9/10/21
For the past few years I have been working on the Herschel 2,500 list. This list contains about 2,500
DSOs observed by William Herschel at the end of 18th - beginning 19th century and later became foundation of
NGC catalog. Astronomy League Herschel 400 (aka H400-1) list is a subset of Herschel 2,500 as well as H400-2 and H300-3 lists. It took me about two years to complete H400-1, another two years for H400-2 and one more year for H300-3. This gave me a good head start on H2,500.
I know some observers prefer freestyle observing and don’t do lists. I love good lists. They make you go to the parts of sky where you would not go otherwise and look at the targets you would not see otherwise. Since I star hop to my targets, often I pick a few none H2,500 on the way. Most importantly, the lists provide increasingly difficult challenges and develop your observing skills like nothing else. When I have gotten to H300-3 with magnitude 14-15 galaxies I was thinking no way I can see something faint like that. Russian proverb says: eyes are afraid but hands doing the job. A few hundred galaxies later I don’t even blink at magnitude values.
One of the reasons I brought this up is to encourage new observers to set the bar higher than comfort zone, you will be surprised how fast your skills will develop.
Another reason is that those who done some of the lists know that the targets are not distributed evenly over the seasons. The bulk is clustered around spring – stormy season here in Sothern California. So typically, for each given list I would run out of summer and fall targets first, then winter. To overcome this issue, I have employed a couple of strategies. When I run out of summer targets on
Messier list, I started observing H400-1, and next year when run out of summer targets on H400-1 I have started on H400-2, and so on. Now however I have run out of summer and fall targets on H2,500 and don’t have another list yet. So, to make progress I have shifted my observing hours to early morning when winter constellations come out. Added benefit is that I catch targets as they rise in eastern, darkest portion of the sky at Anza.
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.
All targets unless otherwise stated were observed with Celestron Edge 9.25”
SCT. Various EPs were tried in particular on difficult targets. Pentax XW20 (118x), XW14 (168x) and XW10 (235x) were used the most.
Venus and Moon
19:30. I have started the session with Venus and Moon crescent in still blue sky. Gibbous Venus phase was clearly seen with and without filters, but no other details were visible (118x, 276x). Moon was gorgeous no filters necessary (118x, 235x).
After that I had some time to kill before the next set of targets arrives, so I took a nap.
00:30.
Camelopardalis galaxies
North polar region of Anza sky sits in the Riverside light dome. As a result, it is harder to pick faint targets there and most of fine details are lost.
NGC 5640 – extremely faint AV spec, detected by shaking
EP (168x, 235x).
NGC 5295 - extremely faint AV spec, detected by shaking
EP (235x).
NGC 4127 - extremely faint AV spot detected by moving
EP (118x).
NGC 3901 - extremely faint AV spot, detected by shaking
EP (168x).
01:06. My next set of targets was too low, so I slept for another two hours.
03:00.
Orion galaxies
NGC 1713 – faint oval with brighter central area (118x).
NGC 1729 – faint wide AV oval touching star (118x).
NGC 1924 – faint oval (118x)
NGC 2063 –
OC – long and narrow patch of 30+ faint stars with background glow (118x).
NGC 2110 – faint wide oval (118x).
Gemini
NGC 2291 – this galaxy has been eluding me. So far two previous attempts failed. This time after testing a few EPs I thought I have spotted a subtle presence with Pentax XF 8.5 (276x) and TV Plossl 13mm (181x) but was not confident enough to call it.
04:20
Lynx
NGC 2320 and
NGC 2322 – two small narrow ovals in the same
FOV (168x).
NGC 2326 – extremely faint wide oval with AV (118x).
NGC 2329 – faint round disk (118x).
NGC 2332 – faint narrow oval (168x).
NGC 2340 – faint oval next to star (118x).
NGC 2415 – small disk with brighter central area (118x).
NGC 2426 – small faint disk (118x).
NGC 2429 – narrow shape with AV touching star in the same
FOV with
NGC 2426
NGC 2431 (aka 2436) – faint oval with AV (118x).
NGC 2469 – faint small oval (118x).
NGC 2474 – faint oval (118x, 168x).
NGC 2488 – faint small oval (118x).
05:12.
Gemini
NGC 2291 - near the end of astronomical darkness I decided to give another shot this elusive galaxy. Now, it was high in the sky, and with Pentax XW14 (168x) and XW10 (235x) I have detected with AV extremely faint small round spot.