10 replies to this topic

[Keith Rivich]

This is a continuation of the observing report I posted yesterday:

 

https://www.cloudyni...llenge-objects/

 

 

As with my previous post most observations are with my 25" f/5. 

 

We had a another pretty good night, though it didn't start off that way. Clear all day and then high wispy clouds moved in. As the sun set the sky had a dulled blue grey look to it. Rats. Was looking great all day. But as the sky darkened the stars just got brighter and brighter. Turned out so nice and transparent I could see M33 naked eye. Hadn't done that in quite a while!  As was the night before seeing was mediocre at best so small DSO's needed some loving care to tease any detail out. The planets didn't fair to well.

 

Here we go:

 

First is a negative observation. I had looked at Abell 84 the previous night with no problem. Looking at the DSS image the following morning I noticed there were three MAC galaxies just west of the planetary. And they looked quite bright. Here is the negative part. Couldn't see any of them. And they looked so promising. Oh, well. Larry Mitchell was set up right near me so I went over and moved his scope off of what he was looking at. I said that was for the MAC catalogue (he is the author). He laughed. But I did see one tonight. More on that later.

 

CED 211 was mentioned in a thread started by Scott Harrington last week. The previous night we didn't see the nebula as the seeing was quite rough at the time. Last night, though, seeing was much better and we were able to see CED 211, which is part the reddish star R Aquarii, as a faint haze around the star with one brighter extension to the south and a much fainter extension to the north. These extensions were very short. 

 

NGC 7626 galaxy group. Looking at Uranometria I noticed this bunching of galaxies in Pegasus, not to far from CED 211. This turned out to be a very busy field with all kinds of galaxies represented. It also included a MAC galaxy I could see! Larry, you are forgiven. Two bright ellipticals anchor this group, N7626 and N7619, with all the other galaxies swarming around them like so many bees. I counted 15 galaxies in one FOV. 35mm Pan. The highlights are:

 

UGC 12535 and MAC 2321-0810A. These made a really nice, though quite faint, pair. The UGC is an edge on with a listed magnitude of 16.6. The MAC was slightly smaller an a tad brighter. I would estimate its magnitude at ~16. 

 

UGC 12518 and NGC 7608. Both nearly edge on (6° inclinations) and very similar in brightness. 14.5 and 14 respectively. Curious that one is an NGC and the other is not. 

 

WLM (UGCA 444)  Wolf-Lundmark-Melotte is a very interesting galaxy. The galaxy is at the far fringes of the local group and shows very little evidence of interactions with other local group galaxies. Any irregularities, which there are some, are a product of it own environment. The galaxy itself is a football shaped haze around 12' long and 4' wide. It is in Cetus around 1° NE of the 6th magnitude star 1 Ceti. Of note, though, is not the galaxy but what is just on the western edge. The WLM 1 globular! Sitting just south of the 15th mag star GSC 5838:798 it is faintly visible as a hazy looking star. It compares nicely with the GSC star as the star stays point like while the globular starts getting nebulous as power is increased. 

 

The following are the rest of the planetaries Scott Harrington featured in the recent Sky and Tel magazine:

 

B-V 2, PK 121+0.1   Pretty tough to see. A smallish round glow. No detail. Best with the UHC

 

Semeis 22 (SH2-188)  This one looked amazing on the DSS but was a bust visually. They must have used their imagination filter when they took the image! With the OIII it was very tenuous with some hint of its banana shape. 

 

IC 1747  Nice little planetary with what appears to be a tiny dark hole in the middle (4.7mm Ethos, ~625x). Not quite a ring but a hole, if that makes sense. Very cool.

 

HFG 1, PK 136+5.1   I dunno about this one. Maybe a little smudge with the OIII. Maybe.

 

HDW 2, PK 138+4.1    Nothing. Nada. Diddly squat. rien. nenio. wala. niets. mitte midagi. 

 

IC 289 (Hubble 1)  This was a nice one to end on. Looked round and smooth at first but with higher mags the planetary took on a more squarish look. One axis of the square slightly brighter then the other axis. If that makes sense. Some mottling near the center. 

 

That's it. Did my usual bright stuff for an hour or so and headed in around 4am. This will be my last post for this trip as the weather is deteriorating and I will be headed home tomorrow. 

 

Clear skies all!

 

 

 

 

[Alex Swartzinski]

 

 

CED 211 was mentioned in a thread started by Scott Harrington last week. The previous night we didn't see the nebula as the seeing was quite rough at the time. Last night, though, seeing was much better and we were able to see CED 211, which is part the reddish star R Aquarii, as a faint haze around the star with one brighter extension to the south and a much fainter extension to the north. These extensions were very short. 

 

Great report!

 

It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one who failed to see this nebula with bad seeing. Last Saturday I had 20mph winds and a very turbulent atmosphere. There wasn't even the slightest hint of anything. Your post confirms that improved seeing conditions will made the difference. 

 

When you are looking at obscure objects like MAC galaxies, does your drive system and setting circles pick up these catalogs or are you using a very detailed star chart based off a brighter member nearby?

 

I might do setting circles this winter and I'm curious about well they work on the faint stuff. 

[bphaneuf]

Hey Keith.  I saw Pegasus 1 last week, and you're right that it's a busy group.  Really fun to pull out the members.  Here's what was visible in the FOV of the 21mm Ethos for the ones centered around 7619/26:

 

 

-b

[Keith Rivich]

Hey Keith.  I saw Pegasus 1 last week, and you're right that it's a busy group.  Really fun to pull out the members.  Here's what was visible in the FOV of the 21mm Ethos for the ones centered around 7619/26:

 

Pegasus 1.jpg

 

-b

Nice rendering! Don't know if you know it or not but you bagged the MAC galaxy. And Larry Mitchell is here with me and says congrats.

 

[Keith Rivich]

Great report!

 

It's nice to hear that I'm not the only one who failed to see this nebula with bad seeing. Last Saturday I had 20mph winds and a very turbulent atmosphere. There wasn't even the slightest hint of anything. Your post confirms that improved seeing conditions will made the difference. 

 

When you are looking at obscure objects like MAC galaxies, does your drive system and setting circles pick up these catalogs or are you using a very detailed star chart based off a brighter member nearby?

 

I might do setting circles this winter and I'm curious about well they work on the faint stuff. 

To answer the basic part of your question: No, the Argo Navis digital setting circle (DSC) does not include obscure DSO's in the data base. I suppose I could switch the display to Alt-Az and use that. But I don't.  I have several methods.

 

My most common method is to see if a DSO that is in the database is nearby, I prefer within a degree or so. I then slew to that object, observe it, then star hop (using the main optics and a wide field eyepiece) over to my original target. I usually use Megastar printed charts. 

 

If the target is several degrees away from a known DSO then I slew as before but use Uranometria and one of my finders to star hop. 

 

If the target is many degrees away from a know target, like WLM is, I telrad as close as I can then do a mental plate solve using my 6" finder. Once I identify and orient the field I star hop as usual. 

 

When you say setting circles are you thinking electronic (digital) or manual circles? 

Edited by Keith Rivich, 27 October 2022 - 09:00 PM.

[Alex Swartzinski]

To answer the basic part of your question: No, the Argo Navis digital setting circle (DSC) does not include obscure DSO's in the data base. I suppose I could switch the display to Alt-Az and use that. But I don't.  I have several methods.

 

My most common method is to see if a DSO that is in the database is nearby, I prefer within a degree or so. I then slew to that object, observe it, then star hop (using the main optics and a wide field eyepiece) over to my original target. I usually use Megastar printed charts. 

 

If the target is several degrees away from a known DSO then I slew as before but use Uranometria and one of my finders to star hop. 

 

If the target is many degrees away from a know target, like WLM is, I telrad as close as I can then do a mental plate solve using my 6" finder. Once I fond and orient the field I star hop as usual. 

 

When you say setting circles are you thinking electronic (digital) or manual circles? 

Thanks for sharing your methods. They show that even with circles/tracking there's still plenty of star hopping fun to be had. I was thinking of installing digital encoders on the 15".

Edited by Alex Swartzinski, 27 October 2022 - 08:41 PM.

[KidOrion]

Semeis 22 (SH2-188)  This one looked amazing on the DSS but was a bust visually. They must have used their imagination filter when they took the image! With the OIII it was very tenuous with some hint of its banana shape. 

"... and that, my liege, is how we know the nebula to be banana-shaped."

[bphaneuf]

Nice rendering! Don't know if you know it or not but you bagged the MAC galaxy. And Larry Mitchell is here with me and says congrats.

 

Pegasus 1 galaxy group.jpg

Thanks Keith, and to Larry as well.  I just saw that even though he lives in England he's a regular at the TX star party.  Congrats from you two is an honor!  Wonderful icing on the cake!  Yes, that little fuzzy nearly escaped me, and I didn't dig into the literature enough yet to identify it by name. So thanks for that too.

-b
 

Edited by bphaneuf, 28 October 2022 - 08:53 AM.

[Keith Rivich]

Thanks Keith, and to Larry as well.  I just saw that even though he lives in England he's a regular at the TX star party.  Congrats from you two is an honor!  Wonderful icing on the cake!  Yes, that little fuzzy nearly escaped me, and I didn't dig into the literature enough yet to identify it by name. So thanks for that too.

-b
 

 

Thanks Keith, and to Larry as well.  I just saw that even though he lives in England he's a regular at the TX star party.  Congrats from you two is an honor!  Wonderful icing on the cake!  Yes, that little fuzzy nearly escaped me, and I didn't dig into the literature enough yet to identify it by name. So thanks for that too.

-b
 

Wrong Larry. Larry Mitchell is from Houston and does the Advanced Observing List for TSP. Larry worked on galaxy identification and spatial orientation when Megastar was being developed. 

[bphaneuf]

Wrong Larry. Larry Mitchell is from Houston and does the Advanced Observing List for TSP. Larry worked on galaxy identification and spatial orientation when Megastar was being developed. 

Oops!   Thanks for the correction.  But with those credentials maybe an even bigger honor!

-b
 

[Keith Rivich]

I want to add a little bit to the observation of the WLM galaxy and its visible globular WLM 1. The post I sent earlier was rushed as I was trying to get packed up before the rains hit. 

 

This is a fascinating galaxy both scientifically and visually. Its fairly easy to see visually as long as the scope is in motion. Let the scope stop and it becomes a bit more difficult to see. But not terribly so. One thing you may notice is what looks like a star cluster just right of the galaxies center in the direction of WLM 1. In the 25" at 675x I could make out what looked like several individual stars. But I doubted that. Distance is listed at 3 to 3.5 mly. A bit more distant then M31. I.ve seen stars in M31 and they were much harder then what we saw. More then likely we saw stellar clusters within the OB1 association. Probably similar to NGC 206 in M31. I tried an OIII filter but the area didn't respond. 

 

The globular WLM 1 is also interesting visually. In most images it looks quite stellar, making you think you are going to see a starlike object. And at low power that is what you see. But as you go up in power you notice the globular starts taking on a granular appearance while the star next to it, GSC 5838:798 remains stellar. Very similar to observing M31's globs. 

 

Also of note the galaxy is slightly brighter in the southern half. Images show a lot of star formation south of the centerline. Interesting what half the galaxy would be active and the other half quiet. 

 

Here is an interesting paper on the galaxy:

https://iopscience.i...3881/aad4f6/pdf

 

 

 

Take a look let us know what you see!