gsETX70
super member
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Fort Worth, TX
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Monday night I decided to try an find a difficult target. I brought the 10" Dob outside to cool down at 8:30PM. At 10PM and went out to do a little observing. Using Stellarium and some info I got from the Web, I saw that 2007 TU24 should be at Alt: 29deg 24' 14" x Az:76deg 46' 55". I did not look at the magnitude, which was 17+.  Using an analog compass and a analog pitch indicator, I pointed the scope to those general coordinates. Looking through the 32mm, I saw two objects. One was very faint, but appeared to be a star. The other was brighter than the other but faint in the finder scope. I switched to a 10mm + 2x Barlow and the object is a little bigger. It appeared to be a little fuzzy. It did not want to focus to a pin point like stars and planets. At first I thought this was the asteroid. But, now that I know the max magnitude my 10" scope may get is 14, I started looking for possible DSO's.
Since the star was a pinpoint and this one would not resolve to a pinpoint, I thought it may be a galaxy. First I adjusted where I was actually looking for magnetic declination, which is ~4deg west of my compass needle. Looking at Stellarium for 2/18 @ 10PM, there are several galaxies at ~ Alt: 29deg / Az:72deg. NGC 4185 is magnitude 13. All the others seem to be 14+. What are the odds of seeing NGC 4185 or another Magnitude 13 object in the light polluted skies above my backyard? 
Thanks,
Glenn
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Orion XT-10 Classic Dobsonian 254mm
Meade ETX-70 70mm Refractor
Meade 70-AZ-A 70mm Refractor
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jhors
Riddle me this
Reged: 07/16/07
Posts: 989
Loc: Tempe, AZ
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If your skies are as polluted as mine are, I would say the chances are very small that it was 4185. I can't even see M1 from my backyard. Were you in Coma Berenices then? I would guess you saw the core of a brighter Messier galaxy or maybe globular cluster NGC 4147 
Hopefully someone can help you solve the mystery.
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-Josh
Boyce Thompson Arboretum:
10" f/4.7 Dob
8x42 bin
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gsETX70
super member
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Fort Worth, TX
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What should a Mag 10 Globular cluster look like through a 10" dob at 120X?
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Orion XT-10 Classic Dobsonian 254mm
Meade ETX-70 70mm Refractor
Meade 70-AZ-A 70mm Refractor
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pike_fly
sage
Reged: 10/10/07
Posts: 365
Loc: Roxborough Park, Colorado
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Depends on the cluster size - a small cluster could easily look like a galaxy.
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Lee
8" Celestron f6 Dobsonian
10" Zhumell Dobsonian
Class 4 Bortle Scale Backyard Site
View Lee's Gallery
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gsETX70
super member
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Fort Worth, TX
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NGC 4147 is probably what I saw. I looked at some images on Google and at low mag it looks very similar. That plus the nearby star give more reason to think that is what I saw. All you do is flip the image and zoom out, and that is probably it.
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Orion XT-10 Classic Dobsonian 254mm
Meade ETX-70 70mm Refractor
Meade 70-AZ-A 70mm Refractor
Edited by gsETX70 (02/21/08 02:55 PM)
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Acheron
scholastic sledgehammer
Reged: 08/07/05
Posts: 776
Loc: Croatia, Velika Gorica
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Quote:
Monday night I decided to try an find a difficult target. I brought the 10" Dob outside to cool down at 8:30PM. At 10PM and went out to do a little observing. Using Stellarium and some info I got from the Web, I saw that 2007 TU24 should be at Alt: 29deg 24' 14" x Az:76deg 46' 55". I did not look at the magnitude, which was 17+. Using an analog compass and a analog pitch indicator, I pointed the scope to those general coordinates. Looking through the 32mm, I saw two objects. One was very faint, but appeared to be a star. The other was brighter than the other but faint in the finder scope. I switched to a 10mm + 2x Barlow and the object is a little bigger. It appeared to be a little fuzzy. It did not want to focus to a pin point like stars and planets. At first I thought this was the asteroid. But, now that I know the max magnitude my 10" scope may get is 14, I started looking for possible DSO's.
Since the star was a pinpoint and this one would not resolve to a pinpoint, I thought it may be a galaxy. First I adjusted where I was actually looking for magnetic declination, which is ~4deg west of my compass needle. Looking at Stellarium for 2/18 @ 10PM, there are several galaxies at ~ Alt: 29deg / Az:72deg. NGC 4185 is magnitude 13. All the others seem to be 14+. What are the odds of seeing NGC 4185 or another Magnitude 13 object in the light polluted skies above my backyard?
Thanks,
Glenn
You've spotted M3 globular cluster in my opinion. At 22:00 M3 was at Azimuth 71°25° and alt 22°. Since the Moon was very bright stars in M3 where probably invisible so the cluster was unrecognizable. That are my 2 cents.
PS: It is not a good time to hunt comets during almost full Moon.
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I like sketching...
8" F6 Dob - "Betsy"
12" F5 Dob - "Tristac"
25x100 Binos
Messier Catalogue - done
Herschel 400 - 189 more to go
http://www.inet.hr/~vevrhova/english/index
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stevecoe
"Astronomical Tourist"
Reged: 04/24/04
Posts: 2861
Loc: Arizona, USA
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From light polluted skies, I agree with M 3, 4147 is pretty low surface brightness, so it would be tough to see under low contrast conditions.
My 4 cents;
Steve Coe
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TeleVue 102 refractor on CGEM mount
9.25 inch Celestron SCT
Author "Deep Sky Observing" Springer-Verlag
Author "Nebulae and How to Observe Them" Springer
Canon Xt astrocamera with Hutech modification
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gsETX70
super member
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Fort Worth, TX
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Thanks for the additional suggestion. I'll have to go to a dark spot during the next new moon and have another look. Should I expect my 10" Dob to reveal more detail from a dark site on a moonless night? I may bring my ETX-70 to help identify objects.
Glen
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Orion XT-10 Classic Dobsonian 254mm
Meade ETX-70 70mm Refractor
Meade 70-AZ-A 70mm Refractor
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gsETX70
super member
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Fort Worth, TX
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Could have been M53? That is closer to the Az my scope was pointed to. But, both are fairly low in sky.
I'm beginning to think I should have gone with the XT10i instead of the Classic.
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Orion XT-10 Classic Dobsonian 254mm
Meade ETX-70 70mm Refractor
Meade 70-AZ-A 70mm Refractor
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jhors
Riddle me this
Reged: 07/16/07
Posts: 989
Loc: Tempe, AZ
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Quote:
. . .I'm beginning to think I should have gone with the XT10i instead of the Classic.
Or the next best thing: a Telrad and some charts 
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-Josh
Boyce Thompson Arboretum:
10" f/4.7 Dob
8x42 bin
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gsETX70
super member
Reged: 12/21/07
Posts: 114
Loc: Fort Worth, TX
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Thanks, but I have a Telrad and Stellarium.
I did not take the laptop outside to star hop to the target. I wanted to try using a compass and inclinometer to prepare for using the setting circle I'm installing.
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Orion XT-10 Classic Dobsonian 254mm
Meade ETX-70 70mm Refractor
Meade 70-AZ-A 70mm Refractor
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walt r
Post Laureate
Reged: 02/13/07
Posts: 3524
Loc: Doylestown, PA
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Glenn,
Just jot a note about what you saw and where then when the Moon is gone look for it again.
To you this is a Discovery and it doesn't matter if its a cataloged object. This is part of the adventure.
I have scopes with the computers that will guide me to any object but at times I just go looking. I've 'found' a number of objects I would not have looked at using the computer. Althrough my earlier scope where manually moved and used mechcanical setting circles. I learned a lot about how to find objects etc with those scopes.
Your experience is gaining, you knew it wasn't a star, and as you continue observing you will improve your ability to find and identify objects. The setting circles will help you to know where the scope is pointing and to find objects.
That was a good report, keep at it.
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Walt
Obsession 18" f/4.45 #1370 AN/SC
MK67 Deluxe 6" f/12 Mak-Cass, Super Polaris GEM, JMI MicroMax DSC
DIY 60mm f/6 Achromat
Cookbook 245 CCD
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