Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
Come join the friendliest, most engaging and inclusive astronomy forum geared for beginners and advanced telescope users, astrophotography devotees, plus check out our "Astro" goods vendors.
Last Friday we had a break in clouds, and with Moon rising around 2 am there were a few hours of dark time to enjoy galaxy hunting at my desert site. The weather was nice, no summer heat yet, and I even managed to take a nap while waiting for the astronomical darkness. Spring is the prime galaxy hunting season and I was like a kid in the candy store, having hard time deciding which goodie to pick. Finally, I have settled for Cancer.
20:55 CANCER
NGC 2677 - mag 14.2 gal - tiny fuzzy spec with averted vision (168x, 235x). NGC 2678 – OC – relatively large oval broken ring formed by brighter and fainter stars, next to M67 (118x). NGC 2679 – mag 13.3 gal – faint disk with brighter central area and stellar core (118x). NGC 2743 – mag 13.7 gal – very faint small, elongated oval, detected with AV by moving EP (168x).
NGC 2750 – mag 11.9 gal – faint, patchy, irregular shape with brighter round core. Checking phots on-line afterwards confirmed my suspicion that the brighter patches in the disk were the spiral arms (168x).
NGC 2744 – mag 13.5 gal – faint wide oval (118x). NGC 2749 – mag 11.8 gal – slightly elongated disc with compact round core (118x). NGC 2764 – mag 12.9 gal – small faint narrow oval (118x). NGC 2774 – mag 13.7 gal – very faint round spot, detected with AV by moving EP (118x).
NGC 2783 – mag 12.6 gal – small narrow oval with round brighter central area (118x, 168x). NGC 2796 – mag 13.8 gal – faint round disk with brighter central area (118x).
NGC 2802 (mag 14.5) and NGC 2803 (mag 14.3) galaxies – I have resolved extremely faint narrow elongated oval with AV by moving EP. Later I have checked on-line images and info. Both galaxies are round in shape. What I have observed was the envelope containing both galaxies (168x, 235x).
NGC 2843 – mag 15.5 gal – this is one of the faintest galaxies I have resolved. What works for it is very small size (24" x 12"). Galaxy light is focused in the small area with surface brightness 12.5 mag/arcmin2 which makes it a bit easier to spot. The galaxy is located ~20” away from mag 12.6 star, so detection process was like splitting a very faint component in an uneven double star. Very faint fuzzy “star” was observed next to the 12.6 mag “main” at 235x.
I have spent about two hours in Cancer. The transparency turned out to be good for this portion of the evening. This gave me opportunity to log a few extra faint galaxies and resolve some nice details in the brighter ones. I took a break from the scope to do a bit of naked eye observing. Beehive Cluster (M 44) in Cancer was visible as a faint fuzzy round patch. From it I have started my naked eye journey through the sky to Ursa Major and Minor, Draco and then to familiar patterns of summer constellations Booties with Corona Borealis, Hercules below, then Lyra, Cygnus, Ophiuchus holding Serpens and then to spring constellations Libra, Virgo, Hydra with Corvus and Crater on top, Leo above, and back to Cancer.
Cancer was getting lower to the west, so I have selected Leo Minor as galaxy hunting grounds for the second half of the evening.
23:00 LEO MINOR
NGC 2965 – mag 13.4 gal – very faint oval, detected with AV by moving EP (118x). NGC 3021 – mag 12.1 gal – relatively bright small lens with round core (118x, 168x). NGC 3074 – mag 12.7 gal – extra faint round spot detected with AV by moving EP (118x). NGC 3099 – mag 14.8 gal – FAIL. Need to catch it when it is higher in the sky.
NGC 3451 – mag 13.0 gal – very faint AV oval (118x). NGC 3418 – mag 13.2 gal – very faint round AV spot in the same FOV with NGC 3414 (168x). NGC 3400 – mag 13.2 gal – faint oval (168x). NGC 3380 – mag 12.5 gal – faint round disk (118x).
NGC 3334 – mag 12.8 gal – faint small oval (118x). NGC 3327 – mag 13.4 gal - very faint oval, detected with AV by moving EP (168x). NGC 3304 – mag 13.4 gal - very faint spot, detected with AV by moving EP (168x). NGC 3265 – mag 12.9 gal – small faint spot, detected with AV by moving EP (168x).
Passed midnight Leo Minor was getting lower into the Los Angeles light dome in the north-west. It was getting harder to resolve faint galaxies and even to navigate to them, since fainter stars were getting lost in the sky glow in the RACI finder. I was getting tired to and decided to call it a night. That was a challenging but fun session.
This week monsoon clouds have arrived at the desert two month earlier than usual. The forecast for coming weekend is clouds and thunderstorms. So, looks like mine next galaxy session will not happen before June’s new moon.
Superb report Andrey and you really hit it out of the park in this observing session. Gathering in the light from NGC 2843 was a great catch of a small and difficult object - congrats on winning the VROD for 5/18 as we are wrapping up the day on 5/17...
-Michael Refractors: ES AR152 f/6.5 Achromat on Twilight II, Celestron 102mm XLT f/9.8 on Celestron Heavy Duty Alt Az mount, KOWA 90mm spotting scope Binoculars: Celestron SkyMaster 15x70, Bushnell 10x50 Eyepieces: Various, GSO Superview, 9mm Plossl, Celestron 25mm Plossl Camera: ZWO ASI 120 Naked Eye: Two Eyeballs Latitude: 48.7229° N
helicon wrote: ↑Wed May 17, 2023 11:16 pm
Superb report Andrey and you really hit it out of the park in this observing session. Gathering in the light from NGC 2843 was a great catch of a small and difficult object - congrats on winning the VROD for 5/18 as we are wrapping up the day on 5/17...
Very well done Andrey. A fine galaxy hunting trip indeed.
NGC 2843 is an excellent catch with the 9.25 inch. As tough as it is, I know you have well developed galaxy acuity!
Congrats on the VROD, which is of course is quite well deserved.
Alan
Scopes: Astro Sky 17.5 f/4.5 Dob || Apertura AD12 f/5 Dob || Zhumell Z10 f/4.9 Dob ||
ES AR127 f/6.5 || ES ED80 f/6 || Apertura 6" f/5 Newtonian
Mounts: ES Twilight-II and Twilight-I
EPs: AT 82° 28mm UWA || TV Ethos 100° 21mm and 13mm || Vixen LVW 65° 22mm ||
ES 82° 18mm || Pentax XW 70° 10mm, 7mm and 5mm || barlows
Filters (2 inch): DGM NPB || Orion Ultra Block, O-III and Sky Glow || Baader HaB
Primary Field Atlases: Uranometria All-Sky Edition and Interstellarum Deep Sky Atlas
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Astronomers, we look into the past to see our future." (me)
"Seeing is in some respect an art, which must be learnt." (William Herschel)
"What we know is a drop, what we don't know is an ocean." (Sir Isaac Newton)
"No good deed goes unpunished." (various)
“Some people without brains do an awful lot of talking, don't you think?” (Scarecrow, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz)
