - Considerably faint round patch. Slightly more out of focus than the rest of the stars. Used the O-III filter to confirm the PNe.

Shakhbazian 362 (23 32 37 +19 21 34) Mag -- Size 0.9' Number of Galaxies 5
22" (459 and 638x) - Three collinear extremely faint galaxies barely resolved forming a line from E-W. The length of the string is about 40". The other two members, each to the SE and SW were not detected. A 10.2 and 12.5 magnitude double star lies just 1.8' NW.

Shakhbazian 361 (23 03 16+17 39 40) Mag 15.1+ Size 2.8'' Number of Galaxies 10
22" (459x and 638x) - A total of five galaxies were detected. Two southernmost galaxies appears to be almost merged, separated by less than 10". The southern one, 2MASX J23031792+1740232, is a very faint, very small round patch. The northern galaxy of the pair, 2MASXi J2303182+174039, is a very faint 2:1 elongated glow. PA = 0. Moving about 1.0' to the NW of the galaxy pair, 2MASX J23031464+1741072 (mag 15.1) is a very faint round glow. Moving 45" to the WNW lies 2MASX J23031184+1741232 (mag 17.59) as an extremely faint round glow. The northern most galaxy lying 1.7' north of the fist discussed pair, 2MASX J23031842+1742072, appears as a very faint round glow.