5/7/21
Location: Anza desert site,
Bortle 3.5
Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
SCT and Celestron 150ST
achro on
SW SkyTee 2 manual AltAz mount.
This year Anza desert went from winter gray straight to summer brown. So, no desert bloom pics. Instead, here are pomegranate blossoms from our garden.
I guess because of lack of fresh vegetation I don’t see much wildlife this spring in the desert either. Even coyotes are silent at night. It seems that all desert wildlife has migrated to our yard. Pocket gophers, moles, ground squirrels and rabbits are residents, and possums, racoons and coyotes are frequent visitors.
This spring we got new arrival – snakes! One day we heard our chickens making ruckus, came to investigate and saw to our horror that they are mobbing a snake. We thought it was a rattler, but upon closer investigation it turned out to be a harmless gopher snake. After that we keep seeing them almost every day. Thankfully, no rattlers in our yard yet.
Anyway, last Friday I have arrived to a nice cool dry weather at Anza. Set and aligned the scopes and had a nice dinner watching sunset colors and stars coming out. Around 21:00 Milky Way became well structured – galaxy time! Booties was rising in the darkest portion of the sky and I decided to spend my evening there.
Booties galaxies (all observed with 9.25” Edge)
NGC 5519 – faint oval. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5587 – narrow faint lens with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5594 – faint small elongated oval. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5596 – small round spot with AV. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5598 – faint oval with narrow brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5603 – faint oval in the same
FOV with
NGC 5598. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5608 – extra faint spot with AV. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5610 – elongated oval with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5614 – one of highlights of the evening. Nice bright galaxy. Wide oval disk with brightness increasing to the center and round core. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5616 – very faint narrow lens. Pentax XW14 (168x)
NGC 5621 – group of 3 faint stars according to online images. I saw very faint spot with Pentax XW20 (118x). Tried to resolve individual stars, but it disappeared from view with XW14 and XW10. The seeing was pretty bad that evening.
NGC 5622 – faint oval. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5623 – faint oval with stellar core. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5630 – small narrow lens. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5633 – small bright disk. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5635 – narrow lens. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5637 – small faint spot with AV. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5642 – small disk with star shining through. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5648 (aka
NGC 5649) and
NGC 5655 – two extra faint ovals in the same
FOV. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5653 – bright small wide oval with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118x)
Omega Centauri
During my sessions I often take a break from
EP to relax and enjoy the sky with naked eyes. I was tracing constellations and noticed that Centaurus was at it’s highest. I am sure you have your favorite targets associated with seasons. To me summer starts when Omega Centauri arrives for a short time. Could not pass the opportunity. Gigantic swarm of stars was impressive and easily filled
FOV of Pentax XW20 (118x) in the Edge 9.25”. That’s what you call a glob! 150ST with XW14 (54x) delivered a large snowball framed by field stars with core unresolved. In Edge 9.25” the stars within the glob had bluish tint, while in 150ST it had warm white color.
And back to Booties.
NGC 5654 – small oval with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5656 – small wide lens with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5672 – small round disk next to STF 1855 double. Pentax XW14 (168x)
STF 1855 AB – 9.2, 9.9, 15.7” – pair of equal white stars. Pentax XW20 (118x)
NGC 5675 – small elongated spec next to undocumented optical double of faint stars. Detected with Pentax XW20 (118x), but the shape is better resolved with Pentax XW14 (168x).
NGC 5677 – tiny spec. Pentax XW20 (118x)
Around midnight Booties was approaching zenith. Observing at
EP was still comfortable but aiming with red dot was not. So, I called it a night.