TheSkySearchers

After three days of rain and wind the skies cleared out nicely. As I was alinging the 16 inch I could tell the skies were very clear but there was plenty of turbulence going on up there, it was going to be a lower power kind of night. In went the 14/80 LHD.

I like to start with something bright and easy just to see how stuff is working and NGC 2362 is always nice to look at. It's bright center star and two companion stars were plainly visible. To my eye the 40 or 50 stars surrounding them draw your eye out and let you come back to center. It's just a sweet cluster to look at.

With everything working perfectly it was galaxy time. M49 is always a good place to start, NGC 4464 was also in the FOV. It's bright central core all but wipes out any chance of seeing anything but a very bright fuzz ball.

M84/86 were both faint, seeing much more would take a very dark night with no moon.....which I did not have. On to the Needle Galaxy, it's bright central core was visible and the edge on look of the dust lane was bold. It's little wonder why this is a showpiece object.

M64 is well named as the bright core contrasts well with the dust lane around it. It does indeed look like a black eye.

Since I was in the area M3 is always worth a look and it frames well in the 14/80. On a whim I pulled out the 9mm/100 and was rewarded with a very sharp image, out came the 9 and the 7/100 went in. For 20 seconds I was able to look at the cluster at over 250x, then the turbulence returned and back to 128x it was.

M63 was next on the hit list and the arms surrounding the large center were visible. Just a solid image.

M51. Both galaxies revealed well with the arms visible with fair definition. The bridge between the two showed up well. Even with the moon this is probably the best view of the Whirlpool I have had to date.

M81 and 82, both showed well, but the edge on of the cigar looked much better tonight for some reason.

To end the night M13 is always a good choice. Despite being low in the sky it was bright, well defined and a oh wow moment in the 14/80.

Just a note about the equipment tonight. The XX16G parked every object inside the 14mm 80 degree eyepiece. So no complaints with the scope tonight at all. A GSO coma corrector lives in the scope now, I just drop it in with no alterations made to it. All images through the 14mm LHD were crisp all the way across the FOV. While it was a bit bright out it was still an excellent night.

Nice report Mike and congratulations on winning the VROD for the day. You took us along on your celestial adventure!

helicon wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 12:38 pm Nice report Mike and congratulations on winning the VROD for the day. You took us along on your celestial adventure!

Aw shucks. I didn't think it was that good lol. I think the big take away from last night was just how bright a 40% moon really is and how badly it can ruin what could be a perfect image. The other thing is turbulence and how inconsistent it can be. We had wind north of 25 mph for three days and the atmosphere showed every bit of it last night. Last year we had a line of super cells roll through, we had all sorts of thunder and lightning and three small tornadoes in a 30 mile radius from me. The skies that night were perfect and i could hit 400x. No one saw that coming. How it can be perfect one night after huge storms and no so great after days like the last three are beyond me

Nice session and congrats on the VROD Mike!

Very well done Mike. Your pusuit of galaxies is near and dear to my astronomical heart indeed! I agree that NGC 2362 is an amazing open cluster, and one of my personal favorites.

Next time you take a look at NGC 4565 with your big scope, keep an eye out for the frequently overlooked mag 13.5 galaxy NGC 4562. This barred spiral lies just over 13' southwest of the behemoth needle galaxy and provides a nice contrast in both visual brightness and size.

Congrats on your VROD - well deserved.

kt4hx wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 4:19 pm Very well done Mike. Your pusuit of galaxies is near and dear to my astronomical heart indeed! I agree that NGC 2362 is an amazing open cluster, and one of my personal favorites.

Next time you take a look at NGC 4565 with your big scope, keep an eye out for the frequently overlooked mag 13.5 galaxy NGC 4562. This barred spiral lies just over 13' southwest of the behemoth needle galaxy and provides a nice contrast in both visual brightness and size.

Congrats on your VROD - well deserved.

Thank you for your comments. I have written down in my notes from last night that i believed NGC 4562 was in the FOV with the needle, but i have not had a chance to confirm that as of yet.

Edit. A quick dive into Sky Safari has confirmed that NGC 4562 was in the FOV with the Needle Galaxy. UGC 7778 would have also been in the FOV, but at 350 million light years out it would take a very perfect night to pick that little bit of a smudge out of the sky, but I am willing to give it a shot.

Mike Q wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 5:52 pm

kt4hx wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 4:19 pm Very well done Mike. Your pusuit of galaxies is near and dear to my astronomical heart indeed! I agree that NGC 2362 is an amazing open cluster, and one of my personal favorites.

Next time you take a look at NGC 4565 with your big scope, keep an eye out for the frequently overlooked mag 13.5 galaxy NGC 4562. This barred spiral lies just over 13' southwest of the behemoth needle galaxy and provides a nice contrast in both visual brightness and size.

Congrats on your VROD - well deserved.

Thank you for your comments. I have written down in my notes from last night that i believed NGC 4562 was in the FOV with the needle, but i have not had a chance to confirm that as of yet.

Edit. A quick dive into Sky Safari has confirmed that NGC 4562 was in the FOV with the Needle Galaxy. UGC 7778 would have also been in the FOV, but at 350 million light years out it would take a very perfect night to pick that little bit of a smudge out of the sky, but I am willing to give it a shot.

Agree on IC 3582 (UGC 7778). It is listed at around visual mag 16.2, and would be a real challenge. I haven't logged it myself at our dark site, nor have I specifically targeted it either. Coma is a wonderful constellation for galaxies, and even Melotte 111 has some lurking in the background. Again, well done.

kt4hx wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 7:55 pm

Mike Q wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 5:52 pm

kt4hx wrote: ↑Sun Apr 14, 2024 4:19 pm Very well done Mike. Your pusuit of galaxies is near and dear to my astronomical heart indeed! I agree that NGC 2362 is an amazing open cluster, and one of my personal favorites.

Next time you take a look at NGC 4565 with your big scope, keep an eye out for the frequently overlooked mag 13.5 galaxy NGC 4562. This barred spiral lies just over 13' southwest of the behemoth needle galaxy and provides a nice contrast in both visual brightness and size.

Congrats on your VROD - well deserved.

Thank you for your comments. I have written down in my notes from last night that i believed NGC 4562 was in the FOV with the needle, but i have not had a chance to confirm that as of yet.

Edit. A quick dive into Sky Safari has confirmed that NGC 4562 was in the FOV with the Needle Galaxy. UGC 7778 would have also been in the FOV, but at 350 million light years out it would take a very perfect night to pick that little bit of a smudge out of the sky, but I am willing to give it a shot.

Agree on IC 3582 (UGC 7778). It is listed at around visual mag 16.2, and would be a real challenge. I haven't logged it myself at our dark site, nor have I specifically targeted it either. Coma is a wonderful constellation for galaxies, and even Melotte 111 has some lurking in the background. Again, well done.

With my current eyepieces and no barlow i can get to mag 15.9 according to the math. Out of curiosity i am going to run the numbers and see what it takes to get a couple more points out of it.

Edit... So out our curiosity i did run the numbers and it is as i suspected, yeah i could get there if i had perfect conditions like they have out west. Since i live in Ohio and our skies are generally crap, i think i will just have to let the mag 16 items go by the wayside. Thanks again.

Very nice report!
NGC 2362 seems a beauty to me!
Congratulations on your VROD!

John Baars wrote: ↑Tue Apr 16, 2024 12:53 pm Very nice report!
NGC 2362 seems a beauty to me!
Congratulations on your VROD!

Thank you. I still have a hard time putting into words what I am seeing, but I like to think I am getting better at it. I am not normally a big fan of open clusters, but NGC 2362 is definitely in the list of exceptions, that central star is just beautiful.