Comets, asteroids, and Fornax galaxies

[Bigzmey]

09/24/2023

Location: Anza desert site, Bortle 4.0.

Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD SCT on SW SkyTee 2 manual AltAz mount.

EPs:
Pentax XW 10mm, 70 deg (235x, 1.0mm exit pupil, 0.30 deg TFV)
Pentax XW 14mm, 70 deg (168x, 1.4mm exit pupil, 0.42 deg TFV)
Pentax XW 20mm, 70 deg (118x, 2.0 mm exit pupil, 0.6 deg TFV)

Once again cloudy sky with some rain at our home location, but clear weather at the desert site. Drove there on Saturday, and since bright Moon dominated the evening, I opted for the morning session instead. Set the camp and deployed the scopes. Had dinner watching sunset and went to sleep for a few hours.

Woke up past midnight. Orange Moon was setting down and I enjoyed moonset for a few minutes. Once the Moon set the sky got turned on. Unfortunately, light domes from distant cities became permanent feature at my dark site, but above them the sky was magnificent. Gemini and Orion were rising in the east. Milky Way while weak in Auriga became well-structured above, and Cassiopea and Perseus star patterns were lost in its glow.

00:45. JUPITER
Inspired by recent post from Gabby (Lady Fractor) I have started my session with Jupiter, high in Aries. Close to the opposition it was blindingly bright. I have used my left eye to preserve the dark vision in my right, galaxy eye. Tried a few filters, and the combo of Baader Contrast Booster + Moon & Sky Glow filters produced the best contrast, while preserving natural colors.

The temperate belts and shading of the polar regions were barely visible in the intense glow. The most prominent feature were the two equatorial belts. They had jugged look from festoons and turbulence. North Equatorial Belt was partially separated in two. I did not see anything out of the ordinary (235x).

Before going out I always check if there are any new comets or asteroids available, and there were a few this time.

01:00. COMETS

103P/Hartley – mag ~10, size 3.0’ comet in Auriga. Large but faint and diffused coma, better detected with AV, small and dim nucleus, no tail resolved (118x).

C/2020 V2 (ZTF) – mag ~10, size 4.0’ comet in Fornax. Smaller but brighter comet with compact coma, brightness gradually increasing towards sharp stellar nucleus, hints of tail. (118x, 168x).

I think magnitude/size prediction for one of these two comets were off (likely for 103P/Hartley).

ASTEROIDS

(60) Echo – mag 11.5 asteroid in Pisces (118x).
(123) Brunhild – mag 12.8 asteroid in Aries (118x).
(182) Elsa – mag 12.4 asteroid in Taurus (118x).
(304) Olga – mag 13.0 asteroid in Eridanus (118x).
(313) Chaldaea – mag 12.4 asteroid in Pisces (118x).
(429) Lotis – mag 12.9 asteroid in Pegasus (118x).

By 02:00 I have finished the Solar system portion of my session and was looking for a good area to hunt galaxies. East to south sector has the darkest sky at my site and Fornax, the constellation I rarely visit, was at it highest in that area.

FORNAX GALAXY CLUSTER

I was not aware of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster until I looked for the first galaxy on my Fornax list and realized that I am in the middle of a galaxy field. I have spent next two hours going from one galaxy to another within this field. Despite all targets been below 30 degrees altitude, some barely above the horizon, it was smooth and enjoyable hunting, testament to the sky quality in that direction.

IC 335 (aka IC 1963: mag 12.1, size 2.6' x 42", SB 12.5) – faint lens with brighter central area (118x).
NGC 1380A (mag 12.4, size 2.4' x 42", SB 12.7) – faint narrow lens (118x).
NGC 1380 (mag 9.9, size 4' x 2.4', SB 12.1) – bright galaxy with brighter central area and stellar core (118x).
NGC 1373 (mag 13.3, size 1.2' x 54", SB 13.1) – very faint, small, round spot (235x).
NGC 1374 (mag 11.1, size 2.7' x 2.4', SB 12.9) – round disk with brighter central area and stellar core (168x).

NGC 1375 (mag 12.4, size 2.3' x 54", SB 12.9) – narrow oval with brighter central area, same FOV with NGC 1374 (168x).
NGC 1399 (mag 9.6, size 6.9' x 6.5', SB 13.5) – bright round disk with compact core (118x).
NGC 1404 (mag 10.0, size 3.9' x 3.3', SB 12.5) – small, bright, round disk with compact core, same FOV with NGC 1399 (118x).
NGC 1387 (mag 10.7, size 2.8' x 2.6', SB 12.6) – bright round disk with stellar core (118x).
NGC 1389 (mag 11.5, size 2.3' x 1.2', SB 12.3) – bright narrow oval with small core in the same FOV with NGC 1387. While part of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster, this galaxy located in Eridanus.

NGC 1380B (mag 12.9, size 1.5' x 1.3', SB 13.4) – small, faint, round spot (168x).
NGC 1381 (mag 11.5, size 2.6' x 48", SB 12.0) – small, bright edge-on with bulge (168x).
NGC 1379 (mag 10.9, size 2.4' x 2.3', SB 12.5) – small, bright, round disk with compact core (168x).
NGC 1386 (mag 11.2, size 3.4' x 1.3', SB 12.6) – small, bright lens with round core (168x). Part of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster but located in Eridanus.
NGC 1369 (mag 12.7, size 1.5' x 1.4', SB 13.2) – very faint small spot with AV (168x).

FORNAX GALXIES
Next few galaxies were from Fornax but don’t belong to the Fornax Cluster.

IC 1728 (mag 13.3, size 1.3' x 48", SB 13.1) – FAIL
IC 1729 (mag 12.6, size 1.6' x 54", SB 12.7) – faint small oval (118x, 168x).
IC 1734 (mag 12.8, size 1.6' x 1.4', SB 13.4) – very faint round spot with AV (168x).
IC 1739 (mag 14.1, size 48" x 30", SB 12.8) – faint tiny spec next to mag 13.2 star (235x).

04:00. It was a good run, but before wrapping up I wanted to catch couple more galaxies of Herschel 2,500 list I am working on. I overlooked them last year and had to wait for them to rotate back.

ERIDANUS
NGC 1377 (mag 12.5, size 1.8' x 54", SB 12.8) – faint elongated oval (168x).

LEPUS
NGC 1794 (aka NGC 1781: mag 12.6, size 1.3' x 1.1', SB 12.7) – very faint, AV spot next to mag 13.6 star (168x).

[StarBru]

What a great observing report! And all without a Go To mount. Really amazing! Sunday was a great night for observing. Thanks for posting.

[messier 111]

another fantastic evening for you, thx.

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Bruce and Jean-Yves!

When the sky is any good I enjoy manually navigating to the targets as much as looking at the targets itself. At home under LPed sky in particular if Moon is out it is whole different story. There I glad to have a couple of GoTo mounts, since hardly any stars visible for manual navigation even in the 50mm RACI finder.

[John Baars]

You had a nice observation night at Anza. Great report too.
Baring in mind that all targets were below 30 degrees: quite an achievement. Well done!!

[Ylem]

What a great report Bigz!
And very motivational to say the least!

[Bigzmey]

Thanks John and Jeff!

[helicon]

Interesting choice of targets Andrey. Congratulations on picking up the VROD for the day (9-30-2023) on this the last day of September.

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Michael!

[kt4hx]

Outstanding as usual Andrey and congrats on the VROD. I like Fornax a lot. and in particular the field around the Fornax Galaxy Cluster. The constellation is ripe with galaxies, and yes it does require some digging lower in the sky, but is still infinitely rewarding. I admire your object finding skills using manual star hopping, since, as you well know, I've never utilized a go-to and am a devout star hopper myself. While that methodology is not for most observers, it is something I've always done and I find it an infinitely rewarding experience.

[Bigzmey]

Outstanding as usual Andrey and congrats on the VROD. I like Fornax a lot. and in particular the field around the Fornax Galaxy Cluster. The constellation is ripe with galaxies, and yes it does require some digging lower in the sky, but is still infinitely rewarding. I admire your object finding skills using manual star hopping, since, as you well know, I've never utilized a go-to and am a devout star hopper myself. While that methodology is not for most observers, it is something I've always done and I find it an infinitely rewarding experience.

Thanks Alan! Stumbling on that galaxy field was a great surprise. Reminded me of the first time in the Virgo Cluster. I am glad that the quality of sky is still holding in the south-east direction, means more trip for me deep south.

[John Baars]

Congratulations on the VROD!

[Ylem]

Amazing evening and report Bigz!
Congratulations on the well deserved VROD!

[Bigzmey]

Thanks John and Jeff!

[kt4hx]

Thanks Alan! Stumbling on that galaxy field was a great surprise. Reminded me of the first time in the Virgo Cluster. I am glad that the quality of sky is still holding in the south-east direction, means more trip for me deep south.

Glad you enjoyed the Fornax Cluster Andrey. While the constellation does have one brighter planetary (NGC 1360), a few asterisms, etc,. it is best know for galaxies and in particular that cluster, plus NGC 1097. A couple of other southern clusters you can check out in the spring (if you haven't already) are the Hydra Cluster (Abell 1060) and the Antlia Cluster (Abell S0636). I really like galaxy clusters because they give one the opportunity to see a lot of galaxies in a more compact area. Such as in this old report of mine about the Coma Cluster (Abell 1656):

https://theskysearchers.com/viewtopic.php?t=9171


Good luck and keep on digging down deep in the southern skies when conditions permit!

[OzEclipse]

Hi Andrey,

Great report and congratulations on the VROD.

Joe

[Unitron48]

Well done, Andrey! Congrats on your VROD!!

Dave

[Bigzmey]

Thanks Joe and Dave!