Tuesday night I went out to Deep Sky Ranch at Willow Springs with Steve. I was desperate enough to go observing I agreed to go on a weeknight, regardless of the consequences to my sleep deprivation. We've had clouds and rain consistently these last few weeks, so only a limited amount of observing time has been available.
There was a fair amount of haze in the beginning of the night, SQML was 21.05 at zenith. It did improve to 21.6 after midnight; some clouds came in from the north but missed us. We observed until 3am before sleeping in our vans. I had my 20-inch telescope and Steve had his 24-inch.
In the sunset Steve noticed the moon, low over the horizon and getting mixed up in clouds. We looked at it through my binoculars; a very thin, tenuous crescent. As it grew darker I could see the round form of the moon with earthshine. Steve found later it was 25 hours old -- not a particularly amazing feat, but a nice sight all the same.
Steve pointed out what he thought was Mercury, fairly high up in the sky (10 degrees from horizon). I put my scope to it and saw the disk, roiled in the bad seeing. I had never seen Mercury so high before; it seems it was near greatest elongation. I noticed a nice double star near to the planet.
After dark Steve pointed out the Zodiacal light on the western horizon. It was a wide cone straight up, running along the ecliptic. It reached all the way to M45 nearly 30 degrees up. We talked about it a little while; I had always taken it as light pollution. A while later I saw a noticeable hook in the cone heading east of M45.
20-inch, 205x as otherwise noted. Seeing was fair 5/10 at lower elevations, where I started out. Turned very good 8/10 by 10pm when I was seeking higher targets. SQML started at 21.1 but improved to 21.6 later in the night.
NGC 2658: OC in Pyxis. I was pleased to identify the three-star constellation without much trouble. Was close by to my next target, so stopped for a look. A faint group, fairly detached, loose but with several clots of stars. About half a degree around. Most stars about the same brightness, with a dozen or so brighter. Moderately rich. II2m.
M3-6, PN in Pyxis. Small, non stellar, becomes a green orb with OIII. Seeing fairly poor.
Stone 61, Double star in Pyxis. Close to M3-6. Pretty blue and orange pair, PA to south; close but well split. Can't find any online references for this, even in Stelle Doppie; will check the classification.
Comet 41P/Tuttle-Giacobini-Kresak: This is a fast moving comet just 0.6 AU distant. There was a nice write-up in S&T last week and I wanted to have a look. It was moving through Ursa Major for the last week and provided many opportunities to view it paired with numerous DSOs. This night the comet was in Camelopardalis -- which I detest for its dearth of bright stars to star hop with. All the same I was able to locate the comet fairly quickly using my 50mm RACI finder. In the scope it had a small, intensely bright pseudonucleus and a very large, faint and diffuse round halo. Unfortunately the view was not paired with anything, and the halo seemed to blot out anything behind it (there were no stars visible through it). I should have tried some lower powers, though, just in case there was something else to be seen. Adding the Lumicon Comet SWAN band filter, the halo changed shape -- it was reduced in size to the south and the northern hemisphere was larger and brighter. Since the filter helps to bring out the gas emitted by the comet, which often travels in a different direction than the dust, I assume I was seeing the gassy part of the halo better. It was a very interesting sight.
NGC 2818/A, OC and PN in Pyxis: Cluster is large and loose with a wide range of brightness, with 12 brighter stars scattered over a mist of fainter; moderately rich. People complain the cluster is too sparse and not detached, but it seemed pretty well detached to me. The planetary is on the western edge of the cluster and is a foreground object. No central star, it is rather large with a diffuse halo and slightly out of round W-E. The halo brightens on the southern rim, and a little less bright brightening on the SW side. Overall it brightens with OIII. Seeing did not support higher than 205x.
IC 2469: Sc Spiral: Long edge on, large, pretty bright. Bright, small round nucleus, less bright round and prominent core, with a long halo 4:1 NE-SW which averted vision brightens and lengthens, especially to the north. Southern extension is shorter and dimmer. Star in middle of southern arm. It's very strange: the image of this galaxy in Aladin doesn't show any other galaxies, even faint ones, nearby; IC 2469 is big, bright, and on its own.
NGC 2904: Bright nucleus, elongated halo E-W 3:2, fairly bright and small. ESO 434-9 is a small, pretty faint almost round elliptical, even surface brightness. Both galaxies are on opposite sides of a star.
NGC 2784: Very bright stellar nucleus, bright oval core and long 5:1 faint halo E-W with hints of spiral and is twisted -- like the blur of a coin spinning to rest on a table. Star at northern tip.
NGC 3978, NGC 3084, ESO 490-32: Three galaxies form a neat triangle in the field. N 3978 is the brightest, with a compact bright core and 3:2 N-S halo. N 3084 is 10' to the SE is a little less bright, smaller, and round. ESO 490-32 is 14' to the NE of N 3978 and is small, faint, even surface brightness, if just a very slight brightening in the core.
NGC 3132 Eight burst nebula, PN in Vela: Bright central star, oval NE-SW halo with a soft edge, darker central ring around the central star. OIII gives an impression of spiralling turbulence in the brightened halo. NBP filter has a better view, with a brighter CS and shows the same halo swirl, which may be brighter sections of an inner ring with a diffuse halo surrounding it.
NGC 3156: Small, stellar nucleus, small bright halo N-S. Near a triangle of three bright stars
NGC 3169: Spiral with a bright nucleus. Pretty bright, 3:1, NE-SW, near three bright stars making a triangle. Halo is mottled in streaks showing spiral structure. Followed to the SW by a similarly large but more diffuse NGC 3166, brighter round core with 3:2 E-W halo. A third galaxy trails to the SW again, much smaller and fainter, NGC 3165, a small faint oval N-S. (I did not see the supernova indicated in this photo.)
NGC 3385 & 3386: very similar in appearance: stellar nuclei, brighter cores, and small diffuse halos. N 3385 is larger and a little brighter
NGC 3495: Large, lovely tilted spiral. Strong impression of spiral arms. Sharp cut-off edge on the east side; the west side of the halo is larger. Slowly brightening to the middle, to a small bright nucleus. 4:1 NNE-SSW.
NGC 3611: Small, stellar nucleus, 3:1 SW-NE, fairly bright halo.
Hydra I Cluster / AGC 1060: Steve was working on the Hydra I Cluster and invited me to join with my scope. I looked through his telrad to get the sighting of the 5th magnitude star at the center of the cluster. If one finds the cup of Crater and follow a straight line through the cup and its holder, there are two bright stars -- the star to the NE is the one to aim at. Boom! Galaxies everywhere! I followed the detail chart in my Interstellarum and could find every object. NGC 3311 / 3309 dominate the space between the two bright stars in the center of the cluster; 3311 had a bright core with a mottled halo, likely spiral, and 3309 was a fairly bright elliptical. A much fainter and smaller NGC 3307 lay to the west. They form a string with smaller and fainter NGC 3312, and NGC 3314 and its excessively faint and small companion A. Off to the east was NGC 3316-1, a relatively bright and large patch. Steve called out instructions for finding some excessively faint ESOs which were not plotted on the chart, 501-47 & 501-49, which were mere small smudges seen with averted vision only. One really has to work to find such objects. I scanned about in the 1 degree circle around this main group, and found a few more NGCs and ESOs and ICs. The most interesting one was IC 2597, which seemed to be an interacting pair with a smaller galaxy to its south, which I find on Aladin is ESO 501-59; I had the impression that the halos were somehow touching, but this was illusory as the gap in redshifts is too large; likely just overlapping in line of sight. To really explore these clusters I need better charts but especially a scope that will track, since it was distracting to bump the scope along with the sky. [After I posted an account of this on TAC, Steve pointed out IC 2597 is the (a) brightest component of Hickson 48 -- I noticed the interaction on my own. But when I viewed it through Steve's scope a few minutes after my observation I didn't recognize it: larger aperture, higher magnification, and flipped image since Steve's focuser is on the right and mine is on the left!]
Hickson 48: Within the Hydra Cluster is Hickson 48. Steve pulled it up in his 24-inch and called me over for a look. The (a) component was obvious and bright; to the upper right (upside-down in the below photo) in the field was (b), which was larger but more diffuse, a little wing shaped. Steve asked me to look a little to the left of a near a star, and I could see the (c) component with averted vision, very small, faint, and round. Steve mentioned there should be a (d) component but we couldn't see it at first. I pulled out my finder chart from my notebook and we saw it should be below (c). Steve had a look and said he found it, then I looked. It was seen about 20% with averted vision, excessively faint and very small (17.4v mag). Steve's scope was tracking, which helps a lot when straining to see faint objects; he can also apply more power. I'll need to figure out how to make that happen on my scope.
I tried to repeat an observation Steve had made in his friend's 48-inch telescope, which he wrote about in Sky & Telescope: to use a NBP filter on the Antennae galaxies NGC 4038/NGC 4039 . With the filter the HII regions lit up, like a "city in fog seen from a plane." I tried various filters but it had no such effect; generally they were dimmer. I had Steve take a look too. He thinks the great light gathering power of the 48-inch let enough light to pass through the filter to allow for the effect -- in smaller aperture there is too much light getting cut-off to show anything in another galaxy. Maybe I'll try it on a very bright galaxy, like M31.
NGC 3107: Bright compact core, small elongated halo NW-SE, about 3:2. Near bright 8th magnitude star.
NGC 3177: Not much to look at! Compact, bright core, stellar nucleus, 3:2 elongation NW-SE, fairly faint.
NGC 3162: Nice! Obviously a face on spiral, though small and fairly faint. Stellar nucleus. Brighter on the southern rim, which must be an arm.
NGC 3227 / Group: Bright, large, NW-SE 5:2, with a bright core and very small / stellar nucleus. Mottling in the halo hints of spiral. Its NE tip makes contact with NGC 3226 on the outer edge of that galaxy's core. 3226 is fainter but about as large and also with a bright core and stellar nucleus, SSW-NNE, 3:2. Very striking scene. NGC 3222 is to the west on edge of FOV, faint, small and round.
NGC 3287: Bright core and diffuse halo, faint, N-S about 3:2. There's a nice double star (STF 1448) to the SW.
NGC 3301: Stellar nucleus floats like a small ball in a bright core, surrounded by a dimmer halo. Bright and pretty large, NE-SW elongation 3:1 or longer.
NGC 3338: Dim & large, an obvious inclined spiral. Bright core and nearly stellar nucleus. Large diffuse halo, 3:1 E-W, with mottling along the diffuse edge -- signs of spiral. Bright star on the western tip.
Arp 291 = UGC 5832 & CGCG 65-90. Pretty faint irregular oval, pops with averted vision. Asymmetrical shape; some brightening glow within the halo with averted vision. It is a double galaxy which Arp classifies as having "wind effects."
NGC 3501: Very long and thin edge on; 6:1 or more, SSW-NNE. Faint but brightens and shows a twisted halo with averted vision. Another galaxy, NGC 3507, faint and round, close to the NE.
Arp 191 = UGC 6175A & B (MCG+3-28-63): Arp class "Narrow filaments." Two glows next to each other, very faint and small, no detail.
NGC 3599: Stellar nucleus, small bright core, diffuse round halo; moderately large elliptical; not much to say!
NGC 3596: Spiral with a shallow tilt. Lovely. Stellar nucleus, diffuse oval halo. Diffuse with mottling showing spiral. Pretty large and bright.
NGC 3605: Forms a string with three others in the field. 3605 is to the south, small, faint, round. The two others, 3607 & 3608, are larger and brighter. I also noticed a very faint small galaxy off to the west in the field, which is MCG 3-29-30.
NGC 3681: Brightest in a string of three. Bright core and diffuse halo, stellar nucleus, round; overall pretty bright.
NGC 3684 to the NNE, NGC 3691 to the ENE, and NGC 3686 to the NE.
NGC 3659: Fairly faint, brightens with averted vision, brighter core; overall small. Elongated 2:1 WSW-ENE.
NGC 3646: Large, pretty bright but diffuse, disrupted halo 3:2 NE-SW. Spiral evident in halo mottling. Stellar nucleus and small bright core. Star on the NW rim. Strangely like a fried egg, sunny side up, seen at an angle.
NGC 3524: Another fried egg. Small but bright; stellar nucleus and a bright round core, which has a gap between it and the halo. Elongated 3:1 SSW-NNE.
NGC 3547: Pretty faint oval glow, brighter middle, strangely cut-off one east side. N-S 3:2.
NGC 3666: Nice edge on, brightens greatly with averted vision. Large uniform oval core, no nucleus, long diffuse edges. Bright star to NE, and a second fainter star very close to W tip. E-W 4:1.
NGC 3705: Stellar nucleus, very small bright core, diffuse halo. No end to it; 5:1 NW-SE. Double nucleus? foreground star? [From photo appears to be a bright section of core next to the nucleus?]
IC 2867: Four galaxies in an arc. Each small, round, and pretty faint. Others are IC 2866, IC 658, IC 2666
NGC 4742: Small intense stellar nucleus and a very faint & diffuse halo elongated 3:2 E-W. Pretty bright and small. To the SE is yellow & blue double star STF 1682, which made a wonderful sight with the galaxy.
NGC 4105 & 4106: Two nearly identical elliptical galaxies with bright nuclei and diffuse round halos.
Now it was time to wind down so I looked at a couple bright objects:
Jupiter was surrounded by a bright haze -- there was a small halo around it naked eye. The transparency was starting to drop. No transits underway; the belts were enticingly wavy, but I was too tired to put in filters.
My last object was M3, found by Telrad and memory. Enormous, bright, very well resolved with tiny points for stars; many yellow and red stars seen. Isn't it a kicker, than my mirror settles down just when I'm too tired to continue. It was 3am and time to sleep.
The next day we received some bad news: Kevin R., the owner of the property, let us know he found a person to lease-to-own DSR. Meaning we would no longer have access to the property. I also found out Willow Springs 3000 has a deep runoff gully crossing the dirt road near the entrance to that property, so we could not go there until it was repaired. I offered Bob, the owner, help to repair it. Finally I learned of a large solar farm being built across the road from DARC and the Panoche Hills BLM -- possibly putting up a light dome in the area. Bad news indeed. It has me feeling anxious, that my beloved hobby is being made ever more difficult to pursue.
