Mostly Hicksons without frost from Thurs Feb 19th

Mark Johnston

Started the session off with some Herschel I list re-observations including the Ngc1502 cluster at the end of the soothing Kembles cascade and then a short hop to Ngc1501 because ... well ... it is in the area. Around 11pm in my scope observed some large nebula with Ngc896 bright nebula as well as 'The Baby Nebula' (not sure if that is most common name) nearby, IC1848. I think IC1848 is better in photographs because it is so huge 2 degrees or more across and has very dim surface brightness. A peak at CA Nebula and of course M42 (later on).

Was gifted from time to time through the eve with several fine views through DobZilla including Ngc2903 big face-on (wow), Ngc3718 'hourglass galaxy' (more later), M83 and a very fine view of the Antenae galaxies (4038/4039). Thanks Kevin.

An unplanned favorite in the making was when Greg pointed out the Ngc4216 area and there one can find 3 edge-on galaxies with similar position angles. The mighty Ngc4216 is flanked by his underlies of Ngc4206 and Ngc4222. Quite a nice treo IMHO. Thanks Greg for the pointer to that area, a modest 2 degrees towards the Beta Leo's tail star as you head from Markarians chain. This is also ideally located for a visual Telrad find as well.

Had a mini-shoot-out using Richards 5mm TAK LE against the 5mm Nagler type 6. Thanks for the loan Richard! I did not get too serious with that shoot out because the one I bought on Astromart came on Friday but did enjoy the discussion and comparison thanks to Richard.

Another treat was Steve shared a view of the dwarf galaxy Sextans B which I have certainly never pulled up and I was pleased to see it was not that difficult of a find compared to Leo I being right on top of Regulus and other dwarfs being fairly difficult. Thanks Steve.

Had a goal of 4 Hickson groups and I think I may be the only guy there who did not check out 'Frosty Hickson 35'. It was also fun listening to Steve, Mark, Richard try to decide if things were small stars or galaxies in the Ngc3158 cluster I was occupied so will have to try that group another time. Hickson 61, aka 'The Box', was a first for me and a must say a favorite with Ngc4170 being the largest yet most difficult to view. Second favorite of the nite would be Hickson 57, aka 'Copland's Septet', was a group with a very distinct elongated rectangle sort of shape with both short ends being 3 galaxies each in mild arc almost as if these 2 sets of 3 were each 40 degree or so arcs along opposite sides of a 3' diameter circle. I spotted 8 members of this 'Septet' and no that is not a typo. My guess is Copland may not have noted the extremely faint H member which I was only able to spot by waiting around using averted for only glimpses held for several seconds at a time then only to wash away into the darkness of space. I shared this view with Kevin who confirmed this H member. Also liked Hickson58 which is more like a 'typical' group and not so tight as most Hicksons. Around 3am I was on Hickson 51 and I am afraid I need to revisit it as thin clouds were beginning to impact transparency as I could only really make out 3 of this group and only fading in and out. The unexpected Hickson 56 not on my list was seen as 3 fuzzy stars when I was checking out a fine view of the hourglass like galaxy Ngc3718 in DobZilla. Back at my scope I zeroed in and was not able to separate the very close 3 members to look like more than 2 but I did not spend a lot of time trying.

Other galaxy 'mini-groups' were centered on the following dominant ngc members: 3430, 3455, and 3607 with the small group around Ngc3607 being the most interesting of those groups.

Earlier in the start of observing we caught Vega leaving to the west and a bit before I hung it up for bed I caught my first view of not only Vega in a high enough position to view M57 but also the 4 dominant members of central cygnus. Took my first bino-view of Omega Centauri for the season and content, was asleep in 10 minutes.

Thanks to Kevin for the invite and now we continue with our regularly scheduled nightly program ... rain.

Mark