Aiming the Rigel Quikfinder at mag 2.0 Beta Ceti (Diphda) riding just a little south of the zenith, I slithered southward to a bright pair of triangular asterisms near the Cetus-Sculptor border. Here I began my evening as I eased gently into northern Sculptor.
Given the poor showing this bright showpiece galaxy provided back on 07 September due to abysmal transparency, I decided to hit it first to see what I was dealing with this evening. Using the southernmost of the two triangles mentioned in the preceding paragraph, I quickly found the field and at 42x could easily see the somewhat large and diffuse envelope of this barred spiral. Not exceedingly bright mind you but much more clearly seen inside a triangle of 8th and 9th mag field stars.
It was elongated and narrow. What I could see of its full extent was limited but its central core region displayed a definite broad brightness along its major axis. Taking a look at 76x brought out just a little more of its dimmer extensions and boosted the central lens of brightness around its core. Then at 106x the galaxy took on a very subtle mottled appearance, though nothing near as prominently so as one would expect under dark conditions. Still, all in all, it was much easier to see this time out – an encouraging sign.
This globular has never been a showpiece, though from our dark site in the 10 inch it is pretty impressive. As with the previous observation of it with the 6 inch earlier this month it was a small and round subtle homogenous glow regardless of the magnification. Though at 76x, and especially 106x, it was more apparent.
I nudged SSE from
At this point, after having been observing about 30 to 40 minutes, I had something that I had to take care of inside, so I left my equipment deployed under a mostly clear sky. I was not able to return until about 90 minutes later. However, in my absence, the cloud demons conferred amongst themselves and apparently deemed that one new object for the night was sufficient. The sky was solidly socked in, reflecting back the lights of the city with exceptional ferocity! So unceremoniously I gathered my toys and retreated from the field. The cloud cover was as good as its word as it remained intact until the light of day enveloped our location.
So there it was, short, sorta sweet and definitely to the point! Thanks as always for traipsing along with, and until next time, keep looking up!
