Telescope Reviews: NGC 5350 group and more.

While the basin was awash with clouds and light rain last Saturday the high desert was clear and warm! On arriving at the club site the usual afternoon wind that always seems to greet everyone slowly gave way so that by sundown we had very clear, transparent skies with either calm or just a light breeze. Seeing was not a strong point and limited me to between 95x and 135x with the 15" which was ok as the conditions were perfect for GALAXIES!!! What else do you look at in the Spring, huh?

I warmed up for the first hour or so with the usual M and bright NGC suspects allowing for maximum dark adaptation for the first challenge of the night.
Just east of 68 Leonis in the hindquarters I tried for Hickson 53. Using the new, excellent guide done by Alvin Huey I found it quite easily at 95x. The main member, NGC 3697 was seen as a faint, edge-on slash with some central brightening. With averted vision there seemed to be some stellarings along the long axis but no real detail.
A faint 13th to 14th mag star seperated the NGC object from 2 other very faint members, MCG+4-27-44 & 45. Both were essentially round. 44 showed as slighter brighter than 45 with some central brightening during steady seeing. 45 was only seen as a faint, round spot with no detail.
135x helped with the contrast but no additional detail was seen. THere is a 4th member, PGC 35381 but it was well beyond this aperture.
The next stop was Canes Venatici. After good looks with the Whale, Pup and the Hockey Stick I star hopped east toward the constellation's edge near Bootes. There lies the NGC 5350 group. An excellent Martin Germano picture of this field is located on Pg 57, Vol.II of the Night Sky Observer's Guide.
A bright, orange star anchors the group and gives a really wonderful dose of eye candy. There are 5 objects in this group. At 135X NGC 5350 is bright, oval shaped with a slightly elongated brighter core. Just a couple of arc minutes south is NGC 5353 & 5354. This pair almost touch at their NW edges. Smaller but slightly brighter, 5353 shows a lenticular shape while 5354 is a more circular shaped, diffuse object. To the east just a few more arc minutes away from 5353/54 are two other members, NGC 5355 & 5358. They appear as very faint, tiny round spots with no detail other than faint, stellar nucleus'
With 95x to complete the field of view, NGC 5371 lies some half a degree East from the 5350 group near its own 9th or 10th mag star. This is a very nice face on spiral that shows a faint, mottled oval halo around a brighter center with a stellar core. I like this field of galaxies very much and would urge anyone with an 8" or larger scope to check it out the next time they are wandering around in Canes Venatici.
Also, off and on, I checked out the two brighter pieces of the comet. I did not find the other, very faint parts. Not sure if it was the seeing or if they were well beyond my aperture. The second, fainter piece was still easily seen in the 10x50's!! A very nice evening indeed. And, I get to do it all over again this next Saturday! I love these weekends that straddle the new moon.

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Phil Agins
15" Discovery TD
10" Discovery PDHQ
5.7" Ceravolo Mak-Newt HD145
TeleVue-102 / TEC 140 (on order)
Vixen ED80Sf
Coronado PST