#44 Monthly Summary #2: March/April 2014

With six partial or full sessions, and 18.5 hours of observing I enjoyed my largest number of new NGC sightings to date for a single month.  Parts of 4 constellations were studied, and as all but one of them are new areas for me to explore, there was only one review object, a previously seen one (see Bootes).  Four of the sessions were from my light-polluted back deck, but two of them were very long, excellent dark sky sessions, at five hours each.  I was able to observe galactic nebula and galaxies not visible from home, or even from my decent nearby location south of my hometown.  While not surprised by the galaxy improvements from dark sky sights, I was amazed at how easy the galactic nebula were located from such skies, objects that had proved impossible before now.  Being mostly reflection nebula, my filters were of little to no help from home.  However, from dark skies the objects popped right into view, without any filter!  By constellation, then, here is what I have been up to at the eyepiece:

LEPUS

Despite being in an unfavourable low southwest sky, I was able to observe two of the many galaxies that lie hidden in this little constellation.

eg 1888:  Seen well at 100x, with a bright core.  -11 degrees.

eg 2076:  An elongated threshold smudge at 100-150x.  -16 degrees.

MONOCEROS
I've had good luck with clusters from my back deck, but went after some faint nebula once I set up at a dark sky location.
gn 2149:  Impossible from my deck at home, easily seen from a dark sky site.  Amidst a bright star field.  Once mistaken for a galaxy (Shapely).
gn 2183:  Both easily seen from a dark sky site, lying side by side.  Involved with several faint stars.
gn 2185:  (see 2183, above).
gn 2245:  Wedge-shaped nebula involved with a 10.8 mag. star, seen well from the back deck.
gn 2247:  Due to the brightest of the 8.5 mag. star, the nebula is only seen faintly at higher power.
oc 2259:  Small and faint, with about 10 stars resolved at 250x.
oc 2264:  The Christmas Tree Cluster was observed from the back deck and a dark sky site (no comparison!).  Wonderful in a 6" mirror!  Not to be missed.
oc 2302:  A tight group led by three brighter stars.  16 stars at 200x.
oc 2306:  South following 2302.  Very large.  About thirty faint stars surrounding two bright ones.
oc 2309:  North following 2306.  100x resolves the brightest members from my deck, forming a loose circle.  The dense center resolves at 200-250x, where 25 stars were counted in a small area.
gn 2316:  Mixture of reflection and emission wavelengths.  Clearly seen without a filter, and observed well at 60-200x.  Triangle of faint stars immediately south.
oc 2323 (M50):  The finest cluster in Monoceros, though that is not saying anything against the many other fine clusters in the constellation.  The cluster is a wonder to observe at 60x in the 12", with a chain of bright stars outlining a triangular smile shape, with lines of stars passing perpendicular through it near the center.  Very rich cluster and fine for all apertures.  Heaven in a 12"!
oc2335:  30 stars counted at 200x, in three groups.  Orange star is dominant.  Central group is the most dense.
oc 2338:  3 degrees north following M50.  A 4-star asterism make up a rough parallelogram, with cluster stars in two clumps in and around it.  Medium rich and not a bad object.
oc 2343:  The finest of three clusters in the immediate area (see also Cr. 465 and 466).  Fine double star, primary orange, dominates.  Decent cluster at 125x.
oc 2368:  Not a bad cluster in a 12".  Led by a bright star which turns out to be a double. 20 stars at 200x, all faint except the main one (mag. 11?).  Triangular, or wedge-shaped.
eg 2377:  One of only a pair of NGC galaxies in Monoceros, and impossible to see without a dark sky.  Difficult enough due to involvement with a star or stars.  Very small and oval.
eg 2494:  The other faint galaxy in Monoceros, and a threshold object.  Round at 100-200x.

gn I. 446:  Faint haze seen near a faint star, and impossible to observe without a dark sky.
gn I. 2169:  Involved with oc Cr. 95.  The reflection nebula was helped a bit by the sky glow filter, and seen better on the preceding part of the cluster, scattered between and amongst the stars.
gn I. 2177:  Massive nebula involved with oc Cr. 465 and 466.  Glimpsed as clumps of smokiness with the filter.  Seen best south of Struve 1019, as well as amidst the two clusters.  Struve 1019 is an exqisite close pair (7-11/6.5").


oc Bi 7:  Noticed at 100x (in a poor sky), the very faint stars were contained within a semi-circle of less faint stars.  Resolves nicely at 200x.  Rich background area.
oc Bi 8:  An elongated group of 15 very faint stars resolved at 200x.
oc Bo 3:  Located at 100x, I counted 12 faint stars along with 4 brighter ones, the latter in a line.
oc Cr. 95:  15 brighter stars easily counted at 60x, and there are fainter ones at 100x.  Involved with gn I. 2169.
oc Cr. 465:  Semi-circle of 12-15 faint stars notes, involved with I. 2177.
oc Cr. 466:  Very small, very faint grop observed at 200x.  It was linear, and had 8 stars in a poor sky.  Involved with I. 2177.
oc Cz. 30:  Just south of S, a variable star.  It's glare hampers the view of about 12 faint stars.
oc Haf 3:  1 degree south of Bo 3, and making a triangle with oc 2338.  The haze resolves at 200x.  The cluster is contained within a bowl-shape of 4 brighter stars.

LEO
I enjoyed two nights of dark sky observing in Leo, and I pulled in galaxy after galaxy with the 12".
eg 2939:  A pair with 2940, and the star of the show.  Large, very faint, very elongated and has a
eg 2940: bright middle.  Averted vision expands the dimensions.  Seen well at 125-200x.  2940 was much smaller, round, and very faint.  Both galaxies appear at 125x with a triangle of 3 stars, and 2940 appears very close to a tiny double star.
eg 2941:  This is a busy area for faint NGC galaxies, and ignored by almost every major book. 
eg 2943:  2943 is nice and bright and seen easily at 60x.  Large and oval at 200x.  2941 was like a tiny, very faint ghost image of 2943, immediately preceding it.
eg 2946:  Not as faint as 2941, this one immediately follows 2943.  All three will pass by in a matter of seconds at 200x.
eg 2948:  Picked up nicely at 100x and observed up to 200x.  Noticeably bright middle and elongated.  Appeared larger with averted vision.
eg 2949:  The 7th galaxy located in a very tight area of Leo, near star 8.  Tiny, and very faint.  Confirmed on the 2nd night.
eg 2954:  Bright, spotted easily at 60x.  Oval with a bright middle, and bears magnification well.
eg 2958:  A threshold object barely seen at 125x, preceded by a 13 mag. star.
eg 2984:  Very faint, but seen at 125-200x.  Round.  eg I. 557 closely follows.
eg 3599:  Located at 60x in an area devoid of stars, it had a bright stellar core at 125x, surrounded by a large area of fainter haze.  Easy to see tonight from a dark sky, this one eluded me last season.  Precedes the 3605, 07, 08  triplet.
eg 3787:  Unsuccessfully searched for last year, this year from a superior sight it was not difficult, though it is faint, round and tiny.  Seen well at 200x.
eg 3827:  Seen faintly at 60x, improving all the way up to 200x.  Averted vision shows a larger object.  Round, with a bright middle.
eg 3816:  Within Abell 1367.  First seen at 100xx, and then later at 60x.  Bright and elongated at 100-125x, with a bright middle and a large block of fainter outer haze.  Fine in a 12".
eg 3821:  My first galaxy in Abell 1367, it was located at 100x and viewed up to 200x.  Not difficult to locate.  2 bright spots in the center, a bright core and a foreground star.
eg 3861:  Within Abell 1367.  Elongated shape easy to view, though appearing much smaller than its given dimensions.  Best seen with averted vision, as there is a bright star in the field.

eg I. 557:  Oval, faint and small, it appears with eg 2984 in the same high power field, following.

BOOTES 
I have observed this constellation previously with my Edmund 8".  However, I have added hundreds of new galaxies this time, and will be reviewing the ones already logged.
eg 5251:  Very close to M3, I have been unsuccessful with this one until tonight's dark sky.  Located at 100x, small, round and seen well at 150x.  South preceding M3.
eg 5548:  Previously observed with the Edmund 8".  Very bright, oval, with a stellar core.  Viewed well using up to 200x.
eg 5581:  Easy to locate at 100x despite being very faint, as it is placed between 2 9 mag. stars shown on Uranometria.  Best seen using averted vision.  Observed up to 200x.
eg 5610:  Easy to find due to its placement between 2  stars, mag. 9 and 9.5.  First discovered at 60x.  125x showed elongation and a bright middle.
eg 5637:  Faint, but not severely so.  Good hunting skills are required for most of these, however.  Located just preceding a curious circlet of faint stars.

So, despite frigid temperatures and many cloudy nights, I enjoyed amazing success, not likely to be repeated for some time.  A little vacation is planned next week to the American Southwest, so the next month of observing will be much shorter in duration.  I will be back right around new moon, hoping for a clear night or two.
Mapman Mike

#43 NGC Life List Update--How's My Observing?

When I first got seriously interested in amateur astronomy, I was determined to seek out all of the Herschel objects that were within reach of my Tasco 4.5" reflector, and then later my Edmund 8" reflector.  Star hopping to faint deep sky objects was quite easy with a properly aligned equatorial mount, which both scopes had.  Since acquiring my Orion 12" Dobsonian, and maps that amateurs in the 70s never dreamed of, I have become more interested in the NGC list.  Completing the list in one lifetime would be a daunting task, but I have decided to give it my best shot (see blog entry for 30/03/2013), counting the ones I saw previously with the 8".

I am only including the objects within my latitude range--I could not possibly hope to spend enough time in Chile or Australia to see all of the NGC objects only available to southern viewers.  Someday, however, I hope to get down there and at least view the highlights!  As my latitude is 42 degrees N, I can discount many of the objects in the catalogue, though I have plans to observe once or twice a year from about 36 degrees N, helping me to get the objects in the south skies too difficult from my home base.  And I am not interested in observing all of the NGC "mistakes."  Many objects turn out to be faint stars, or double stars, that perhaps looked nebulous to viewers back in the day.  Still others are duplicates of existing NGC entries.  I haven't yet determined how many objects of the 7800 I have available to me, but I am guessing it will be close to 5000.  As I am currently at just over 800 NGC objects seen, there is a long way to go.  The project would be much easier and faster with a 16", though to date I have found everything with the 12" that I have attempted.  Doubtless there will be some tiny, ultra-faint galaxies that I will never see, but by the time I have only those ones left to see, perhaps I will have a 16" scope or bigger.  Our astronomy club has a 14" at the observatory, and a very good friend of mine has a 22" Dob.  So the really faint ones are not causing me distress at this time.

I was never that familiar with the NGC list back in the early days (I began observing in late 1968), and when I did come across references to it in books it was usually described as a list of mostly very faint galaxies. That still describes the NGC pretty succinctly, though nowadays amateurs have access to telescope objective sizes we didn't even dream about back then!  A list of faint galaxies, while still quite intimidating, is within the reach of many amateurs and their large scopes.  Growing up, my local university had a 6" and an 8" scope.  Those were pretty big back then!  While I think they still are impressive, most observers would laugh at me for this belief (remember, a small scope back then was a 3").

Of course to seek out so many faint objects one must first have some type of mental disorder.  I don't know what mine is called, but I seem to be mostly alone out there in my search for all of the NGC.  The best part, of course, is after a night of observing many fainter objects, suddenly a 12.5 mag. galaxy is sighted and it seems like one is looking at the Andromeda galaxy!  Clusters appear twice as wonderful, as do globulars, after viewing galaxy after galaxy.  I never had much appreciation for fainter galactic nebula before, but I am now quite fascinated by them, even though some of the smaller, fainter ones resemble galaxies.  I am in no hurry to complete the list, either.  My Leo pre-observation rough pages number 30, with about 12 objects on each page.  In almost two years I have barely completed 3 pages!  I average about 3-4 deep sky objects per hour, not all of them NGC.  I like seeing what is in the neighbourhood, so if the NGC object is in an interesting area, I will take some time and have a look around to see what else is there.  Uranometria 2000, All-Sky Edition, accompanies me on every observing session.

I am happy knowing I will likely never complete my goal of seeing all of the available NGC objects.  It is comforting to me to know that there is so much out there.  If I make it a quarter of the way, or perhaps half, it will be an achievement worthy of some kind of award, no doubt self-presented.  "I present the distinguished 'He Tried but Failed to See all of the NGC' award to Mapman, from Ontario, Canada, one of the cloudiest places on the planet.  Good job, Mapman!"

 

Mapman Mike