Sunday 2 April 2017

#105 Climbing Mount Everest: The NGC Project Contines!

NOTE:  Part of this article appeared in the March newsletter of the RASC Windsor, Canada.

Up to and including April 1st, 2017, I managed to snag 68 new NGC/IC objects, mostly in Auriga and Leo.  I enjoyed 10 outings with the 12" Dob, totaling just over 26 chilly hours of observing time.  I also managed to add 24 new deep sky objects from other catalogues, as well as a few dozen double stars.  I still have a few years to go before finishing Leo, but have added 48 of its NGC galaxies so far this year.  Auriga will be easily finished next autumn/winter, and then I will commence my first extensive survey of Orion.  It has been a productive winter and early spring.  Once Leo has passed by, I will resume work in Bootes and Hercules, likely finishing up NGC work in both constellations this season.

When exactly I decided to go for all of the NGC I cannot say, but I likely had a fever at the time.  I am not pursuing all of the IC objects at this moment, but I do drop in on them if nearby, as well as objects from other catalogues.  I wanted to take my time seeing each NGC object, recording it in my log (with a sketch if possible) and hopefully remembering many of them with the help of my notes.  I did not want this to become merely a checklist, and so far it has not been so.


From 42 degrees N Lat. there are approximately 6400 NGC objects visible, out of a total of 7800+.  I do not usually plan on viewing galaxies if they fall below -30 degrees declination, but with clusters I can go almost to the horizon (around -40 degrees).  I have seen a few larger and brighter galaxies lower than -30 degrees, but they are not usually very impressive in our south skies from Hallam Observatory.  In a moment I will tell you how many NGC objects I have seen so far.  I do count ones I have seen with the old 8” scope and not yet with the 12”, though I have redone many of them with the larger aperture.
 

During the spring of 2013 I began my Leo project observing from Malden, Essex County, Ontario.  The south skies were okay, but not great.  I didn’t observe from Hallam Observatory until much later that year.  So my first season was rather slow going, and I ended up with less than 35 galaxies observed.  Still, it had been the start of a great adventure and I couldn’t wait for the next year.  In the meantime I had expanded my NGC project to Lyra, then on to Cygnus, Cassiopeia, Cepheus, Cetus, Bootes, Lepus, Monoceros, Sagittarius, Aquila, Delphinus, Equuleus, and others, now all completed except Cetus.  I am continuing my work in Leo, as well as in Hercules, Pegasus, and a few others.

Back to Leo.  I have now spent four spring seasons observing galaxies here (all of the Leo NGCs are galaxies).  2017 is my fifth year exploring this most amazing constellation.  Though Leo has its fair share of 14th mag. little troublemakers, there are so many bigger and brighter ones that during each session I can count on at least one gem, if not more.  And they often come in twos, threes, fours, and mores.  Some sessions I may only log six or seven objects, especially if they are all singles.  Other nights I might grab fifteen, especially if there is a quintet (last night I got 12).  Some of the galaxies require great finding skills.  I generally use my Push-To computer to get into an area, then star hop (actually, galaxy hop) for the session.  I may spend more time searching for a faint galaxy than observing it, but the brighter ones get plenty of my observing time.  I have now located and recorded 250 of Leo’s 363 galaxies.  That’s a little better than 50 per year on average, not that far from my original goal (last year was my most successful, seeing around 80!).  I even make time to go back and review some of them from time to time, and not just the five Messier objects.  Leo is an amazing playground for a 12” scope!


And finally, how many of the 6400 NGC objects available to me from Hallam have I observed so far?  Would you believe just over 1700? (as of Apr. 1st, 2017)  That is a little better than 25% of them!  Huzzah!  It will be impossible to finish the project in my lifetime, but I like it that way.  I will never run out of things to observe.  I will certainly finish the summer and autumn NGCs, but the spring galaxies will prove to be too overwhelming.  Winter is also a tough season for observers in Canada.  I will continue to report on my progress here; usually as I finish a constellation I post about it here.  Due to the size and number of Leo objects I will continue to post progress reports by Uranometria chart.  An new entry should come later, so check back if you are a Leo fan.

Clear skies!
Mapman Mike

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