Henry Coe Aug 9 2008. A late start for a great session

Mark Johnston

OR for Henry Coe Park, overflow lot for August 9, 2008
With the moon to set at 12:30 but conditions looking to be setting up for a very good night 6 TACo's and a couple of rather informed visitors had a great time out at a late-starting but fantastic Coe night.

Present from N-S scopes were: Greg Claytor, Greg LaFlamme, Me (MarkJ), Dan Kaeo, Dick Cook, Rogelio There was a whole lot of time to setup and do a lot of talking but observable eye-candy clusters, globs and some planitaries were available by 10:30 and looked better than I had thought they would look with the moon still up. The real fun kicked in at 12:30. Much of my observations were using 5mm Nagler or 390x (to see planitaries) and this resulted in pinpoint nice little low-mag stars which was a good clue as to the very steady skies we had. We also measured 20.83 just about every time on GregLF meter. Some real candy highlights included most of us hanging out and doing naked-eye M33 sightings combined with IS Binoc views, GregLF 120mm refractor with 26mm Nagler. Then to cap that off views of M33 in our scopes where the 4 NGC 'knots' and gobs of other assorted details could be had. Very fun. Will revisit next month, perhaps from Fremont Peak or darker site. Some other highlights from my perspective were some great looks at Ngc7331 Deerlick 'cluster' area and 7320 area of Stephans quintet. I have enjoyed the image that the dominant 4 tight members of Stephan's quintet look a lot like the shape of a 2-man fighter jet as it moves west in a non-tracking scope, wings out to each side and back.

We also pulled up 'The Stone Galaxy' discussed on TAC shortly back when Michelle's picture was up for Ngc7479. You go Michelle!

In tracking down assorted objects from the recent Astronomy Magazine 100 Sky Wonders It was fun to run across NGC6791 which was a very large open cluster packed with very fine members to form a blanket of fine stars over a 9' or so diameter area.

Lastly besides the target list my goal was to view the Perseus cluster around NGC1275 when it was as high as possible. It was a bit of a rush job but a real fun 20 minutes or so (detailed in notes that follow).

So a fun night and none of us broke down till about 3:30 which was about the time Auriga was just becoming fully available over the hill to the East.

I slept well and had a great time.

Below are the specific observations in detail if desired

Clear Skies, MarkJ

Henry Coe July 9, 2008. 11-3:30am observe. 20.83M/as2 (GLF) by 1:30am. moonset 12:30

Summary: From Astronomy '100 Sky Wonders' list of 2008 (and assorted clusters, and M33)
Scope: 18" f/3.7 Starmaster using Paracorr corrector
Observers: N-S: Greg Claytor, Greg LaFlamme, Me (MarkJ), Dan Kaeo, Dick Cook, Rogelio
Conditions: Great skies with 20.83 Mag/as2 (GLF's meter)

All Planitaries observed with 5mmNagler type 6 for 390x and no filters.

NGC 6543 PK 96+29.1 PNG 96.4+29.9 Plan 8.8p 20.0" 11.1 3a+2 STE 17 58 33.5 +66 37 59
11:00pm 5mm-390x .75' len E-W EL, 45deg Pa. Central star with slight clearance around star 1/5 of dia

NGC 6751 Sanduleak 2-382 PK 29-5.1 PNG 29.2-5.9 Plan 12.5p 26.0" 15.4 3 STE 19 05 55.5 -05 59 33
11:18pm 5mm-390x .5' dia, SYM. Outside fades, no distinct edge. Even lighting, central star clearly present

NGC 6778 Sanduleak 2-388 PK 34-6.1 PNG 34.5-6.7 Plan 13.3p 16.0" 16.9 3+3 STE 19 18 24.9 -01 35 46
11:29pm 5mm/390x .6' len 1.5:1 EL E-W, 110dPA, no cent star. Even bright, gradual fading.

NGC 6712 Glob 8.1 9.8' 13.3 16.3 --- --- BAA 18 53 04.3 -08 42 22
11:38pm 5mm/390x 1.5-2' E-W Low concentration. Very faint star blanket, non-resolve. Some brither members with resolution but may be FG. POST OB NOTE: Much larger, I reported core. Outer stars blend in backdrop.

NGC 6765 Minkowski 1-68 PK 62+9.1 PNG 62.4+9.5 Plan 13.1p 40.0" 16.0 5 STE 19 11 06.8 +30 32 39
12:30am 12mm/162x < 1' dia. Slight EL 45dPA Difficult object, very faint and fades

NGC 7315 UGC 12097 CGCG 514-59 MCG +6-49-37 7331 Deerlick cluster area Glxy 13.5p 1.6x 1.6' -- S0 RC3 22 35 31.7 +34 48 13
1:05am 12mm/162x Very small. Spherical

CGCG 514-66 MCG +6-49-44 PGC 69281 7331 Deerlick cluster area Glxy 15.7 1.3x 0.5' 38 Sb PGC 22 36 22.8 +34 32 39
1:07am 9mm/190x very dim and elongated 2:1 EL 45dPA just NW of 7331

NGC 6745 UGC 11391 CGCG 229-13 PGC 62691 MltG 13.3 1.4x 0.6' 33 Sm RC3 19 01 41.5 +40 44 40
1:23am 9mm/190x 1' len, 2.5:1 EL 30dPA. Faint, No centStar. even brightness. Fades to point on N and southern end fans out to gradual fade 0.3' width

NGC 6791 Berk 46 Favorite dim, large faint OC Open 9.5 10.0' 255 15.0 I 2 r LYN 19 20 53.7 +37 46 09
1:30am 17mm/190x 8' dia, triangular shape. Very very faint blanket of stars not concentrated, some range of star brightness but mostly dim blanket.

NGC 7503 CGCG 406-12 MCG +1-59-8 PGC 70628 Glxy 14.3b 1.0x 0.9' 78 E2: RC3 23 10 42.3 +07 34 05
1:56am 9mm/190x Spherical, similar size,mag to 7501 7499 Viewable 50% time averted.

NGC 7501 CGCG 406-8 MCG +1-59-7 PGC 70619 Glxy 14.6b 1.0x 0.9' 162 E1: RC3 23 10 30.3 +07 35 22
1:56am 9mm/190x Spherical, similar size,mag to 7503 7499 Viewable 50% time averted.

NGC 7499 UGC 12397 CGCG 406-7 MCG +1-59-5 PGC 70608 Glxy 13.9b 1.1x 0.6' 10 SA(s)0^: RC3 23 10 22.3 +07 34 49
1:56am 9mm/190x Spherical, similar size,mag to 7501 7499 Viewable 50% time averted.

CGCG 406-5 MCG +1-59-2 PGC 70593 MltG 15.3 0.9x 0.8' 46 SB? RC3 23 09 52.5 +07 30 57
2:00am 9mm/190x Fainter than 3 ngc that lie just to its east. 20% averted visibility.

NGC 7479 UGC 12343 CGCG 430-58 MCG +2-58-60 'Stone Galaxy' Favorite Glxy 11.6b 4.1x 3.1' 25 SB(s)c RC3 23 04 56.9 +12 19 16
2:10am 9mm/190x 4' len 4:1 ELong 30dPA Bared FaceOn South end loop ccw is most obvious around to almost even with core North end only start of spiral but mostly faint glow

M 33 NGC 598 UGC 1117 CGCG 502-110 MCG +5-4-69 pinwheel galaxy Glxy 6.3b 65.6x38.0' 23 SA(s)cd RC3 01 33 50.9 +30 39 37
2:30am Naked eye averted core! (with witnesses) 20.83 sqm Huge amount detail Then with 15x50 IS binocs (gorgious) and finally with scope 17mmNag/190x 4 NGCs found with 604 the most obvious of several bright areas

NGC 604 Knot in pinwheel galaxy BrtN 1.5' PGC 01 34 32.7 +30 47 02
2:40am 17mmNag/190x 1' dia, slightly irregular sphere. Most prominant of knots in M33 to NW side

NGC 595 Knot in pinwheel galaxy BrtN 0.8x 0.7' RNG 01 33 34.0 +30 41 36
2:45am 595 is smaller knot than 604 but distinct. Close to west side of core of M33

NGC 592 Knot in pinwheel galaxy Knot 0.7x 0.5' UNK 01 33 12.1 +30 38 43
2:48am small knot. middle of 3 knots trailing off to west of m33 core

NGC 588 Knot in pinwheel galaxy BrtN 0.9x 0.8' NGC 01 32 45.8 +30 38 55
2:50am small knot. most west of 3 knots trailing off to west of m33 core

Perseus Galaxy Cluster project. Observe presense only, no details on each 3:00am Sat down with 9mmNag/216x and scanned with starting point as 1275 This was just before packing up and a bit of a 'rushed' job but was a main goal for this night and so I let it get high before start. Just made notes on visibility and circled on a chart so no exact times here.

NGC 1267 UGC 2657 CGCG 540-92 MCG +7-7-55 PGC 12331 Perseus cluster Glxy 14.1 0.8x 0.8' -- E+: RC3 03 18 44.8 +41 28 03
Visible with non-averted vision

NGC 1268 UGC 2658 CGCG 540-93 MCG +7-7-56 PGC 12332 Perseus cluster Glxy 14.2p 1.0x 0.7' 120 SAB(rs)b: RC3 03 18 44.9 +41 29 18
visible with averted vision only

NGC 1270 UGC 2660 CGCG 540-95 MCG +7-7-57 PGC 12350 Perseus cluster Glxy 13.1v 1.0x 0.8' 12 E: RC3 03 18 58.1 +41 28 12
Visible with non-averted vision

PGC 12358 Perseus cluster Glxy 0.5x 0.4' 25 PGC 03 19 04.7 +41 28 08
visible with averted vision only small percentage of time

NGC 1272 UGC 2662 CGCG 540-98 MCG +7-7-58 PGC 12384 Perseus cluster Glxy 11.7v 1.8x 1.8' -- E+ RC3 03 19 21.3 +41 29 27
Spherical and 1 of 3 most prominent members in parallelogram main section .

NGC 1273 CGCG 540-99 MCG +7-7-59 PGC 12396 Perseus cluster Glxy 13.2v 1.0x 0.8' 126 SA(r)0^? RC3 03 19 26.7 +41 32 26
Non-averted vision but is dimmest of 4 galaxies in parallelogram main body

NGC 1275 UGC 2669 CGCG 540-103 MCG +7-7-63 PGC 12429 Perseus cluster Glxy 11.9v 2.2x 1.8' 103 Pec RC3 03 19 48.2 +41 30 42
Spherical and 1 of 3 most prominent members in parallelogram main section .

NGC 1274 CGCG 540-102 MCG +7-7-62 PGC 12413 Perseus cluster Glxy 14.0v 0.8x 0.4' 38 E3 RC3 03 19 40.5 +41 32 55
visible with Averted vision 50% or more of time

NGC 1278 UGC 2670 CGCG 540-105 MCG +7-7-65 PGC 12438 Perseus cluster Glxy 12.4v 1.4x 1.0' 88 E pec: RC3 03 19 54.1 +41 33 48
Spherical and 1 of 3 most prominent members in parallelogram main section .

NGC 1277 CGCG 540-104 MCG +7-7-64 PGC 12434 Perseus cluster Glxy 13.4v 0.8x 0.4' 92 S0+: pec RC3 03 19 51.5 +41 34 25
visible with Averted vision 50% or more of time

PGC 12448 PGC 12449 Perseus cluster Glxy 1.2x 0.5' 2 PGC 03 19 59.0 +41 28 46
Averted vision 50% of time

NGC 1281 CGCG 540-108 MCG +7-7-67 PGC 12458 Perseus cluster Glxy 13.3v 0.9x 0.4' 66 E5 RC3 03 20 06.1 +41 37 48
Elongated mostly E-W and near star

NGC 1282 UGC 2675 CGCG 540-109 MCG +7-7-68 PGC 12471 Perseus cluster Glxy 13.9b 1.2x 0.9' 37 E: RC3 03 20 12.1 +41 22 01
Visible non-averted. In a little group SSW of main body and 1275

NGC 1283 UGC 2676 CGCG 540-110 MCG +7-7-69 PGC 12478 Perseus cluster Glxy 13.5v 0.9x 0.6' 63 E1: RC3 03 20 15.5 +41 23 55
Visible non-averted. In a little group SSW of main body and 1275

PGC 12497 PGC 12498 Perseus cluster Glxy 0.6x 0.4' 122 PGC 03 20 21.0 +41 22 25
Visible averted only 30%. In a little group SSW of main body and 1275

PGC 12511 PGC 12512 Perseus cluster Glxy 0.6x 0.4' 76 PGC 03 20 30.9 +41 30 32
Was visible non-averted but after looking at charts maybe because it is next to FG star