Popori and the arrival of 'Big Galaxy Season'

Mark Johnston

Conditions were soft on the seeing getting better into the late hours. Transparency and darkness were wonderful with 21.54 as the average from 1am on till 3am but brighter at around 21.3 earlier in the eve.

Decided to not hunt clusters of small dim objects and approached the session with little bits of many projects of tracking down a few noted planitary nebula, Re-observing some Herschel 400 objects and then taking a bite out of new objects on the Herschel 400 list II. Had also brought my 120mm ST Orion refractor to check out Barnard 1-5 near the CA nebula.

One fine day at this last CalStar I had sat down with Kent Wallace who is one of the TAC members who has literally written a book on PN (and so has Alvin). Kent's book is green and has nice FOV drawing of each object so you know what to expect. Kent is a real nice guy and easy to talk to so I browsed the book and took notes of assorted ones that seemed 'large' or 'interesting' (as PNs go with my limited background). Since that time I have been viewing Planitaries off and on but it was time to view a few more now (Thanks Ken)

On Wed night the ones that stood out to me were Abell 21 with it's interesting and large irregular shapes as well as Ngc1360 which almost has the appearance of a reasonably large (6' len) dim elliptical galaxy due to it's fairly uniform glow with 1.5 elongation as a small 20 degree or so 'position angle'. Ngc1360 has a bright central star whereas an eliptical would be broader in the core BUT could look this way with a bright forground star smack dab in the middle. See what I mean: http://www.astrosurf.com/antilhue/ngc1360.htm

Kevin shared some really nice views from DobZilla which just had a 'bath' so the main mirror is clean now. Around 10pm it was on to more Herschel list objects (I had done a few lower,west ones earlier) Was very pleased to find that even though I was not hunting small galaxy clusters I stumbled on a nice one containing the Herschel 400 List II member Ngc1060. Nice little group but on the dim side with most members from mag 14 to 15 range.

Around 11 I believe it was I pulled out the 120mm refractor on a simple mount to try out a new upright right angle prisim on Barnard objects 1-5. These were rather large areas but are not well defined (typical for many dark nebula). This was from a nice sitting position with UranoMetria next to me and no reversals of orientation required with right angle prism. I liked this and enjoyed the 120mm ease of use. Next I went back to the big dob for B26,27,28. Then on to B37 and 38 which because I was distracted I forgot to take observations on BUT did take good looks at all the bright nebula there (IC446, 2247,2245, CR95 cluster which is engulfed in IC2169. NEXT: A Funny Story about being Lost in space!

Next was a look at an open cluster mentioned by Greg Laflamme with a dim galaxy within it that SteveG had noted. This was a funny observation as I picked up an obvious open cluster and what I thought was Ngc1807 from a quick Telrad find and it just did NOT look quite like MegaStar showed. After a bit of putzing around I came to realize this was Ngc1817 which is something you may want to look at from a DSS image to note that BOTH these clusters have a wide 6 or so bright star line at a length of 9' or so both with basically the same orientation of N-S. I would think the bright ones in 1817 may be foreground as most of 1817 is even mag stars. But it was 'funny' that such a similar line of stars can throw one off. This is a case where a DSS image is invaluable for confirmation. Glad I did not not waste too much time on trying to find the dim galaxy in Ngc1817 LOL. Oh and yes, CGCG 469-3 is there but would be easily overlooked and not even possible in mid-sized to smaller scopes at Mag 15.6 and very small.

Lastly I had a great night remaining of taking detailed observations on about 15 of the large Messier galaxies in the 'spring galaxy band' which was now high enough to view nicely by 1:30am.

Spent a lot of time on M51/Ngc5195 and decided my best view was with right eye looking right at 13 29 53 +47 11 48 which in words is at the NNW edge of the Ngc5194 (larger) of the two main galaxies and on the other side from the thin bridge of stars between the two. Wow, it was very detailed and I was loving it.

Then spent a large amout of time really trying to see M101 and had a blast as well as logged the 3 strong knots and was very clearly seeing all the arms and practicing my use of averted. This was one of the best views I have been able to detect ever. For the rest I have not written my detailed observations from the recordings and would be best to omit that so here are general fun things and the list.

Also took detailed notes on these Messier objects which are 'classics' 65,66 (Ngc3628) Leo Triplet, Then M95,96,105 (and friends). M108

M97 owl. Filter Shoot-Out Tried Lumicon OIII, Omega NPB filter, Lumicon Deep Sky all with 7mm Nagler for compare on M97, liked Deep Sky best of all as the dim stars nearby still showed best and both dark circlets in the nebula were equal or perhaps best with this filter.

Then M3 and M53 globulars. M3 as always was fantastic with resolution on many stars but I am sure better seeing would have moved it to Magnificent.

Then M109, M63,64,94

Could not resist a sweep of the Markarian chain starting with the circle of galaxies around M86 and working my way past the 'cats eyes' and then the second double galaxy 4458/4461 duo then on to 4474 in a gentle arc with the final sharp right turn to finish at Ngc4459. I neglected the broader half-circle from M88, 91,4571,M90,M89 then M87 on this pass ... next time.

Saved M106 favorite as the last object at about 2:50am The north broad arm sweeping west was the more obvious close-in, broad arm.

Called it a session at 3am and had quickly dropped off to seeep in the van.

Mark