Being Obsessive.. Part II

Continued..

Draco
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M102 spindle and galaxy 5907 next to it : M102 was my missing messier and we found it this time. While looking for it, we ended up 5907. Just based on Telerad location, it didn't seem like the right one. 5907 is still very impressive. long, edge-on. not that faint. Took us a while to get to M102. M102 is definitely smaller than ngc, but brighter. Its very close to a star, which is barely visible through naked eye.

So if we have been looking through smaller scope, then i believe m102 will pop up first and ngc would be hard to catch. Now thats a big gotchaa in this big scope, everything seems to be relatively brighter and so will get confused often.

Finally.. I have bagged all messiers now. Still need to observe these more than once.

Gemini
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Eskimo Nebula: When I asked Jon, what was the most interesting object for him in his new big aperture scope, he had mentioned to me about Eskimo nebula. so visited it tonight again. Jon located this one. At 400x, very bright circular disk. Core is brighter. Inside the circular disk and outside the core, you will see some inner ring. With more magnification of 522x in 7mm Nagler, the inner ring was clearly visible. Seeing wasn't so great, so had lil hard time to get the sharp view. Jon observed it at 760x as well with 4.8 Nagler.

Taurus
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M1 : Crab nebula : Very big, bright elliptical fuzzy. no internal details visible. but definitely one of the bigger objects in messier list.

Leo
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M65-M66-3628 triplet : Indeed beautiful and bight triplet. Fainter 3628 was edge-on. probably brightness is same as Draco 5807 gal and similar in size.

Bootes
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M3 GC : Looks nice in the big scope. Stars can be resolved at the core. Stars really weren't pinpoint because of seeing (i guess).

Virgo
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Markarains Chain : Browsed through Markarains chain and near by fuzzies. Probabaly observed in following order: 1 (4429) + 1 (4440) + Markarains chain {{ 4 (M86+M84)-+ 2 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 2 }} + 1 (M88) + 1 (M91)

Also, while relocating, observed few more : M58 + 4564 + antenna galaxy type pair (4567-68) + some more fuzzies that i don't remember now :). The fainter galaxies also seem brighter in the big scope, So really need to watch out.

Browsing through this region gives idea about all types of galaxies : brightness, size and shape.

Saturn
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Visited twice during the session. Seeing was always bad. Rings were bright. Saw a darker band on the Saturn's surface. According to Jon, it should be the shadow of the rings on front side. this dark band-shadow was aligned with back side of the ring. Ashwin got confused, wondering how we can see the rear part of rings like this. Instead it was the shadow of front part of the rings. Wish the view would have been more sharp. It was the last object of the night.

Fuzzies Everywhere - I

Date: May 15th 2010 Saturday
Observation Time: 8:00pm to 12:30pm (4.5hrs),
Location: Jon's Home, Boulevard, CA
Weather: Excellent.. no clouds.. no winds.. probably best night till now in 2010. seeing was lil bad 8/10.. transparency 9/10
Instruments: Jon's 16" dob, my 10" dob, np101 APO.
Buddies: Jon


Venus - telescope not cooled down yet.. pretty bad view from my 10" or jon's 16" scope.. blurry..

Moon - few degrees west from venus.. second day phase of moon.. really slick.. excellent view of venus-moon pair as the darkness evolved.

Saturn - excellent view from 16".. jon's scope more stable than mine.. ring, shadow of the ring.. lil gaseous pattern on the disk, 3 moons on right.. in my 10" scope, 7mm image was good.. but barlowed 7mm really blurry..

Castor - easy split with my scope. 4.7 arcmins is indeed easy to split.

Izar - Indeed interesting. companion is in a diffraction ring of primary star. from APO NP101, its a marvelous view. with my 10" scope, can see it, but not as sharp and clean as the apo.

Gamma Leo - Easy split. Companion seems smaller than Primary.

Porrima - Indeed hard.. higher magnification thru Join's 16".. don't remember how much. Its not an easy split. I am able to manage it with my scope. with 7mm ep i.e. 171x (i guess)

M44 - Beehive thru my 10" 35mm pan @ 35x.. looks marvelous. Are there any doubles in here???

M3 - Lost a track to locate this one. Not sure why it happens. Excellent view. Darker the sky better view..

-- Hot chocolate break --

Virgo All messiers: After last week's vrgo browsing, I have gained some confidence in how to browse through fuzzies in this area. In fact last time i missed few nearby messiers.. with smaller 10" scope + 35 Pan @ 35x, shows whole area clearly. should observe this when it real dark and calm, to see more fuzzies at such a low magnification. I was expecting lil better view in my scope, probably lower mag didn't show much. Still can clearly see lot of messiers and ngc objects too in markarains chain.

6 Com star-M98-M99-M100-Markarains chain with M84-M86-4388-4387-4402-Eyes4438-4435-4461-4473. Also M88 and M91 were clearly visible because of low mags. I missed these two las time. Again, M87-M89-M90 visible. On eastern side, M58-M59-M60 were also visible. Lil down M49 was an easy catch. I also mentioned to Jon abt missing M61 (New).. both of us located it and looked at it together. Easier to locate.. Jon noticed few NGCs nearby too..

Did I miss M85, which lil above M100 ??? Hmmm...

Continued..

Hunting Virgo Fuzzies II

Continued..

- Omega Centauri: Easy capture..i really need to see this one from some dark place.. or from india :)

- Centaurus A - Hamburger galaxy - From the refractor NP101, it seemed like a faint loose cluster.. i don't know why.. when i saw omega centauri cluster nearby, i told jon i dont remmeber nay cluster nearby, but there is hamburger galaxy nearby.. and precisely that was it, when we looked thru the 16" scope.. I think Jon was forgotten abt this one.. that was interesting :).. any way the hamburger shape looks perfect.. again lil faint than what i expteted.. It looked awesome thru SDAA scope.. i guess its bad transparency..

- Virgo Fuzzies: I have browsed thru these before, but just never get a confidence of which one is where or how to browse.. So this time, planned it before coming to the observation. got all the prints to locate the objects correctly..

Starting with Epsilon Vir or Vir 33 or Vir 34 always gets me to wrong location. Found M49 (New) easily with this.

Because of Jon's heavier scope and virgo being overhead, also loose the sense of direction. so wasn;t able to locate Markarain's chain correctly.

If you start through Com 6, then its lil easier, because there are not too many fuzzies on the way, to be lost. Also 6 com is easy to locate from Leo Denebola.

M98 on west side while M99 on SE. M100 is also not far from 6 coma.

If you extend the line of M98-6Com-M99 then it goes all the way to Markarain's chain. No other fuzzies in the middle.

Markarain's chain (New in details): M86 bigger than M84. 4388 also seems impressive being edge-on. 4387 clearly visible. also, Jon's 16" aperture shows 4413 and 4425 clearly. 4402 below M86 is visible. Next, Pair of 4438-4435, Eyes Galaxies, visible. 4438 definitely seems to have bright off-core material. Next set of galaxy pair 4461-4458 visible, though smaller.. and then brighter 4473-4477 is visible.. Also, 4479 which is next to 4477 is also visible.. so complete Markarains chain visible.. In the process, I missed M88 and M91.. tried it in Jon's scope, but somehow lost the direction.. I should be able to see all these 16 galaxies from my 10" scope as well..

Once back to M86-M84, can move to east of M84-4388 line to go to M87 (New). 4478-4476 clearly visible next to m87.. really tiny..

If we follow the same line M84-M87, it leads to M58 (New)... otherwise in triangle fashion lies M89 (new) next to a bright star. M90 (New) is close by. 4531 next to M90 is also visible. Also, betn M89 and M58 likes the galaxy pair 4450-4551.

Same line of M84-M87-M58 goes to M59 (New) and M60 (New). 4667-4638 are also visible.

I reversed the whole sequence again back to markarains chain-> M98..

Overall i ended up browsing 31 gals + missed two (M88-M91).. wow.. indeed a galactic zoo..

M81-M82: Just before packing up, thought will take a look.. but failed :) not sure why i wasn't able to find them.. too tired..