5/7/22
Location: Anza desert site,
Bortle 4.
Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
SCT and Clestron 150ST
achro on
SW SkyTee 2 manual AltAz mount. Pentax XW
EP set.
Last Friday we had quite bright 30% Moon. I decided to wait for it to set around 01:00 and opted for Saturday morning session instead. Set my camp and scopes with help of local assistant.
Had dinner watching sunset and went to sleep. Woke up at 00:30 to watch moonset.
While the Moon was getting low the summer Milky Way was rising in the east. After the Moon disappeared the Milky Way became structured with the great Rift and other dark nebulae easily traceable, but its brightness was subdued. The sky looked grayish and as I soon discovered transparency was not the best this night.
On top of that high clouds appeared around 02:00. I was dancing around them most of the session. As a result, the progress was slower, the faint fuzzies looked even fainter but overall, it was a good session, nevertheless. Also, saw three faint meteors (one through the
EP).
00:45.
COMA BERENICES galaxies (all observed with 9.25” Edge)
NGC 4015 – faint wide oval with averted vision (AV), stellar core (168x).
NGC 4021 – FAIL, need to revisit at better transparency.
NGC 4032 – round disk with brighter central area (118x).
NGC 4037 – faint wide oval with AV (118x).
NGC 4049 – very faint round glow with AV (168x).
NGC 4064 – relatively bright narrow lens with brighter central area (168x).
NGC 5180 – small disk with stellar core (118x).
NGC 5172 – wide mottled oval (118x).
NGC 5116 – faint narrow lens (168x).
IC 4230 – extremely faint small spot with AV (168x).
IC 4234 – very faint round spot with AV (168x).
NGC 5089 – very faint round disk with AV (168x).
NGC 5065 – faint spot with AV (168x).
NGC 5057 – narrow oval (168x).
NGC 5074 – extremely faint spot detected with AV by moving
EP (168x).
NGC 5032A - very faint narrow oval with AV (168x).
NGC 5032B – very faint small spot next to
NGC 5032A detected with AV by moving
EP (168x).
NGC 5004A – faint oval with stellar core (168x).
NGC 5000 – extremely faint round spot detected with AV by shaking
EP (168x).
NGC 5000 was my 2,500th DSO observed! Feels great to reach that milestone.
NGC 4983 - extremely faint oval detected with AV by shaking
EP (168x).
NGC 4979 – extremely faint round spot detected with AV by shaking
EP (168x).
NGC 4966 – small AV spot next to star (168x).
By 03:00 the high clouds squeezed me out of
Coma Berenices.
BOOTIES galaxies (all observed with 9.25” Edge)
NGC 5789 – extremely faint oval detected with AV by moving
EP (118x).
NGC 5797 – faint oval with compact core (118x).
NGC 5794 – faint round disk (118x).
NGC 5804 – faint oval with brighter central area (118x).
NGC 5805 – small AV spot next to
NGC 5804 (168x)
NGC 5820 – narrow oval with brighter central area (168x).
NGC 5821 – faint wide oval detected with AV by moving
EP, same
FOV with
NGC 5820 (168x).
NGC 5851 and
NGC 5852 – two faint AV ovals next to each other (168x).
NGC 5856 – single or multiple star – Mag 6 and Mag 11 stars ~120” apart (118x).
The last target I was observing through the high clouds which by 03:45 pretty much covered the whole sky. I planned to observe to dawn but had one hour nap instead. Around 05:00 I woke up to check on the planet parade. Mars and Saturn were visible, but Jupiter and Venus covered with clouds. Oh well, there is always next week.
