A front moved through this afternoon and cleared and cleaned the sky. In the afternoon we went to a nature preserve in Hayward near the San Mateo bridge and had clear views of all the hills, cities, and bridges all around. There was snow on Mount Hamilton. We had a short hail storm at 5:00pm. Transparency was excellent, and moonrise would not be until late. Seeing, however, was very poor, with a gusty cold wind blowing.
I bundled up and took the Astroscan out to the back yard to enjoy some low power sweeping through Canis Minor and Puppis. The little scope would neither be shaken by the wind nor hurt by the poor seeing. As I was setting up, however, I couldn't get the focuser to come out, so I decided to pinch the metal tabs and turn the knob when boing! the draw tube went clattering INSIDE the telescope! It settled with a metallic rippling noise like a spinning coin coming to rest. Disaster. How would I tell Carol, who considers this her scope?
I thought it might be ruined. But I remembered and article where someone had taken apart his Astroscan to collimate it, so I know it can be done. I will need to dig it out and read it carefully. I must fix it; whatever scratch is there should not hurt the view too much. I remember buying this scope in 1999 or so, and trying in vain to find deep sky objects from my San Jose condo balcony using the star wheel I bought with it. I did see planets, including Jupiter and its moons, and Mars. I took it with me to Mendocino mushroom hunting. Last year, when I knew what I was doing, I had a terrific view of all the North American Nebula with it at Lake San Antonio. It's a great little scope. I will fix it.
After putting the wounded Astroscan in the garage I came back out with the 8-inch and scanned as I had planned. M46, M47, and several miscellaneous open clusters in Pupis, which is such a rich part of the sky. I remember a swoosh of five stars which were arrayed in an arc in progressively brighter magnifications as if coming toward me. M44 and M67 in Cancer. I tried to see NGC 2903 in Leo (Leo, already!?) but could not -- I didn't have any charts since this was a sweeping session. The wind must have caused so much "rippling" in the sky to scatter away the light.
All in all a good night; I hope Carol will not be too upset at my carelessness.
Sunday, January 31, 2016
Thursday, January 28, 2016
five planet alignment
Woke early and got out of bed at 6:00am. To my surprise it was still clear although some clouds beginning to move in from the west, and plenty of haze near the horizons. But I went out into the cold with binoculars. Jupiter was easy, in the same spot as last night, but the moon had moved from the west of Jupiter yesterday to the east of it this morning. Mars nice and red. Saturn gave me a little trouble. At first I thought it was the reddish star more to the west, until I realized I was looking at Antares, in Scorpius. Then I saw it further to the east, small and creamy yellow. Venus was obvious, dazzling. Mercury was more of a problem. I had to stand on the low retaining wall at the west end of the yard, and peer between trees and rooflines. I caught a glimpse of a bright orange light low to the horizon, but I soon realized this was the communication tower light on top of Monument Peak. Shifting my position and scanning a bit further up and west, I saw the small planet in line with Saturn-Venus, along with another star I remember seeing from the finder. Done.
I swept the area from the Big Dipper's handle through Draco looking for Catalina. I think I found it, but without my finder chart I can't be sure. I saw a small hazy glow about where it ought to be, beyond where M101 should be -- and I can't have seen M101, the sky was not transparent. Boy, that sucker has moved from where I saw it in Virgo last month. Arcturus was very far to the west; it used to be over my eastern neighbor's roof.
If I was smart I would have started making coffee before going out. But here I am typing, waiting for the coffee...
I swept the area from the Big Dipper's handle through Draco looking for Catalina. I think I found it, but without my finder chart I can't be sure. I saw a small hazy glow about where it ought to be, beyond where M101 should be -- and I can't have seen M101, the sky was not transparent. Boy, that sucker has moved from where I saw it in Virgo last month. Arcturus was very far to the west; it used to be over my eastern neighbor's roof.
If I was smart I would have started making coffee before going out. But here I am typing, waiting for the coffee...
observing, finally!
Today (Jan. 27) was the first clear day since New Year's, and I had a very satisfying session in the backyard.
I woke a half hour before dawn and went out back in my bathrobe with binoculars, hoping to catch the five planet alignment happening these next two weeks. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury. I found Jupiter well to the west and near a just past full moon; Mars was near meridian. But the others were behind low clouds. No chance for those, or for Comet Catalina.
This evening was another matter. Both transparency and seeing were very good. After dinner, starting around 7:15pm, I was on the patio with the 8-inch, looking at M42, the Great Orion Nebula. A well deserved title. At 48x and 1.7 degrees FOV, I contemplated the bright mottled central regions and the sweeping arcs of nebulosity spouting from it, and remembered Messier's drawing. At 67x the nebula was strikingly more mottled and was tinted a faintly bluish green. At 184x I could see the E & F stars in the Trapezium -- faint, but direct vision and no doubt about it. More evidence of the excellent figure of the mirror.
I the toured some open clusters - M35, M37, M36, M38. I could not find NGC 2158 near M35. Using 67x with M37, I observed FU Aurigae in the same FOV as the cluster. FU was slightly less red but brighter than the central red star of M37. I remembered raving about this star a few weeks ago. All the clusters were finder finds, a bit misty there, but very lovely in the eyepiece.
After attending to my nightly duties I came back out at 9pm to run through some AL lists and breathe the air of astronomy once again:
NQ Geminorum, carbon star, a dull red to yellow, with another yellow star 2x as bright to the NW. It has a faint follower, widely separated. An arc of 4 faint stars to NW in a fairly rich field.
W Canis Majoris: Appeared red in finder. Orange-red, about 7.5 magnitude, in a rich field. Its radius is 234 times the sun's and is more than 1400 light years away.
R Canis Minoris: Faint, weakly yellow. Tough find. It has a faint companion, widely separated to NNE.
BM Geminorum: Nice! At the tip of a large arrow shaped asterism with 57 Geminorum at one end. BM is small, orange. Another string of stars trails off to the NW.
Adhara = epsilon Canis Majoris: Wow! Bright (+1.5 magnitude) and large A with small and much fainter close B (magnitude +7.5) to the south. Lovely double (113x). Wikipedia: "The A star is the brightest known ultraviolet source in the night sky.... 4.7 million light years ago Adhara was 34 light years from the Sun, and was the brightest star in the sky with a magnitude of –3.99. No other star has attained this brightness since, nor will any other star attain this brightness for at least five million years."
Wezen: Bright, yellow-orange. It is a relatively young star, 10 million years old, but has stopped fusing hydrogen in it's core and is on its way to becoming a red supergiant. Once it has enough iron in its core it will collapse in a supernova.
NGC 2362, open cluster in Canis Major. Pretty, triangular cluster with a bright star (Tau Canis Majoris) in the middle. It is related to nebula Sh2-310 nearby, which I did not see.
VY Canis Majoris: Pretty pumpkin orange; close companion to N. Another close double on edge of FOV. Field rich with faint stars. VY is a red hypergiant and one of the largest of this type: its radius would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It apparently has lost much gas to eruptions and is surrounded by nebulosity, which I again did not see (I need to try filters more). Worth another look, as the bright knots of nebulosity were mistaken for companion stars in the past.
M78, EN in Orion: Two stars orientated N-S with a dim, hourglass haze around them. With a waning gibbous moon rising I was surprised to see this one.
Gliese 229: small nondescript star in Lepus in a string of two others. A satellite passed through the FOV during the observation. Very near galaxy NGC 2196 which was not seen. Gliese 229 is a red dwarf only 19 light years away. It is a flare star, undergoing random outbursts and increases in luminosity. It has a brown drawf companion and a super-Neptune type planet in close orbit.
Cone Nebula in Monoceros. With OIII filter appeared very indistinct as a dark triangular area with a milky faint wall of nebulosity to the N. A few stars involved in the nebulosity. It is an active HII star forming region; see the Hubble Space Telescope pictures for a better view!
Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. Using 48x 1.7 degree FOV with OIII filter, appeared as a loose but evenly concentrated open cluster (NGC 2244), large mix of stellar magnitudes but <50 stars, surrounded by a thick doughnut of grey nebulosity. Nebula has a more definite edge of grey nebula / dark sky to the N & E -- wider ring and more diffuse edge to the W. It is an HII star forming region 5000 light years away, 50 light years in diameter. It must be bright indeed to be seen so well from so far away.
Eskimo Nebula = NGC 2392. At 48x with OIII appeared as a slightly bloated, hazy blinking star. At 184x with OIII it was clearly a planetary nebula with a double shell, brighter in the middle with some mottling, and a fainter surrounding ring with diffuse edges. No central star seen, but it has a close companion star to the N.
M1 = supernova remnant in Taurus. I was very surprised to see it, as the moon was rising and I'm in a red zone light pollution. at 67x it was a very faint (still direct vision, a little brighter with averted vision) elliptical cloud 3:2 WSE-ENE.
Procyon = alpha Canis Minoris: Big an beautiful. Did not see white dwarf companion Procyon B (of course). 11.6 light years away, one of our closest neighbors; appears bright because of its closeness.
Pollux = beta Geminorum: Big and bright, slightly yellow. It's an evolved giant star 34 light years away; an extrasolar planet discovered in orbit.
14 Monoceros: Faint close double near NGC 2254, Wow! really pretty pairing.
Plaskett's Star: Really dense field of stars; AAVSO chart essential to find. Rather non descript. 6600 light years away, it is one of the most massive binary systems known.
I spent some time trying to split Sirius, but was not successful. Will keep trying with this scope as the sky allows.
I woke a half hour before dawn and went out back in my bathrobe with binoculars, hoping to catch the five planet alignment happening these next two weeks. Jupiter, Mars, Saturn, Venus, and Mercury. I found Jupiter well to the west and near a just past full moon; Mars was near meridian. But the others were behind low clouds. No chance for those, or for Comet Catalina.
This evening was another matter. Both transparency and seeing were very good. After dinner, starting around 7:15pm, I was on the patio with the 8-inch, looking at M42, the Great Orion Nebula. A well deserved title. At 48x and 1.7 degrees FOV, I contemplated the bright mottled central regions and the sweeping arcs of nebulosity spouting from it, and remembered Messier's drawing. At 67x the nebula was strikingly more mottled and was tinted a faintly bluish green. At 184x I could see the E & F stars in the Trapezium -- faint, but direct vision and no doubt about it. More evidence of the excellent figure of the mirror.
I the toured some open clusters - M35, M37, M36, M38. I could not find NGC 2158 near M35. Using 67x with M37, I observed FU Aurigae in the same FOV as the cluster. FU was slightly less red but brighter than the central red star of M37. I remembered raving about this star a few weeks ago. All the clusters were finder finds, a bit misty there, but very lovely in the eyepiece.
After attending to my nightly duties I came back out at 9pm to run through some AL lists and breathe the air of astronomy once again:
NQ Geminorum, carbon star, a dull red to yellow, with another yellow star 2x as bright to the NW. It has a faint follower, widely separated. An arc of 4 faint stars to NW in a fairly rich field.
W Canis Majoris: Appeared red in finder. Orange-red, about 7.5 magnitude, in a rich field. Its radius is 234 times the sun's and is more than 1400 light years away.
R Canis Minoris: Faint, weakly yellow. Tough find. It has a faint companion, widely separated to NNE.
BM Geminorum: Nice! At the tip of a large arrow shaped asterism with 57 Geminorum at one end. BM is small, orange. Another string of stars trails off to the NW.
Adhara = epsilon Canis Majoris: Wow! Bright (+1.5 magnitude) and large A with small and much fainter close B (magnitude +7.5) to the south. Lovely double (113x). Wikipedia: "The A star is the brightest known ultraviolet source in the night sky.... 4.7 million light years ago Adhara was 34 light years from the Sun, and was the brightest star in the sky with a magnitude of –3.99. No other star has attained this brightness since, nor will any other star attain this brightness for at least five million years."
Wezen: Bright, yellow-orange. It is a relatively young star, 10 million years old, but has stopped fusing hydrogen in it's core and is on its way to becoming a red supergiant. Once it has enough iron in its core it will collapse in a supernova.
NGC 2362, open cluster in Canis Major. Pretty, triangular cluster with a bright star (Tau Canis Majoris) in the middle. It is related to nebula Sh2-310 nearby, which I did not see.
VY Canis Majoris: Pretty pumpkin orange; close companion to N. Another close double on edge of FOV. Field rich with faint stars. VY is a red hypergiant and one of the largest of this type: its radius would extend beyond the orbit of Jupiter. It apparently has lost much gas to eruptions and is surrounded by nebulosity, which I again did not see (I need to try filters more). Worth another look, as the bright knots of nebulosity were mistaken for companion stars in the past.
M78, EN in Orion: Two stars orientated N-S with a dim, hourglass haze around them. With a waning gibbous moon rising I was surprised to see this one.
Gliese 229: small nondescript star in Lepus in a string of two others. A satellite passed through the FOV during the observation. Very near galaxy NGC 2196 which was not seen. Gliese 229 is a red dwarf only 19 light years away. It is a flare star, undergoing random outbursts and increases in luminosity. It has a brown drawf companion and a super-Neptune type planet in close orbit.
Cone Nebula in Monoceros. With OIII filter appeared very indistinct as a dark triangular area with a milky faint wall of nebulosity to the N. A few stars involved in the nebulosity. It is an active HII star forming region; see the Hubble Space Telescope pictures for a better view!
Rosette Nebula in Monoceros. Using 48x 1.7 degree FOV with OIII filter, appeared as a loose but evenly concentrated open cluster (NGC 2244), large mix of stellar magnitudes but <50 stars, surrounded by a thick doughnut of grey nebulosity. Nebula has a more definite edge of grey nebula / dark sky to the N & E -- wider ring and more diffuse edge to the W. It is an HII star forming region 5000 light years away, 50 light years in diameter. It must be bright indeed to be seen so well from so far away.
Eskimo Nebula = NGC 2392. At 48x with OIII appeared as a slightly bloated, hazy blinking star. At 184x with OIII it was clearly a planetary nebula with a double shell, brighter in the middle with some mottling, and a fainter surrounding ring with diffuse edges. No central star seen, but it has a close companion star to the N.
M1 = supernova remnant in Taurus. I was very surprised to see it, as the moon was rising and I'm in a red zone light pollution. at 67x it was a very faint (still direct vision, a little brighter with averted vision) elliptical cloud 3:2 WSE-ENE.
Procyon = alpha Canis Minoris: Big an beautiful. Did not see white dwarf companion Procyon B (of course). 11.6 light years away, one of our closest neighbors; appears bright because of its closeness.
Pollux = beta Geminorum: Big and bright, slightly yellow. It's an evolved giant star 34 light years away; an extrasolar planet discovered in orbit.
14 Monoceros: Faint close double near NGC 2254, Wow! really pretty pairing.
Plaskett's Star: Really dense field of stars; AAVSO chart essential to find. Rather non descript. 6600 light years away, it is one of the most massive binary systems known.
I spent some time trying to split Sirius, but was not successful. Will keep trying with this scope as the sky allows.
Sunday, January 24, 2016
edward emerson barnard
I was captivated but Barnard's Photographic Atlas of Selected Regions of the Milky Way this summer, with all its beautiful star clouds and streamers of dark nebulae. I decided to make my next scope, a short focal length 10-inch, so I could capture some part of such wonderful star-scapes with a wide field of view.
In the book there is a biography of Barnard, who grew up in poverty after his father died. The author included a photo of him, which moved me: he looks vulnerable, but intelligent, his eyes filled with the wonder of the universe which he must have seen in the dark skies of his rural youth. I remembered that photo long after I took the book back to the library. I felt a brotherly solidarity with him; I still feel like a poor boy yearning for discovery.
I happened to receive a year end bonus from my workplace and decided to spend some of it to buy a paperback reprint version of Barnard's great book. In doing so I thought to search the internet for the photograph of Barnard as a boy, and found it. I'm posting it here as a keep sake, as it were, to remind me of the humanity of the hobby.
In the book there is a biography of Barnard, who grew up in poverty after his father died. The author included a photo of him, which moved me: he looks vulnerable, but intelligent, his eyes filled with the wonder of the universe which he must have seen in the dark skies of his rural youth. I remembered that photo long after I took the book back to the library. I felt a brotherly solidarity with him; I still feel like a poor boy yearning for discovery.
I happened to receive a year end bonus from my workplace and decided to spend some of it to buy a paperback reprint version of Barnard's great book. In doing so I thought to search the internet for the photograph of Barnard as a boy, and found it. I'm posting it here as a keep sake, as it were, to remind me of the humanity of the hobby.
Saturday, January 16, 2016
"to know or not to know"
This was the title of an interesting discussion thread on Cloudy Nights Forums, about whether observers study an object beforehand or observe it without foreknowledge. This is something I've been thinking about too. Here is my reply to the post:
Among the experienced amateur astronomers I know, most advise
me to “do my homework” before an observing session. Reading the others’ visual descriptions and studying
images and sketches prepare one for how to see the object--such as the best
magnification, exit pupil, and filters to use.
The preparation alerts one to details which one might not otherwise
notice (especially by me, given my relative inexperience as an observer).
A case in point: a couple weeks ago I observed NGC 660, a
galaxy in Pisces, in my 20-inch. It was
pretty bright with a slightly brighter elongated core, 4:1 SW-NE. The next morning while checking my observations
(on the NGC/IC Project, Aladin, and other sources) I saw the DSS image showed
it has dramatic “X” shaped dark lanes in the NE quadrant of the halo, and arms
trailing to the SE and NW, none of which I saw.
If I knew those features were there I would have made a point to look
for them, and the session would have been more productive and efficient.
Knowing the astrophysics of the object adds another,
deeper level of appreciation and understanding (and wonder). Trying to picture, and understand, how such
and such galaxy is so many millions of light years away; that the light entering my eye from the
far end of that inclined spiral is tens of thousands of years older than the
light from the near end; that since the light left it the galaxy has spun, and if
one could see it as it is now it might not be recognizable; that it and other
galaxies have since moved in space in a mysterious gravitational dance, and
will continue to do so. Trying to
visualize all that, and compare these immense timescales with my own, is a
mind-expanding and humbling experience.
On the other hand, there is a thrilling sense of discovery
to be felt while looking at an object without foreknowledge. It’s
fun to pretend to be the discoverer, and have some sense of what Herschel, for
example, might have felt as the grand pageant of the universe scrolled through his
eyepiece. Going in “blind” is a good way to measure the development
of one’s observing skill, by noticing as much as possible then comparing one’s
results to descriptions and images later.
Even more special is to find the intended target and then notice another
one in the field that was not plotted on the chart. It must be said, too, that some details can
be noticed more readily visually, since sometimes the DSS image was overexposed
or could not show it—so one should be open to seeing things that are not in a
digital image.
I think there might be a progression one has as an
observer, at least in my case: One
starts out with the thrill of discovery, which grows into the desire not just
to see but to understand. In that phase
one would do more research, and stretch one’s ability to see fine detail
in the objects. As I enter this phase, I
hope the initial thrill doesn’t leave me.
As I think about it, there is no reason it should: the research and
foreknowledge ought to contribute to one’s ability to discover. These experienced observers I know all have
that wellspring of excitement and happiness that comes with discovery and knowledge
combined.
Monday, January 11, 2016
OR, The Moon
The evening of 1/11/16 (UT 1/12/16 1:00) while walking to my car in the parking lot of my workplace, I made a rare naked eye observation of the moon. Seeing was steady but transparency was only good in the viewing area, surrounded in all directions by 0/5 conditions. The moon was in waxing phase, 4.16% full, with a nice thin terminator tapering gently around half of the sphere. Earthshine was apparent in the darkening twilight. No conjunctions or occultations were noticed.
And now back to our regularly scheduled cloudiness…
Sunday, January 3, 2016
new year day's night, Lake Sonoma
I had been hoping to get out this weekend but checking
the weather Friday morning found my usual sites in the South Bay would be
clouded over by 8pm Friday night, and Saturday would be a total loss. I was about to give up when I noticed Steve Gottlieb’s
post on TAC about observing at Lake Sonoma.
The cloudiness would not reach there until midnight, leaving several solid
hours of observing time. Since it was
New Year’s Day there was no traffic, and I could make the drive from Fremont in
2.5 hours; so I decided to come up.
This was my first visit to Lake Sonoma. The site is pretty dark, SQML was ranging from 20.90 – 21.20. This is lower than what is usually reported for the site; there may have been some water vapor in the air reflecting light from Santa Rosa. The sky to the West is particularly dark and I spent most of my time there catching up on objects on my AL lists I missed in November and December. We were able to observe until around 12:30am. It was a very productive night. Here are some of the more memorable observations, often objects I noticed on the chart while star hopping to my intended target [I made around 30 observations total but it will take some days to transcribe my notes.]. All in 20”:
NGC 1501, PN in Camelopardalis, “Camel’s Eye.” At 205x without filter it was a grayish green round sphere with defined edges; central star visible with averted vision and some mottling in the center of the sphere. OIII darkened the field and help bring out the mottling; the edges appeared softer. At 333x without filter the central star was direct vision, there were more stars in the field, more definite mottling in the center and softer edges.
NGC 896, EN in Cassiopeia: At 121x no filter it appeared a bean shaped glow. UHC permitted better view; the nebula was brighter to the west but there was a thick arc starting from the south and looping east and north. Open cluster Teu 55 just on the edge of the FOV (needed to move N896 out for best view) to the east was a faint mist of stars in an otherwise dark area of sky.
Jones 1, PN in Pegasus. Very faint, larger than I thought it would be. At 205x and seen only with the OIII, it looked like a C lock washer – “C” shaped with thicker / brighter tips, connected by a thinner band. I had a tough time noticing it and only felt it was there by moving the scope around and seeing the dimness move with the stars. (Thanks for the confirmation Carter & Steve!)
UGCA 441, “Barbon’s Galaxy” (Markarian 328, 23h37m39.5s +30d07m46s), in Pegasus. I noticed this on the chart near Jones 1 and gave it a try. I had to check my finder placement several times because when I looked in the eyepiece nothing was there. Staring with averted vision, a small glow slowly emerged into view; it was like looking down at something white rising to the surface of a deep dark lake. It had a brighter core and almost stellar nucleus, with a hint of halo, too faint to hold an elongation or tell a position angle. NED shows this as 15.5 magnitude. I find Roberto Barbon is an Italian astronomer, but not why the galaxy is named for him. [After posting this report on TAC Steve replied with a link to Barbon's 1969 paper in which he measures spectra from several compact galaxies; this particular object was named for Barbon because it had previously been identified only as anonymous. It is a blue compact galaxy, some 45 light years away.]
NGC 246, PN in Cetus, “Skull Nebula”. OIII helped bring out significant mottling inside the pretty large and irregularly round nebula. Central star easy along with three other stars involved which form a “V” open to the south. Brighter arc on the WSW rim.
NGC 660, Gx in Pisces. This was pretty bright with a slightly brighter elongated core, 4:1 SW-NE. The DSS image shows it has dramatic “X” shaped dark lanes in the NE quadrant of the halo, and spiral arms trailing to the SE and NW, none of which I saw. Definitely worth another look.
NGC 1535, PN in Eridanus, “Cleopatra’s Eye.” Best view was 333x without filter. Bright, blue, and round, it showed a bright inner and fainter but thicker outer ring structure; central star held with direct vision. The inner ring was mottled and in moments of good seeing showed sharp curving lines of structure.
This was my first visit to Lake Sonoma. The site is pretty dark, SQML was ranging from 20.90 – 21.20. This is lower than what is usually reported for the site; there may have been some water vapor in the air reflecting light from Santa Rosa. The sky to the West is particularly dark and I spent most of my time there catching up on objects on my AL lists I missed in November and December. We were able to observe until around 12:30am. It was a very productive night. Here are some of the more memorable observations, often objects I noticed on the chart while star hopping to my intended target [I made around 30 observations total but it will take some days to transcribe my notes.]. All in 20”:
NGC 1501, PN in Camelopardalis, “Camel’s Eye.” At 205x without filter it was a grayish green round sphere with defined edges; central star visible with averted vision and some mottling in the center of the sphere. OIII darkened the field and help bring out the mottling; the edges appeared softer. At 333x without filter the central star was direct vision, there were more stars in the field, more definite mottling in the center and softer edges.
NGC 896, EN in Cassiopeia: At 121x no filter it appeared a bean shaped glow. UHC permitted better view; the nebula was brighter to the west but there was a thick arc starting from the south and looping east and north. Open cluster Teu 55 just on the edge of the FOV (needed to move N896 out for best view) to the east was a faint mist of stars in an otherwise dark area of sky.
Jones 1, PN in Pegasus. Very faint, larger than I thought it would be. At 205x and seen only with the OIII, it looked like a C lock washer – “C” shaped with thicker / brighter tips, connected by a thinner band. I had a tough time noticing it and only felt it was there by moving the scope around and seeing the dimness move with the stars. (Thanks for the confirmation Carter & Steve!)
UGCA 441, “Barbon’s Galaxy” (Markarian 328, 23h37m39.5s +30d07m46s), in Pegasus. I noticed this on the chart near Jones 1 and gave it a try. I had to check my finder placement several times because when I looked in the eyepiece nothing was there. Staring with averted vision, a small glow slowly emerged into view; it was like looking down at something white rising to the surface of a deep dark lake. It had a brighter core and almost stellar nucleus, with a hint of halo, too faint to hold an elongation or tell a position angle. NED shows this as 15.5 magnitude. I find Roberto Barbon is an Italian astronomer, but not why the galaxy is named for him. [After posting this report on TAC Steve replied with a link to Barbon's 1969 paper in which he measures spectra from several compact galaxies; this particular object was named for Barbon because it had previously been identified only as anonymous. It is a blue compact galaxy, some 45 light years away.]
NGC 246, PN in Cetus, “Skull Nebula”. OIII helped bring out significant mottling inside the pretty large and irregularly round nebula. Central star easy along with three other stars involved which form a “V” open to the south. Brighter arc on the WSW rim.
NGC 660, Gx in Pisces. This was pretty bright with a slightly brighter elongated core, 4:1 SW-NE. The DSS image shows it has dramatic “X” shaped dark lanes in the NE quadrant of the halo, and spiral arms trailing to the SE and NW, none of which I saw. Definitely worth another look.
NGC 1535, PN in Eridanus, “Cleopatra’s Eye.” Best view was 333x without filter. Bright, blue, and round, it showed a bright inner and fainter but thicker outer ring structure; central star held with direct vision. The inner ring was mottled and in moments of good seeing showed sharp curving lines of structure.
tycho, daydream
I've often thought of making a video showing various astronomical objects to this song; but I lack the skill to do so. This song evokes the feeling of peace and discovery I have when observing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFr9StkVwTk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFr9StkVwTk
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