night at the peak

Last night was a public night at Fremont Peak, and since they expected many visitors they sent out a call for volunteers.  I came and supporting using the old orange 16-inch telescope, which is actually a really good scope, though the mount is a little stiff.  Showed the moon, which was in first quarter and to set at 12:30am; Leo Triplet which was a tough object for many but showed up well enough (nice to share some galaxies); M3, M51 in which we could actually see spiral form; and the Turtle Nebula NGC 6210, another challenge object.  As things were wrapping up I suddenly remembered the star hop to Omega Centauri, and was able to find it in the 16-inch -- I needed to sit on the ground to reach the eyepiece, and unfortunately it only looked like a large brown granular smudge.  We looked at it with a couple other scopes.

I stayed late in order to observe with the Challenger, starting around 11:30pm.  I tried to figure out its motions, which are strange in the off-axis mount.  Eventually I picked an area in Serpens which was high enough to be out of much of the haze but not too high that I could still reach it with the ladder.  I star hopped using my atlas and one straight through 80mm finder near the bottom of the scope.  This too was awkward but I got used to it.  I didn't try to use the setting circles -- this will need to wait for another time.

I observed until 3:30am. Seeing was pretty good and it warmed up, so I think I was above an inversion layer. Transparency was still on the poor side, with jets making long silvery vapor trails in their wakes.  SQML was 20.99 after the moon set.

NGC 5970: Bright, pretty large, sharp stellar nucleus and a bright oval core, 3:1 elongation E-W.  Halo seems thick, like a fat tire, mottled.  Must be dark lanes/spiral, seen at moderate incline.  11.5v, SBc.  8' to the SE is IC 1131, small, quasi stellar nucleus, 3:2 NW-SE, near a triangle of 14th magnitude stars.

NGC 5956: Small, fairly bright, stellar nucleus seen with averted vision; brighter round core 2:1 E-W haze with two faint stars in an E-W line, one on each halo tip.  

NGC 5957: Moderately large faint round glow, with a small bright core.  Halo very diffuse and tough, but feels mottled, likely spiral.  11.7v, SBb

NGC 5936: Moderately large, round diffuse mottled halo, quasi-stellar nucleus flashes with averted vision from the small round core.  With patience I can discern a NE-SW bar and two opposing spiral arms at best moments and with averted vision, at 457x.  Definitely a face-on spiral and an interesting sight.  12.5v, SBb.  DSS shows a lot going on--it is an HII Galaxy, which are dwarf starburst galaxies in the local universe perhaps forming their first generation of stars.

NGC 5951: Nice 6:1 N-S edge on with dusty mottling and a gradually brighter core.  Large and faint; I can see a very faint star superimposed on the southern half of the halo.  There appears to be an extremely faint companion galaxy to the west, an amorphous faint smudge [this seems to be just a grouping of very faint stars on the DSS.]  

Arp 91 = NGC 5953 & 5953: 5954 is fairy bright, small, with a bright core and round diffuse halo; it seems to have a double nucleus but the "nucleus" to the southwest is a superimposed star.  It overlaps on its eastern rim with 5954's south halo tip.  5954 is a fairly bright small N-S elongated mottled/disrupted haze.  Best seen at 457x.  

HCG 79 Seyfert's Sextet: Small and tight group, used 457x.  a, b, and c components bright elliptical in appearance and easy; e sometimes appeared with AV tucked just south of b; d was merely sensed, extremely faint. Did not see the tidal tail wing coming off b.

Arp 209 = NGC 6052-1 & -2: Using 457x, it appeared as two small bright very closely separated cores orientated in a line east and west.  The one to the west with a small roundish halo and the other with a N-S elongated halo, which I sensed had a comma shaped sweep headed south then tapering to the west.  Really tough.

Mu 1 Boo: This star was on my radar because of a cloudynights discussion about 0.1" separation doubles.  I gave it a try, pointing the Challenger at zenith and luckily being able to reach the eyepiece with the ladder pressed against the north pier.  I tried 457x but found it was out of collimation (I had not checked it beforehand) so I adjusted the focuser and tried again.  At 915x I was able to see an airy disk but it was highly diffracted in a very strange pattern.  I could not detect any elongation, let alone a split.

quick look at moon

We've had continuing poor observing weather, along with various stresses and strains of life, so no significant observing completed.  I did however pick up a used pair of binoviewers, and last night was able to confirm I can achieve focus on my 12.5-inch in low and high power eyepieces.  I need to try the 20-inch when the opportunity presents itself.  I have a 10mm eyepiece pair on the way, and will wait until I can confirm the 20-inch before getting a low power pair.  I'm excited to try it since I hope it will enhance my home planetary and lunar viewing, and add some spice to deep sky with the 20-inch.

I had very quick looks at the moon at 277x, seeing did not permit more.  The moon is in an early phase and was temporarily blocked by our neighbor's yew trees.  Crissium was in view, with many very dark shadow filled craters about.  Messier's ejecta streams were nicely visible, especially the ones at right angles to the craters.  Below Messier was a long, dark, thin splinter which I found on the map as an unnamed (at least on that map) mare ridge; it forked at the tip pointed to Messier.  There was a long rille running in parallel to it.  On the tips of both horns of the moon there were disembodied lit peaks, seeming to float in space.  There was a ~8th magnitude star ready to be occulted, but I misjudged the speed at which the moon was moving and missed the disappearance.

Hoping for better nights soon, to help clear and calm my mind...

doubles in Cancer

This Sunday was thankfully clear and turned out to have exceptionally good seeing, consistently 7/10 with moments of perfection.  I had charts prepared for Monoceros so much time has passed under the clouds I found it was too low.  So I pointed up to Cancer for a quick tour.  Big Blue, 553x as usual:

HJ 460 / 53 Cnc: Orange primary and 2x fainter blue, wide separation.  There is a second orange-yellow star of about the same magnitude very wide separation.  [AB is the close pair, AC are the two orange.]
08H 52M 28.60S +28° 15' 33.0" P.A. 335 SEP 43.7 MAG 6.47,11.73 SP M3III DIST. 271.74 PC (886.42 L.Y.)

STF 1268 / Iot Cnc: Pretty orange and pale blue, showpiece object. 
08H 46M 41.82S +28° 45' 35.6" P.A. 308 SEP 31.3 MAG 4.13,5.99 SP G7.5IIIA DIST. 101.52 PC (331.16 L.Y.)

Cbl 32: Pretty yellow-orange 8th magnitude primary, with 3x fainter blue which can be seen direct vision but blinks like a planetary nebula, so must be 11-12th mag.  Wide separation.
08H 46M 14.32S +27° 35' 41.3" P.A. 174 SEP 41 MAG 7.39,10.66 SP K1IV DIST. 99.4 PC (324.24 L.Y.)

67 Cnc: White pair, 2 delta mag, wide.
09H 01M 48.84S +27° 54' 09.3" P.A. 327 SEP 105.6 MAG 6.08,9.22 SP A8V DIST. 58 PC (189.2 L.Y.)

STTA 97: Finder view shows an arc of three stars; westernmost star is a wide equal pair in the telescope.
09H 08M 27.16S +27° 32' 35.3" P.A. 238 SEP 51.8 MAG 8.30,8.31 SP G0V DIST. 42.57 PC (138.86 L.Y.)

BU 105 / Kappa Leonis: Very tough but palpable split.  Seeing needed to settle to perfection for primary to resolve to just an airy disk without diffraction or flaring, and for a couple of seconds could see the much fainter ~10th magnitude B star as a pin-point, ~2" separation.  Fleeting view.  [AB seen; amazing 5.1 delta mag.  AC is 11th mag and much further separated.]
09H 24M 39.28S +26° 10' 56.8" P.A. 211 SEP 2.2 MAG 4.60,9.70 SP K3III DIST. 61.73 PC (201.36 L.Y.)

STF 3132: Very wide 1 delta mag?  Not sure which is the pair...  [Not seen; three 11th mag pairs to the primary not seen.]
19H 28M 12.76S +20° 12' 59.6" P.A. 40 SEP 7.9 MAG 10.10,11.80 SP G5

Hu 1128 & Shy 212: tried to locate these but did not find.  Near zenith, though I was sure my star hop was correct.  Checking Stelle Doppie I see why: Hu 1128's B is 12th mag so beyond my reach, and Shy 212 has a crazy wide 494.4" separation!]

STF 1424: Very bright yellow, 1 delta mag wide.  I'm using too much magnification for a pretty view... [6 stars in system...]
10H 19M 58.35S +19° 50' 29.4" P.A. 127.3 SEP 4.74 MAG 2.37,3.64 SP K0III DIST. 39.89 PC (130.12 L.Y.)

Bvd 81: Very wide 2-3 delta mag yellow-orange & whitish-yellow. 
10H 16M 41.83S +25° 22' 14.5" P.A. 28 SEP 79.3 MAG 5.84,10.01 SP K2III+G6V DIST. 108.93 PC (355.33 L.Y.)

more moon

Last night's conditions were about the same as the night before: good enough seeing but with poor transparency.  I had hoped to spend time in Monoceros for close doubles, but the haze would have made the faint pairs difficult, so I returned to the moon, still at 553x.

I returned to the same areas I observed the night before.  What a difference 24 hours makes in the light angle, and what can be seen (or not seen).  The Hortensius Domes disappeared.  Promontorium Laplace's shadow was much shorter, and rounder; the hills whose peaks were the only lit feature the night before were now fully exposed to the sun.  I could see inside the very rough Maupertuis crater, which has three ridges running in parallel in one half of it. 

I looked at a new region now lit up: Crater J. Herschel was lit at a low angle, and is huge with a rough floor.  The Jura Mountains were amazingly rugged and detailed.  The interior of Sharp was still in shadow, but this helped give shape to the tear-drop crater rim, with a very bright lip along the curved edge of the shape. 

I moved up to the Mare Humorum region.  Gassendi and its rille were very busy, many features overlapping on each other.  The rille fractured into several branches; the crater has a sinuous rim and a multi-tipped central peak; an adjoining crater seemed to spill debris into Gassendi.  And there was a fairly large ghost crater on the opposite side from this.

I was just able to glimpse the Herigonius Rille, though it was tough: more a bright streak rather than a depression; it must be narrow and shallow.

The Dopplemayer Rilles were interesting: one long rille running on one side of Mare Humorum then forking into three, maybe four smaller shorter rilles.  This was tough but easier than Herigonius Rille.

"The Helmet" is a light colored area of non-mare volcanics, and really does look like a WWII soldier's helmet.  Its central part is roughed by craters and domes. 

I went looking for Kies Pi Dome but found a similar looking crater -- Mercator -- which had a row of three what I thought were domes arrayed outside of it -- though these might be just hills of the Mercator Scarp. 

Further east was Kies, much more ghostly than Mercator.  I had a tentative observation of Pi, which was quite small or perhaps just having gently sloping sides -- maybe needed a shallower light angle to see better.  Did not see a central pit.

Another fun, but short, night.

finally some clear weather

More than a month since my last post; we've had consistently cloudy weather since then.  Last night was the first clear night since then, though transparency was a poor 2/5 with a haze blowing in from the ocean.  Seeing was decent 6-7/10, so I had a satisfying night observing the waxing gibbous moon.

It was a good session mainly because of the 21st Century Atlas of the Moon, which I bought a couple weeks ago.  I have probably 10 books and atlases of the moon, but none of them are convenient to use at the telescope.  This atlas his made of water-resistant paper, and has a spiral binding so it can lay flat in my chart holder.  Best of all, the image scale is well matched to 553x through my 12.5-inch scope, so what I see on the chart matches the eyepiece view.  The photos are based on the LRO and have more detail than I can see, but at least there is enough detail there for me to try to strive to see more.  And, finally, I can identify what I can see, and even crater hop to different targets.  The atlas highlights interesting features on the facing pages of each section, giving me some specific things to look for.  I'm very happy with it.

I spent most of my night around Plato, plate 19.  After a couple of minutes searching, I could see the four main craterlets on Plato.  It wasn't just waiting for the seeing to still, but remembering where they should be and what they should look like.  The Plato Rilles were highlighted in the Atlas as a special feature, so I was able to see two of them, east of the crater especially one long sinuous one.   Next I panned to the Teneriffe Mountains, the peaks of which rise above the Mare Imbrium plain, and the twin peaks of Mt. Pico.  Further away was the tall Mt. Piton, and identical looking craters Piazzi Smyth and Kirch. 

Next I came back to the Straight Ridge and then searched for the Maupertuis Rilles.  I remember seeing many forked and short rilles flowing down to the Mare when I looked at the atlas earlier with a magnifying glass.  Now I saw just one prominent rille.  Maupertus crater was rough edged, and four interior peaks were lit in the shadow-filled crater, and looked like a "chicken foot."  There seemed to be many fractures and ridges running in straight lines from the crater toward the area where the rilles were.

Promontorium Laplace was interesting for the long sharp cone shadow it cast beyond a group of four small hills to its west.  Three of these were lit peaks in shadow, but one of them cast another long pointed shadow next to the one from Laplace, forming a sharp double tip to the shadow and strangely terminating at the same "length."

 Helicon and Le Verrier were also highlighted.  They looked identical except Le Verrier is supposed to have a lot of ejecta rubble around it; I did not see that clearly, but did notice some softening around it.  I may not have had the right light angle.

I looked for rays around Anaxagoras, but could only see a rimmed crater.  Philolaus was shadowed in, but had a very rough and thick comma shaped mountain ridge trailing away from it.

After resetting my equatorial platform, I looked around Copernicus, plate 22, and immediately noticed domes -- something I did not see before.  These were the Hortensius Domes, and I could see all six including the summit pits on five of them -- old volcanos.  I noticed another, larger dome nearby, Milichius Dome Pi -- much wider and it seemed taller, but with a not very prominent summit pit.  There were some smaller, flatter domes nearby.  North of there I noticed another "face" in the moon: it was a hill feature near a sweeping curve hill, which made it look like an old woman in a hood, with a very short arm pointed toward the Pi dome.  In the below photo it is labeled as a megadome and she is facing up. 




I don't know why I keep seeing faces, animals, etc. in the features on the moon, I suppose it is natural. 

So, more of this.  It was really great to get out and try to forget the usual stresses of life with time well spent outside.

LDS doubles

Last night had a short window of clear skies, with some decent seeing.  I've had my 20-inch set-up in the back yard to debug the ServoCAT install, but tore it down a few days ago due to some rain.  So I used Big Blue instead.  I started out around Orion to re-align my finders.  The E & F stars in the Trapezium were easy.  I poked around in Taurus and while in the Hyades found three new to me designations, LDS, which if this sampling is any guide, are very wide separated pairs, good binocular splits and probably never considered pairs due to their large separations.

STF 774 / Alnitak: 270x viewed while aligning finders.  AC is a very faint star widely separated outside of the main star's glare.  AB also seen, about 2" and 1.5 delta mag.  Surprised seeing as good as it is for the start of a session.
05H 40M 45.52S -01° 56' 33.3" P.A. 166.8 SEP 2.18 MAG 1.88,3.70 SP O9.5IBE DIST. 225.73 PC (736.33 L.Y.)

37 Tau: Orange star with 2x fainter wide pair; nice airy disks. [AB seen; AC is STG 4, 12th mag and super wide]
04H 04M 41.71S +22° 04' 54.9" P.A. 193 SEP 134.3 MAG 4.46,10.01 SP K0III DIST. 57.37 PC (187.14 L.Y.)

STF 479: 2+1 system?  AB is wide but closer than the AC; about half a delta mag.  C 2x fainter and much wider. [indeed triple]
04H 00M 56.81S +23° 12' 05.4" P.A. 127 SEP 7.5 MAG 6.92,7.76 SP B9V DIST. 328.95 PC (1073.03 L.Y.)

BUP 55: Yellow-orange, suspect a brightening very wide, but uncertain.  [AB 0.5" but 5 delta mag, not seen; AC very wide and 13th mag, not possible.
04H 22M 56.03S +17° 32' 33.3" P.A. 336 SEP 111.8 MAG 3.76,13.21 SP K0III DIST. 47.71 PC (155.63 L.Y.)

Ho 328: Olive shape.  Light yellow-orange star, no clean split but clearly elongated. [! not bad for 0.4" separation]
04H 17M 01.22S +19° 40' 32.6" P.A. 355.8 SEP 0.4 MAG 7.38,9.06 SP F5V DIST. 84.53 PC (275.74 L.Y.)

STF 520: Faint elongated / overlapping disks.  Two more stars wide with averted vision, maybe a system? [binary only, 0.63"!]
04H 18M 14.55S +22° 48' 24.6" P.A. 83.6 SEP 0.63 MAG 8.26,8.45 SP F5 DIST. 153.37 PC (500.29 L.Y.)

LDS 5535 / Omega Tau: Nothing close; may be the very wide finder split, 2 delta mag?
04H 17M 15.69S +20° 34' 43.5" P.A. 118 SEP 179.3 MAG 4.95,9.63 SP A3 DIST. 28.94 PC (94.4 L.Y.)

Ho 328: Tentative.  Very faint, very close ~0.8", emerges with seeing, hair split -- but could be flaring, not quite solid.  [Probably not seen, could not have split a 0.4"]
04H 17M 01.22S +19° 40' 32.6" P.A. 355.8 SEP 0.4 MAG 7.38,9.06 SP F5V DIST. 84.53 PC (275.74 L.Y.)

BU 87: Orange star with 1.5" blue 3 delta mag pair.  Definite disks, well split, round with seeing.
04H 22M 22.74S +20° 49' 16.4" P.A. 167 SEP 1.9 MAG 6.21,8.60 SP B3V+K3II DIST. 714.29 PC (2330.01 L.Y.)

STF 545: Wide, white, 1.5 delta mag. 
04H 27M 04.85S +18° 12' 27.1" P.A. 58 SEP 18.5 MAG 6.92,8.78 SP A0V DIST. 106.5 PC (347.4 L.Y.)

Bgh 2: Another new designation.  White, wide, 1 delta mag.
04H 29M 30.35S +17° 51' 47.4" P.A. 9 SEP 109.5 MAG 6.95,9.06 SP G5 DIST. 46.4 PC (151.36 L.Y.)

LDS 2246: A star is white, bright, perfect disk with nothing nearby, so the pair must be a very wide, 2 delta mag?
04H 30M 33.63S +16° 11' 38.5" P.A. 130 SEP 254 MAG 4.78,6.54 SP A6IV DIST. 43.2 PC (140.92 L.Y.)

Aldebaran: Marked as a double so had a look.  Very bright orange with a lot of glare, but there is a steady faint star halfway to the field stop riding it out.  [Likely STFB 2, AC; though there are a few other much fainter stars, 6 visible, which would be fun to go after in the 20-inch]
04H 35M 55.24S +16° 30' 33.5" P.A. 32 SEP 134.7 MAG 0.85,11.30 SP K5III DIST. 20.43 PC (66.64 L.Y.)

LDS 2266: Orange, with a very wide 2 delta mag pair. [AB seen; there is a BC pair with C as 18th magnitude!]
04H 42M 51.64S +18° 43' 14.4" P.A. 102 SEP 141.2 MAG 7.18,10.20 SP G5+K3 DIST. 43.5 PC (141.9 L.Y.)

The quarter moon was moving through open cluster NGC 1647, so I swung over there to look for any occulting stars.  Not finding any (by this time there was haze blowing in, transparency was dropping) I used an orange filter at 553x and paned around various features.  Four Plato craterlets seen easily, etc.  It grew very cold by 10pm and feeling tired I packed up.

willow springs midweek

Thursday night I arranged to observe from Willow Springs with Steve.  I really couldn't afford the time away from work, but I very much wanted to get out.  Steve had plans at Lake Sonoma but changed them for a chance of darker skies.

I brought my 20-inch, first time out in quite a while.  I finished doing the mechanical install of the ServoCAT but had not yet turned anything on, so I content myself with manual star hopping for the session.  I was already tired from a long day of work, and my note-taking suffered from lack of focus.

Before I began Steve showed me a finder chart for the Eridanus Loop, a second supernova remnant overlapping with Barnard's Loop.  I tried my 2x42 Vixens with various filters, and I thought I saw a N-S streak of something where it was supposed to be.  I could easily see Barnard's Loop, and the Rosette Nebula showed as a bright puffy glow.  Steve pulled Eridanus Loop Arc A up in his 24-inch, and we could see a brownish / muddy discoloration in the sky; best seen offset along its edge.  We were able to trace it for 2-3 degrees, including a kink in the stream.


I started out from Algol, intending to star hop up to IC 275:

NGC 1198: Small, fairly faint, brighter core with averted vision.  Two pairs of stars in the NE halo.  Very diffuse halo, 3:1 NW-SE, maybe spiral?  [E-S0, 12.5v]

IC 284: Bright foreground star at core, bright core, 4:1 fairly bright halo N-S, moderately large.  A non-stellar brightening to the W edge of the core [which turns out to be another galaxy, PGC 11646].  11.5v.

NGC 1177 & 1175: NGC 1175 is faint, moderately large, diffuse, brightens with averted vision.  3:1 NW-SE, with a brighter core.  Non-stellar glow to north of it, is NGC 1177, small, round, fairly faint, likely a pair [in fact these two are on the edge of AGC 426, with several more NGCs in the immediate area].

NGC 1164: Small, very faint, round haze, averted vision needed.  SBab, 13.1v

NGC 1193: Unresolved milky white oval shape, NW-SE, with a dozen stars resolved across face.  To NW is a pretty blue and orange pair of stars.

IC 275: Used 205x at first then 333x to try to see details. Largish mass of faint halo glow, with two brightenings near the center. I see another, smaller haze to the east, and another near an arc of stars [these are not galaxies, likely unresolved faint stars]. This is a group of three galaxies, PGC 11388 = A magnitude 16.5 elliptical galaxy (type E1?); PGC 11389 = A magnitude 16.3 elliptical galaxy (type E1 pec?); and PGC 11390 = A magnitude 15.6 elliptical galaxy (type E0?). I resolved the two brightest, but the third, PGC 11389, was not separated; its glow was likely combined with the other two.  ~460 mly distant.





NGC 1160 & 1161: Striking field.  NGC 1161 is smaller but brighter, irregular 2:1 N-S; looks like a reflection nebula shining by the light of two stars nearby to the west [S0, 11.0v].  NGC 1160 is a 3:1 NE-SW with gradually brightening core and diffuse halo, likely a spiral [Scd, 12.8v].

NGC 2438: PN in M46: Fat ring shape, ragged nebulosity inside the ring.  Two stars inside the ring.  Both OIII and UHC enhance the view.  It's a foreground object to the open cluster, and adds drama to the view.  Good in all powers.


CLR 5237: Calabash Nebula / "Rotten Egg" planetary nebula (since it is giving off sulfur).  This was plotted in Interstellarum, and so I supposed it could be visible.  Wrong.  I printed some finder charts and read one online reference that it was once seen as a "dim streak."  After much searching and confirming the star field (which is very close to NGC 2438), I noted an "excessively faint grey roundish glow a little east of the AAVSO finder chart position.  No central star unless the field star is it.  UHC seemed the best."  After getting home I realized what I saw was a roundish vacancy of stars to the east of where I was looking.  The nebula itself is extremely small, and when I search for Calabash nebula I find one positive observation in Jimi Lowrey's 48-inch telescope.  So why is this plotted in Interstellarum?  In this image, CLR 5237 is in the lower right corner, slightly bow shaped; note the round vacancy of stars just to its left; that's what I saw...



SaSt 2-3: Planetary nebula.  At 333x, appears as a faint star nearby to the SW of a brighter one.  Remains stellar with OIII.

Next I went up to Hydra's head and just looked for objects plotted on Interstellarum:

NGC 2644: Faint with a brighter mottled core, 3:1 N-S, with a faint extension / spiral arm looping up to the north then east. [Sc, 12.4].

IC 2420: Small bright core with a mass of halo sweeping up to the east, which could be the brighter part of a spiral arm.  [This is actually a round lenticular galaxy; the "spiral arm" I thought I saw may just be the unresolved faint star.]

BU 335: Close, ~1", 2 delta mag.  [Way off on the separation estimate; I found seeing / collimation may have been a problem with doubles during this session.]
08H 48M 12.24S +02° 34' 48.4" P.A. 266 SEP 2.7 MAG 7.46,9.41 SP F5 DIST. 153.37 PC (500.29 L.Y.)


NGC 2713 & 2716: NGC 2713 has a just stellar nucleus, compact round core, and a bright, surprisingly long halo, ~6:1 NW-SE, tapering slowly.  NGC 2716 to the NE in the view is small, round, but mottled -- maybe spiral arm to the north?  Bright core but not stellar nucleus.

NGC 2723: Galaxy is small, fairly faint, round but mottled, seems to have arms east and west sides.  Stellar nucleus with a foreground stars east and west of halo. [S0, 13.2; arm on west side may be unresolved stars.]

NGC 2729: Small, generally round, fairly faint, mottled, may be spiral.  Bright round core with a foreground star just east of core.  [S0, 13.4]

NGC 2718: Fairly bright, bright core elongated NW-SE, stellar nucleus, and oval halo [it is a barred spiral SBab 11.8v].  UGC 4703 is a extremely faint, very small non-stellar round glow 5' to the NW.

Per 1: double star: Tried a number of magnifications, but no split.  It's an orange-yellow star, suspected very faint star to the north but it's too far and intermittent with seeing.  Should have brought my off-axis mask!
08H 51M 13.71S +08° 20' 18.6" P.A. 354 SEP 0.8 MAG 8.30,9.59 SP K0

Leo I and IC 591: Leo I was very large greying of darker sky background, saw the round outline while panning around the field and with Regulus out of the field.  IC 591 is small, fairly faint, has a bright core and fainter halo, elongated 3:1 N-S; it is on the western rim of Leo I.

NGC 3130: In field with 31 Leo; can see the galaxy with the bright star in the field but view improves when keeping it out.  Bright core, just stellar nucleus, 3:1 NNE-SSW, some mottling in the core and halo.

IC 595: Small, extremely faint, round.  Averted vision brightens the core and small bright nucleus; diffuse halo.

NGC 3070 & NGC 3069: NGC 3070 is small, round, fairly faint, with a bright core, stellar nucleus, larger halo.  NGC 3069 is very small and very faint but has a long 5:1 N-S halo, bright core appears offset to south of halo.

NGC 3226 & 3227: Striking scene.  NGS 3227 is large, bright, with stellar nucleus and elongated core with faint tapering halo, 3:1 NW-SE.  NGC 3226 is a round to oval elliptical mass bordering the NE tip of NGC 3227, with a bright core & quasi-stellar nucleus, elongated 3:2 NNE-SSW.  Two galaxies either side.  I see two more galaxies on either side of 3227 [which according to the DSS image seem to be wispy ends of spiral arms of 3227! It is a SABa Seifert 1 11.79v]  3226 z=0.00423, 3227 z=0.00365, so maybe they are not interacting?  However the area is referred to as the NGC 3227 Group...

2M1134-2103: Quadruple-lensed quasar: I noticed this item in a post on Deep Sky Forum.  This and another lensed quasar were discovered in the last few months (pre-print published in January 2018 https://arxiv.org/pdf/1711.02674.pdf ).  One was ~19th magnitude, but 2M1134-2103 was around 16th, so I prepared some finder charts and gave it a try.  I found the field with low power then increased to 333x, and the star field matched the finder.  The quaser was very faint, stellar, not resolved to any components, and part of a trio of stars of similar magnitude.  I don't find any redshift value given for this one yet.

NGC 3763: Small, faint, bean shaped / irregular, 3-2 N-S, no core but a mottled haze.  5th magnitude Theta Crateris is very near to the NE and must be kept out of view. [SBc, 11.8v].  MCG-1-30-12 is on the opposite (north) side of Theta Crateris, in different field, and is a small, faint elliptical with a bright core.

Crater Globular Cluster, aka Laevens 1: This was plotted in Interstellarum, so I gave it a go.  I did not have a detailed finder chart, just a rough estimation from the atlas.  After a while staring at 333x I felt a "lucida" or brightening which reminded me of some Palomar globulars, within a triangle of stars.  I made a sketch of it and the surrounding star field.  Checking it on Aladin at home, I did sketch a string of stars very near to the globular, but the "lucida" I took for it was really an "over-density" of faint stars about 6' too far east.  This globular was discovered in 2014 and is likely the furthest away from the Milky Way center, some 470,000 light years (17x farther from the galactic center than earth).  It is thought not to be from the Milky Way, since it is too young (7b years).  It is thought to be a capture from the Small Magellanic Cloud, since its stars share spectral properties with SMC globular Lindsay 38, and it is found within the SMC debris stream.  It might also be leftover from an anonymous dwarf galaxy eaten by the MW.  In any case, why would Interstellarum plot such a no-see-um, except to have a "complete" list of all known MW globulars?