June 20, 2009: Plettstone

Greg LaFlamme

Its been a year since I'd last visited Michelle, Paul, Pepper and Abby. Since GSSP was a little too far from my business, it seemed like the perfect time to head back up. Conditions were wonderful, day and night. The skys were partly cloudy during the day, keeping temperatures very comfortable and the night sky was clean and dark both nights I attended. Also at Plettstone were Albert Highe, Mark Johnston, Bill and Patty Cone and Rob Hawley. Paul grilled hot links and burgers and Patty Cone brought some killer banana nut bread loaded with chocolate chips! Think I found a new friend!! At night, my SQM readings were 21.55 maximum and 21.38 when the Milky way was overhead. Great skys! Mark Johnston brought a little star magnitude chart for Corona Borealis and after spending some time with it, we got a NELM of 6.8. I logged sixty-something objects over both nights. This was about 40 objects less than I had intended but that was ok, I don't fell like any time was wasted. I looked at many of the summertime delights as well as many fainties. Albert and I went after a nice group of galaxies in Bootes. Seeing NGC 5714 and its neighbors 5717, 5722, 5723, 5721 in my 22" was pretty straight forward but 5724 @ mag 18 was a toughie. We were both able to detect an oval halo around a star. That's what it amounted to. Is it but I'm not certain that it is actually a galaxy. There are two more galaxies nearby that we were able to see quite easily, that are not labeled in Urano Metria. Those are LEDA 2283980 @ mag 17.00 and LEDA 2286446 @mag 16.80. ST3 shows that there are even more in that area. I'll make a project of them next time I'm out. Fun stuff!

Disclaimer: These magnitudes are provided by ST3, I'm not sure they are correct but I would like to say I've seen a mag 18 galaxy, humor me:-)

The next day, I got to help Michelle swap scopes on the Paramount ME. We installed her AP 130 GT along side of a Tak Mewlon 210 and balanced the load:-) That has to be the finest 5" refractor on the planet! Later that night, I had been looking at NGC 5746, a beautiful mottled edge on galaxy and its nearest neighbors 5740 and 5738. Michelle had been looking at 5746 in the 5" as well so we swapped views. I was surprised to see that her 5" refractor not only showed 5746 and 5740, but I was able to tease out 5738 as well. That little galaxy is listed at 13.9! I think we were using a 7 Nagler (a wonderful companion to that scope).

Two of the neatest showpieces of the night for me, besides the large bright summertime nebulas were NGC 5907 and 4535. Just the sorts of objects that make this hobby dear to me. Here are my notes on those.

NGC 4535:
Fav, elongated 1.5/1 Large, dim overall and shows a faint NE bar that is hooked at each end, There is some weak spiral structure made evident by two crescent shaped dark patches on either side of the bar. Weakly concentrated core, possibly a stellar nucleus. I sketched its dim, hooked bar and faint spiral arms. Later Mark and I compared my sketch to a picture he had on his laptop. I was pleased to see the similarities :-) Although dim, it made my favorites list.

11N w/PC @210x
9N w/PC @257x (best)
7N w/PC @ 330x
5Tak @ 402x

9N no PC @ 224x
8mm TVP no PC @ 252x
7N no PC @287x

NGC 5907:
Fav, elongated NW 8/1. Bright and beautiful! Has a bisecting dust lane crossing the middle third of the galaxy. In the center and West of the moderately bright core is a superimposed star or stellar nucleus.

11N w/PC @210x
9N w/PC @257x (best)
7N w/PC @ 330x
5Tak @ 402x

Thanks to Paul and Michelle for the hospitality, great company, excellent skys and wonderful food!

Paul, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself in horse-shoes next time I'm up ;-) I lucked out and got a ringer!

GML