August 15, 2009: Willow Springs

Richard Navarrete

As has been previosly written here, a small group of us headed to Deep Sky Ranch last Saturday, August 15. I decided to work on Hickson Compact Galaxy groups this night as I've snagged just about all the Herschel 2500's that were in a good position.

I was armed with an 18" old school Obsession, a Tom O. eq platform, Alvin Huey's Hickson book and clear dark skies. I managed four new Hickson groups along with the obligatory eye candy. Most groups were observed at 412x.

Hickson 72 in Bootes. There are 6 members to this group and I managed 3. MCG +3-38-17 is labeled as Hickson A and it was just a dim round glow. MCG +3-38-20 is part of a double galaxy. These two are VERY close together and I never managed to split them. 72C is MCG +3-38-22 and is the brightest at mag 15.8.

Hickson 73 also in Bootes. I managed two members. NGC 5829 at mag 13.9 was large, round and dim. Near a mag 12 star. IC 4526 is mag 16.6 and was a small round glow that popped in and out. There are three other members that are dimmer than mag. 17.5.

Hickson 84 in Ursa Minor was a challenge. I saw two members clearly CGCG 355-20a and PGC 58873 at mags 15.4 and 16.5. PGC 58884 and PGC 58861 popped in a out. They were mags 16.2 and 17.2. Components E and F were not seen.

Hickson 100 is in Pegasus. I managed good sightings of NGC 7803 mag. 14.1 and Mkn 934 at 15.3. 7803 was bright for a Hickson and was large and a bit elongated. Mkn 934 was a large ghostly glow. I caught glimpses of MCG +2-1-9 at 15.9 and MCG +2-1-10 at 16.6, but never was able to hold them.

One highlight of the night was the Egg nebulae. It doesn't look anything like the CCD images I've seen on the web, but it showed a rectangular shape bisected by a dark lane. One side was definitely brighter than the other. It took magnification well and I put in a 2x barlow and a 5mm Nagler for 824x. You can do that when you're using a driven scope.

The other highlight was NGC 246 in Cetus. We first observed it in Dobzilla, the 33" scope that lives at Deep Sky Ranch, and then I found it in my scope. I used an NPB filter and a 12 Nagler for a great view. The last time I observed this object was about 10 years ago in a 10" scope. It's a planetary nebulae imbedded in a group of stars. It's very large, fairly bright and shows rings similar to the Helix. Put this one on your list for the next time your out.

Heading out tomorrow for two more nights of observing at Plettstone.

Richard Navarrete