I went up to Fremont Peak the night of the 29th, where I met Peter N. and Dave C. We were very fortunate the weather turned in our favor. The marine layer and good seeing combined to make the trip up the Peak totally worth the effort. Sky was about 21.30 SQML.
All three of us watched Io start to transit Jupiter, its bright disk still visible contrasted against the North Equatorial Belt. It was a fun way to spend the time until it grew fully dark. Peter pointed out how one could tell the relative size of the moons from their disk sizes, which I hadn’t noticed before.
I continued through my AL H2 and PN lists. Despite darkness coming so late in the evening, I made many observations which I am still sorting through. Here’s some of the more striking, all in my 20-inch:
NGC 5850, barred spiral galaxy in Virgo, 205x: Lies at the eastern end of an east to west row of four galaxies in the field. Pretty large, with a brighter round core and a very faint round halo with extensions seen sweeping from the eastern end headed northwest, and from the western end headed southeast. Elliptical NGC 5846 is next in line to the west, with a bright round core but a very diffuse halo, with extensions which seem to sweep from the east and west sides to the north; 5846A appears as a nonstellar patch involved in the southern rim of 5846’s halo. NGC 5845 is a very small faint elliptical patch further west. SO galaxy NGC 5849 is on the far west of the field, and has a stellar nucleus with a small, very faint halo.
Globular cluster NGC 5053 in Coma Berenices, at 205x appeared as a large grey cloud of unresolved stars, very much like the smoke from a spent firework. Resolved stars are in a loose concentration generally radiating from the center. The grey arms spread in all directions but are longer and denser east to west.
Elliptical NGC 5129 was small, with a stellar nucleus and a bright core, elongated 3:2 north to south. Barred spiral NGC 5132 was to the north-northeast, fainter, small, stellar nucleus and a round halo with a slightly brighter bar appearing as a NE-SW condensation within the halo. Elliptical NGC 5136 was to the southeast edge of the field, very faint, averted vision needed to clearly discern 3:2 W-E elongated halo and to brighten the core. Three excessively faint nonstellar patches surrounding a star just southeast of NGC 5129 I find today are 13th magnitude 2MASS designated galaxies.
Sc Spiral NGC 5523 was very striking: Pretty large, low surface brightness halo, 5:1 west to east elongation inclined spiral, with a slightly brighter core. Some mottling noticed in the halo, hints of spiral structure.
NGC 5529 was a pleasant surprise: A lovely long Sc spiral seen nearly edge on, 6:1 or more WNW-ESE. Long core is brighter on the southern edge (dark lane across the north?). Halo fades imperceptibly to the tips.
NGC 6210, “Turtle” Planetary Nebula in Hercules was visible in my 80mm finder as a rather bright star. At 333x the inner shell is bright green, slightly oval shape NW-SE, with a diffuse edge. With averted vision, a fainter larger rectangular outer nebula becomes apparent. More time with averted vision brought out very faint extensions to the corners of the rectangle, two tending north and two tending south, which are the Turtle’s “legs”. No head, though.... OIII seemed to enhance these extensions. Without filter, the central star shown through the inner shell very briefly with averted vision as a bright button, just following the geometric center—held about 20% of the time. 533x revealed some additional mottling in the shell but oddly I could not see the central star – must have lost the seeing.
When Peter mentioned he was looking at the Hercules Cluster (Abell 2151) it reminded me I had planned to look at it too. I used a finder printed from Paul Alsing’s website. Suffice to say all were near threshold objects, and took all my concentration to see at all. The finder helped me confirm the star fields and then observe the objects. Using 333x, I saw NGC 6040 as a very faint longish streak with 6039 as a extremely faint condensation at its tip. NGC 6041 barely split from 6041A; IC 1170 was not seen. NGC 6042 was relatively easy as a very faint patch. Nudging the scope a little east, NGC 6045 appeared as an extremely faint streak; but MAC 1605+1745 was not seen. NGC 6043A was a very faint patch, as was NGC 6047. NGC 6050 was an excessively faint slightly larger than a patch haze, and 6054 were excessively faint very small haze. This was the hardest I’ve worked for an observation yet.
From around 2am I spent time in M101 and found all the objects noted in Howard Banich’s S&T article “The Determined Observer’s Guide to M101,” with the exception of SN 2011fe. It was wonderful to explore this amazing object.
I spent the rest of the night viewing galaxies in Ursa Major’s handle until finally I had enough. Last looks at Mars and Saturn, then a little rest in my car before dawn broke and it was time to head home.
The above is what I posted at TAC. Following are the rest of the observations, mostly at 205x:
NGC 4271, Gx in UMa: Small, faint. Brighter round core and stellar nucleus. Very faint round halo. One foreground star NE and another WNW hear halo's edge.
NGC 4290, Gx in UMa: Galaxy near miserable old M40. Bright core, bar NE-SW, with a round faint diffuse halo; overall small. NGC 4284 to W in FOV, stellar nucleus, small brighter halo, ESE-WNW 3:1, very faint halo need AV to see better.
NGC 4605, Gx in UMa: Pretty large and fairly bright. Core is very large with mottling and knots, a couple of dark lanes. Small kernel of nucleus. Very faint halo, wider at tips, 3:1 NW-SE
NGC 5007: to the SW of a bright field star, best to keep it out of view. 5007 is small and faint, round halo with a bright core. There are three galaxies in view arranged in an arc around the star (HD 114504), NGC 5007 to the SW, UGC 8234 (13.8B) to the NE, and UGC 8237 (13.7B) to the NNE.
NGC 5020, Gx in Virgo: Bright stellar nucleus with fairly bright elongated core NE-SW. Surrounded by round diffuse halo.
NGC 5129, Gx in Virgo: Stellar nucleus + bright core, 3:2 elongated N-S. AV shows more halo. 5132 barred spiral to NNE is fainter, small, 4:1 bar seen with stellar nucleus, and hint of round halo. 5136 to SE edge of FOV very faint, AV only, diffuse 3:2 halo W-E, brightened core.
NGC 5204 Gx in UMa: Large, diffuse glow, rather peanut shaped, 4:3 N-S. Much mottling and many condensations or knots. Diffuse edges to halo, can't tell where it stops.
NGC 5308, Gx in UMa: Small bright round core with sharply bright nucleus, pierced by long thin halo. Small but very pretty. 4:1 NE-SW
NGC 5430, Gx in UMa: Stellar nucleus and brighter core, which is small and elongated NE-SW, with a round, irregularly bright halo. Barred spiral.
NGC 5440, Gx in CVn: Bright elongated core, oval shaped NE-SW, 3:1. Diffuse halo needs AV to bright out distinctly. Foreground star on SW tip.
NGC 5443, Gx in UMa: A 4:1 nearly edge on spiral, NE-SW, with a bright core and rather bright halo of uneven brightness -- I seem to see a dark lane or cut-off along the NW side. Two pairs of foreground stars at each tip.
NGC 5444, Gx in CVn: Round, small, bright core with a faint diffuse halo. 6.5" SSE is 5445, and 2.78' SE is 2MASXJ14031472+3505520 (16.2 mag) a small very faint round patch with faintly stellar nucleus.
NGC 5445, Gx in CVn: Bright, small, 3:1 elongation NNE-SSE, stellar nucleus and faint diffuse halo.
NGC 5447, KNT in M101: An oval glow at the SW tip of M101's spiral, orientated NW-SE.
NGC 5462, KNT in M101: A condensed oval brightening on the far tip of the E arm of M101. Also saw all objects (except SN 2011fe) on Howard Bainach's "Determined Observer's Guide to M101"
NGC 5490, Gx in Boo: Stellar nucleus, bright core, slightly elongated N-S faint halo defined. Small. Fainter M+03-36-064 to the NW, brighter center with AV. NGC 5490A = Arp 79 to NE, stellar nucleus with faint small round halo, little detail
NGC 5523, Gx in Boo: Pretty large low surface brightness halo, long, 5:1 W-E, slightly brighter core. Large diffuse halo. Some mottling noticed in halo, hints of spiral structure. Three foreground stars trail off to the east from the eastern tip
NGC 5533 Gx in Boo: Stellar nucleus and small bright oval core, with very diffuse halo. NNW-SSE elongation
NGC 5548, Gx in Boo: Bright small round core but not stellar. Very faint diffuse round halo, can't tell any edge.
NGC 5585, Gx in UMa: Pretty large, diffuse halo with ill-defined edges. A brighter core and a small bright nucleus. 4:3 NNE-SSW with a foreground star just at the SSW of the E tip of halo, and another at the NE tip. Some mottling of halo suggests structure
NGC 5590, Gx in Boo: Round, small, stellar nucleus and bright core, faint round halo. NGC 5588 is to the NW, and a fainter twin of 5590
NGC 5600 Gx in Boo: Stellar nucleus, bright disturbed core -- bean shaped with round edge to the NE; faint round halo with mottling and brighter arc seen with AV on NE rim. Halo fairly well defined. In triangle of stars
NGC 5687 Gx in Boo: Small. Small oval bright core, diffuse halo, also oval. 4:3 E-W. Three foreground stars in a row N-S, two of which are superimposed on the W halo.
NGC 5831, Gx in Virgo: Fairly bright, stellar nucleus, fairly bright core with diffuse round halo. Small.
NGC 5838, Gx in Virgo: Stellar nucleus, bright core, elongated 5:1 NE-SW, diffuse halo gradually fades. Bright star to S; helps to keep it out of the field. Stars at either tip of halo.
NGC 5854, Gx in Virgo: Very similar appearance to 5864. 3:1 elongated NE-SW with bright core and some knots in it. Thin halo fades gradually to edges.
NGC 5864, Gx in Virgo: Long bright core 4:1 NE-SW, just stellar nucleus, thin but well defined halo. Nice with AV. Two foreground stars involved on southern rim
NGC 5879, Gx in Draco: Bright, pretty large 3:1 N-S. Stellar nucleus and bright extended core. Halo expands with AV, no defined edge or tip. Foreground star superimposed on NW edge of halo
NGC 5970, Gx in Serpens: Bright core, stellar nucleus, 3:2 E-W, pretty bright and large halo, some knots / concentrations. Bright field star to NNE, and a row of 7 stars between it and 5970. IC 1131 is 8' to SE; bright small core with very faint thin halo, 2:1 NW-SE.
Picot 1, Open Cluster in Boo: 7 bright stars, four of which are in a line W-E and two more to the north, with three more fainter. Supposed to look like Napoleon's hat. Sort of, with imagination…
NGC 5080, Gx: Small, round, fairly faint diffuse halo, brighter core with AV
NGC 5907, Splinter Galaxy. Wow! Halo nearly the length of field; edge on spiral. The bright round core seems to float in the middle of its swirling halo; the halo on the near side has a dark lane the length of the major axis which adds to this effect.
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