April 2010 - Utah-Astronomy - mailman.xmission.com

Comet C/2009 K5 McNaught Coming to a Sky Near You
by Jay Eads 29 Apr '10

29 Apr '10

Found this on the web at The Night Sky This Month, and I wasn't aware of the comet. Thought others might have an interest come the 1st or 2nd of May in trying to view this: "Comet C/2009 K5 McNaught sweeps from Cepheus past Polaris to Camelopardalis during the month and remains circumpolar (meaning it never sets) for most midnorthern observers. Glowing with the combined light of a 9th-magnitude star, the comet will be easily accessible from suburban backyards with a 4-inch scope. On Sunday night, May 2/3, it lies just 1.5° from the 3rd-magnitude star Beta Cephei and two weeks later, on the weekend of May 14 and 15, it can be found 3° from the open star cluster NGC 188. During the month's second half C/2009 K5 McNaught passes near Polaris, the North Star, and soon after that moves from Cepheus into dimmer Camelopardalis." Here's a finder map http://www.nightskyinfo.com/maps_images/html/comet1_map.htm There's a more difficult challenge in terms of hunting, capturing another comet in mid May from "comet 81P Wild. It glows around 10th magnitude and lies within a few degrees of the 4th-magnitude star Iota Virginis all month. At 10th magnitude, Wild will be as tough to view as the faintest Messier galaxies in Virgo. With a 6-inch telescope, you may have trouble detecting its soft, diffuse glow. Bump up the power past 100x to darken the background sky, and use a dark hood over your head to further cut stray light. The best views will come around mid- month, when moonlight will not interfere with late evening observing." Here is the finder chart for Comet 81P Wild: http://www.nightskyinfo.com/maps_images/html/comet2_map.htm Perhaps something to look forward to in this period of April showers and wind.

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] A couple of my peculiar friends - galaxiesthat is
by JayLEads 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

A mostly completed merger at mag. 13.8 is NGC 6240 which is probably best seen about right now I believe. Awfully low on the horizon though. On 2010-04-28 18:50, Don J. Colton wrote: > While you are at it you should also look for the Siamese Twins, NGC 4567-68, > in Virgo, they are very similar to the Antennae in Corvus. > > -----Original Message----- > From: utah-astronomy-bounces@??? > [mailto:utah-astronomy-bounces@???] On Behalf Of Canopus56 > Sent: Wednesday, April 28, 2010 11:24 AM > To: Utah Astronomy List Serv > Subject: Re: [Utah-astronomy] A couple of my peculiar friends - galaxies > that is > > Thanks, Eric. Looks like someone should take a look-see using the Grim. > > I also prepared a supplemental table of Arp's peculiar galaxies that are on > the finder charts. This list excludes the special peculiars - The Antenna > and The Mice - discussed upthread. > > http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/ VirgoSCGalaxyTourPeculi > ars.html > > - Kurt > > > > > > >

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] A couple of my peculiar friends - galaxiesthat is
by Canopus56 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

Don Colton wrote: > While you are at it you should also look for the Siamese Twins, NGC 4567-68, > in Virgo, they are very similar to the Antennae in Corvus. Don, thanks for the tip. - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] A couple of my peculiar friends - galaxies that is
by Canopus56 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

Thanks, Eric. Looks like someone should take a look-see using the Grim. I also prepared a supplemental table of Arp's peculiar galaxies that are on the finder charts. This list excludes the special peculiars - The Antenna and The Mice - discussed upthread. http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/VirgoSCGalaxyTourPecul… - Kurt

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Re: [Utah-astronomy] A couple of my peculiar friends - galaxies that is
by Canopus56 28 Apr '10

28 Apr '10

Jay wrote: > What size scope are you going to use to go after the Mice? In all seriousness, when Mark Bloomenthal starts me training on the Grimm, I plan to pester him to use the 36" on it. Dyer and Ling suggest that from a dark sky site, it can be done with 250mm, but I'm skeptical on that. Anyone else here seen them and if so with what? - Kurt

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A couple of my peculiar friends - galaxies that is
by Canopus56 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

To wrap this series of Realm of the Galaxies posts, I've done two finders to locate two of my favorite "peculiar" interacting galaxies - The Antenna Galaxies and The Mice Galaxies. The Antenna Galaxies NGC4038-4039 C60-C61 Hubble Close-up http://hubblesite.org/gallery/album/galaxy/pr1997034d/ The Mice Galaxies NGC4676 Hubble Close-up http://hubblesite.org/newscenter/archive/releases/2002/11/image/d I have never seen the Mice galaxies in an eyepiece. They are listed on Alan Dyer's and Alister Ling's Deep Sky Challenge Objects in the 2010 RASC Handbook at page 319 as requiring 250mm or more of aperture. Targeting both of these objects can benefit from practicing finding locator stars during after-work sessions with binos under light-polluted suburban skies. The Antenna Galaxies Finder http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3323 To practice finding the Antenna galaxies using bright locator stars, position your binos between Gienah (gam Crv) and eta Crater and slew celestial south for 2 degrees. Pickup magnitude 5.3 locator star SAO157042. C60 and C61 are a 1 deg north celestial declination slew from SAO157042. The Mice Galaxies Finder http://www.slas.us/gallery2/main.php?g2_itemId=3326 To practicing finding the Mice galaxies, orient to Coma Bernices by finding the coat-hanger asterism of the Coma Bernices open cluster, gam Com, the 31 Com optical double and beta Com. Celestial northeast of bet Com is 37 Com, a magnitude 4.9 star. The Mice NGC4676 are at a 3 degree westerly right-ascension slew from 31 Com. If possible, pickout faint (under light-polluted skies) mag 6.9 star SAO63195. NGC4676 is a one degree easterly slew from SAO63195. This region of Coma Bernices contains four other Caldwell list objects - C32, C35, C36 and C38. C35 (NGC4889) is the brightest member of galaxy group Abell 1656 contains C35 and is listed on the Dyer and Ling list as requiring 250-300mm of aperture. In conclusion, with respect to DSO faint fuzzy galaxy searching, I wanted to share this bit of astropoetry that prefaces Dyer's and Ling's DSO Challenge Object list: "The beauty of the deep sky extends well past the best and brightest objects. The attraction of observing is not the sight of an object itself but our intellectual contact with what it _is_. A faint, stellar point in Virgo evokes wonder when you try to fathom the depths of this quasar billions of light-years away." Clear Skies - Kurt

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M-63 image correction
by Patrick Wiggins 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

Joe pointed out to me that the times I listed in the description of the most recent M-63 image were off. I checked the page and found he was right. So I opened the original images and checked the time stamp in each header and found the first image started on 24 April at 0426 UT and the last one ended at 1006. Everyone please check my math but it now looks like what I had thought was 5 hours of luminance data was actually more like 5 hours 40 minutes (less a few minutes for download times). So around 5.5 hours. Perhaps Tyler could chime in with how much time he spend collecting the color photons for his contribution to the image and then we'll know the total time. Thanks Joe for keeping me honest. And thanks too for the kind words in your blog. As I mentioned in the comment I just posted to your blog, "...I love how you take my convoluted verbiage and turn it into something everyone can understand. Well done." patrick

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Tour of the spring galaxies by galaxy inclination
by Canopus56 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

I expanded the table to include a column for the inclination of the galaxy. 1 = face-on and 5 = edge-on Virgo Supercluster Showcase Galaxies by Type http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/VirgoSCGalaxyTourbyTyp… I also prepared a table of showcase galaxies by galaxy inclination: Virgo Supercluster Showcase Galaxies by Type http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/VirgoSCGalaxyTourbyInc… Enjoy - Kurt

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(no subject)
by Canopus56 27 Apr '10

27 Apr '10

I expanded the table to include a column for the inclination of the galaxy. 1 = face-on and 5 = edge-on Virgo Supercluster Showcase Galaxies by Type http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/VirgoSCGalaxyTourbyTyp… I also prepared a table of showcase galaxies by galaxy inclination: Virgo Supercluster Showcase Galaxies by Type http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/VirgoSCGalaxyTourbyInc… Enjoy - Kurt

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Tour of the spring galaxies by galaxy morphology
by Canopus56 26 Apr '10

26 Apr '10

I have prepared a table that sorts showcase galaxies associated with the Virgo Supercluster and visible during the spring by: 1) Galaxy type (RC3 codes), and, 2) Apparent brightness. Virgo Supercluster Showcase Galaxies by Type http://fisherka.csolutionshosting.net/astronote/plan/VirgoSCGalaxyTourbyTyp… The table includes galaxy morphology by Third Reference Catalogue (RCS3) types, Hubble tuning fork types, and by Simbad object type. Notes that bottom of the table link to an explain of the codes used by the RCS3 classification. Use it in good health. Corrections and comments are welcomed. Clear Skies - Canopus56 p.s. - Finders for the showcase galaxies listed in the table were provided in posts that I made since April 10.

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