6/27/21
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.
Moonrise was expected around 23:00 this evening, but because of the mountain to the east it was delayed by a few minutes. With darkness arriving around 21:30 this left me about two hours of observing. Good enough to justify a trip to Anza!
Summer finally arrived at the desert. I left from home late to escape the heat and arrived just before the sunset to balmy 86F (30C). It was the first time this year when I observed in T-shirt, the temperature did not go below 75F (23C) that evening.
C/2020 T2 (Palomar) – comet in Booties – mag. 10.6, size 5.1’.
It has been almost a year since my last comet. Finally, there is one bright enough to open 2021 season. I eagerly waited for sky to get dark enough and started my search around 21:15. C/2020 T2 (Palomar) was easy to spot in both 6” refractor and 9.25”
SCT. The comet looked like unresolved globular cluster, with brightness of nearly round
coma decreasing from the center to the periphery; no signs of tail. Higher powers have resolved compact nucleus. This comet is not as grand as last year C/2020 F3 (NEOWISE), but a nice looking as typical comet goes. It appeared brighter than reported mag 10.6 and should be within the reach of smaller scopes as well. 9.25” Edge/Pentax XW20 (118x) and XW14 (168x); 6” 150ST
achro/Pentax XW20 (38x), XW14 (54x), XW10 (75x).
With main goal for the evening accomplished I have switched to galaxy hunting. Have not had a chance to visit Virgo this year and decided to catch up before it moves away.
Virgo galaxies (all observed with 9.25” Edge HD
SCT).
NGC 4708 – faint oval. Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 4713 – rectangular shape with brighter knots and hint of arms. Pentax XW20 (118X), XW14 (168x).
NGC 4720 – small faint oval with stellar core. Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 4733 – faint oval with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 4739 – small round disk with brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 4759 – logged by Herschel as single object, it consists of two galaxies,
NGC 4776 and
NGC 4778. I saw a fainter wide oval envelope (formed by the disks of both galaxies) with a brighter rod-like structure in the center (formed by two cores, which I did not resolve apart). Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 4765 – small nearly round faint disk with brighter central area and stellar core. Pentax XW14 (168X).
NGC 4770 – faint small oval with stellar core. Bright yellow Psi Virgo in the same
FOV of Pentax XW20 was ruining dark adaptation, had to switch to XW14 (168x) to place it behind the field stop.
NGC 5227 – very faint wide oval with AV. Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 5224 – extremely faint tiny spot with AV, shaking
EP for detection. Pentax XW10 (235X).
NGC 5222 – round disk with AV, brighter central area. Pentax XW20 (118X).
NGC 5221 – extremely faint spot with AV, same
FOV with
NGC 5222. Pentax XW20 (118X).
Galaxies were getting harder to detect. I looked around. Milky Way was fading and the hills on the other side of the valley below were already lit by rising Moon. This short but sweet session has ended.
