54 replies to this topic

[bphaneuf]

Is it time to kick start the thread?  These were some nice finds in Andromeda last winter.

 

G1 is a monster globular in M31:

 

         

 

 

 PS J0147+4630 or Andromeda's parachute is a quadruple-lensed quasar nearly 11 billion ly out:

 

         

 

-b

[mdowns]

Wonderful targets Butch,always enjoy the lessor knowns posted to the threads.I'll go in a very different direction.Both of these are from Aquarius. M2 as seen with the c11 and M73 as viewed with the equinox.I was never one to sketch the bogus DSOs that messier included but decided to give it a try this time around as I explore with the equinox.Each are 'easy peasy' types.

 

 

[Raul Leon]

Ngc 1055 spiral galaxy in Cetus ; magnitude:10.6 ; size : 6.9' x 3.5' ; fairly bright, very elongated ; a triangle of stars point to it ; dark lane just visible with averted vision and good seeing ; I used a 6mm Ethos at 304x with my 14.5 StarStructure f/4.3

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[nof]

These are very nice sketches, Michael, particularly M2. I like the way you do the sky background.

Wonderful targets Butch,always enjoy the lessor knowns posted to the threads.I'll go in a very different direction.Both of these are from Aquarius. M2 as seen with the c11 and M73 as viewed with the equinox.I was never one to sketch the bogus DSOs that messier included but decided to give it a try this time around as I explore with the equinox.Each are 'easy peasy' types.

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[TomC]

Pisces contains many hidden deepsky gems. I remember vividly observing these two galaxy clusters: 

 

 

 

[bphaneuf]

Love these Tom.  I'm always drawn to galaxy groups and these are terrific.

-b

[David Gray]

Using a newly acquired a 2” SW ED Barlow and more in mind for use with the SW 120mm f/5 refractor.  Given a good few nights of fine/excellent conditions I took to looking at smaller fainter DSOs with it on the D-K.  But screwed in the barrel of the 24mm/82º ES Maxvision becomes 285x1.67 =~475x rather than the 570x with the supplied extension tube. This has given some fine views on the fairly recent good night conditions with smaller-scale DSOs and here an example from 2019.

 

Interacting Galaxies NGC 7714 & 7715: (adapted from an earlier thread) Very easy to locate being just inside the Pisces Circlet about 3.4’ north of 16 Psc. The star being mag. 5.7 and in the aperture used the star is a glaring distraction seriously affecting the view of those galaxies – especially 14th mag. NGC 7715.  The Barlowed view considerably eased the situation, and it was striking to see NGC 7714, especially, ‘grow and shrink’ as the star was eased in and out of bottom-field.

 
For the sake of rendering the overall affecting of the star I have rather overstated the effect of its light in the field; and at the same time also somewhat overstated the galaxies...BUT...understated those as compared to the view with the star out of the field........Thus trying to convey the general experience – hoping to get **a future glare-free and well dark-adapted view in due course**…..see below
 
Similar to sweeping across comets this up and down moving was quite surely bringing out the bridge twixt the galaxies – even with the star not quite from the field!
 
**Following up from that: a year later looking at Neptune one night in very good conditions I realized that the region of those Pisces galaxies was well available.  With the Zeiss Monocentric already installed I thought it the best ep I have for that hoped-for better view.  Same magnification as before, but relative to the much smaller fov they look much larger.  Here the Mono’s simpler/crisper light throughput vs the greater amount of glass used in 2019 surely gave a superior view I felt**………..Dave. 

 

 

Edited by David Gray, 21 September 2023 - 10:20 AM.

[mdowns]

These are both drawings from this August using the equinox(eaa).The Aquarius foursome of NGC 6978,6977,6976 and pgc 65612 form a handsome grouping across the fov while M110 has always had appeal to me.Using the equinox I was able to observe a number of outlying M 31 globs reaching across the fov. I'm certain there were more but these are the ones I IDd. Both g51 and g111 are brighter than I rendered them.

 

 

[TomC]

Whoah ... that M110  

[nof]

I was just now looking at M110. From my location I can see that it’s still there and that’s about it. I wish it looked as nice as your fine sketch! Good job identifying those globulars.

These are both drawings from this August using the equinox(eaa).The Aquarius foursome of NGC 6978,6977,6976 and pgc 65612 form a handsome grouping across the fov while M110 has always had appeal to me.Using the equinox I was able to observe a number of outlying M 31 globs reaching across the fov. I'm certain there were more but these are the ones I IDd. Both g51 and g111 are brighter than I rendered them.

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[mdowns]

Thank you nof. The eaa of the equinox is an amazing tool for viewing what I otherwise, would simply not be able to see.

[mdowns]

Where did every body go? Still time to post to the thread. Here is a recent drawing using the eaa of the equinox to observe ngc 477 in Andromeda.For galaxies,large and small the equinox excells. However,some targets respond poorly to the live stacking and ngc 7009 is one such target.In the equinox it is a bright,sharp, featureless disk with ansae but no other features.The view with a traditional scope (as in my old c11 drawing) far excels that of the eaa,at least in my mind's eye in this instance.

 

 

[Tom Axelsen]

I just found an older sketch, actually one of my very few (two) electronic sketchs.

 

Back in January 2019 I observed Andromeda's parachute with my then new to me 20" f/5 Obsession. Thankfully the telescope is installed on an EQ-table, making it easy to track objects at high magnifications. This observation was done at 726x with a 5 mm Supermonocentric eyepiece giving a crazy small FOV of 2.5 arcminuttes.

 

The weather was great, giving moments of great seeing, allowing me to see two of the four components in the parachute.

 

It was mind boggling and a bit scary to look down, into the time abysse of the parachute, standing on a ladder with the eyepiece 2.5 meter above ground in complet darkness 

 

N = North, V = West

 

Edited by Tom Axelsen, 26 September 2023 - 08:21 AM.

[bphaneuf]

To piggy back on Michael's sketch from a non eaa view of NGC 7009 - the Saturn Nebula  - here are sketches from a visual observation from a few weeks ago:

 

at 235x

 

 

 

and conditions permitted 762x

 

 

-b

[David Gray]

Cetus Galaxies.  Even the better placed ones are not especially high in our skies here.
 
M77: When the conditions are obliging this fine spiral is easily picked up in the 10x50 finder.  A particular bonus being it hosted a supernova………!

 

 

NGC 1073:  Close North of M77. I [still] need to get back to this one for more scrutiny; my being somewhat distracted a few times by a little mystery just to its north.....An apparent Carbon star - misty-looking - turned out to be superimposed almost smack center on a distant faint galaxy....!

 

As reported in 2019….
 “Back in 2017 I had noticed that Sky Map Pro had a very red star plotted about 2’ N’east of a strongly orange 8th mag. star.  The pair a little over 20’ NNW of 1073.  I have SM Pro star colours configured so as to show deep red stars more intensely in order to alert me to possible carbon stars.  Like a good number more that particular one was not shown as a known variable.

 

What struck me when I first looked at it with the D-K was that it seemed immersed in a slight haze.....!  Too late to follow up in that part of the sky’s season I had to wait till early Autumn 2018 to check that out, and again the haze but seemed as wing-like/elongated: angled through maybe P.A. 160º-340º. Anyway setting SM Pro at a higher level showed the galaxy UGC 2199 and near centred on the red star. The star being TYC 47-720-1 (Mag. 10.78, B-V +3.175); the 8th mag. star itself is quite a nice rusty-orange hue (B-V +1.698 – Type M).

 
Inputting TYC 47-720-1 on Simbad simply took me to UGC 2199 – little sign of a superposed red star.  Even so there is something stellar and very red in the eyepiece view and would be very surprised if it were the core of that galaxy – a foreground star I’m pretty much persuaded.......”
 
Not a listed variable, but seems up to a magnitude fainter than I saw it in 2017 – also the colour not so obvious latterly, and have seen it in some very good clear and steady conditions since end September this year."

 

 

IC 1613:   I had often considered looking at this all the way back to the 1960s (10” Newt then).  But never being hopeful that it would even show – but a nice surprise the date of the rendering……….Dave.

 

[mdowns]

Tom(Yikes on your observing station!) and Dave,these are the kind of targets that I enjoy most about this thread. IC 1613 has been on my short list for the equinox for a few weeks now.I'm looking at clouds until the 3rd or so but I'm going after it asap.

[nof]

I have made notes about viewing this nebula three times in the past couple years. All I could see was a suggestion of the Saturn- like form. And the color. You really have a special view there! The view at 762x is incredible. You’re using a 24” and I’ve used a 10” scope- a good one. Quality of seeing is always important but it seems like the extra light does wonders for this object. I’ll have to pursue this in my 14” on a good night.
Great!
 

To piggy back on Michael's sketch from a non eaa view of NGC 7009 - the Saturn Nebula - here are sketches from a visual observation from a few weeks ago:

at 235x

NGC 7009 235x.jpg


and conditions permitted 762x

NGC 7009 762x.jpg

-b

Edited by mdowns, 27 September 2023 - 06:58 PM.

[David Gray]

Aquarius: Mars-Neptune Rendezvous    (As reported back then…...”Mars & Neptune Through Earth’s Veils!”)………..
 

Nicely clear near Mars around sunset (15:40 UT), but with some menacing cloud building to the S’west.  Got nicely blue-contrasting Neptune easily in the D-K (385x/Binovu) at 16:10 UT and some 15 minutes later in the 3” (55x). Tho’ expect that might have been all the sooner if I’d remembered that scope’s view was South-up.........

 

 First sketch [Dall-Kirkham] (moderate seeing) is the usual HB/stump-painted effort, tinted and scaled in Corel to the field circle.  During that sketch in spite of the twilight (mid-Nautical) I picked out Triton pretty well – shown a little more than actual distance-scale to convey the actual ep impression.
 
By that was completed the cloud, being watched with an anxious eye, was looming and some bands of cirrostratus were already slowly drifting over the planets.
 
Hoping for some luck the already aimed 120mm SW refractor (26x/3.1º FOV) was used to lay in the well seen star-field for the second rendition.  Overcoming my cloud-prejudice I came to accept that there was an aesthetic element to those, partly Mars-lit, diaphanous cloud bands.  On a hunch I thought the scene might lend to the 20x100s – and was entranced by a more accentuated view; and actually caught the waited-for scene: when it [the cloud] was virtually clear of Neptune...........
 
Love it when something comes out of a seemingly lost situation........then it rained..........!…..Dave.

 

 

 

[Tom Axelsen]

David, I really like your rendering of Mars and Neptune throught the D-K. It looks like the real thing

[mdowns]

Here's two galaxy groups viewed and drawn recently via the equinox(EAA). The ngc 128 group from Pisces and the ngc 672 group in Triangulum.

 

 

[bphaneuf]

Here's two galaxy groups viewed and drawn recently via the equinox(EAA). The ngc 128 group from Pisces and the ngc 672 group in Triangulum.

 

DSCF1321.JPG

 

DSCF1309.JPG

Love that wider view of the 128 grouping and the outlying galaxies that the equinox pulled in.  Kicking myself that I missed 125 despite that tight, bright pair of markers to the east.  I've not seen 672 but that bar is spectacular and the detail in the halo is subtly drawn, almost like double chevrons on each end.  All nicely rendered as always!

-b

Edited by bphaneuf, 29 September 2023 - 12:25 PM.

[Raul Leon]

Jones 1 is a planetary nebula in Pegasus: magnitude:12.10 ; size:5.2' ; large and pretty faint ; OIII filter works well on this object ; 31mm Nagler at 91x with Astronomik OIII filter with my 14.5 StarStructure f/4.3 

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[David Gray]

David, I really like your rendering of Mars and Neptune throught the D-K. It looks like the real thing

Thanks Tom - much appreciated.....and thanks for the likes folks........

 

Cheers,

Dave. 

[mdowns]

Jones 1 is a planetary nebula in Pegasus: magnitude:12.10 ; size:5.2' ; large and pretty faint ; OIII filter works well on this object ; 31mm Nagler at 91x with Astronomik OIII filter with my 14.5 StarStructure f/4.3 

You always deliver the ones that most never see or even know about Raul,another beauty!

[bphaneuf]

Before the month closes out, here's Pegasus I from around a year ago.

 

 

-b