[Utah-astronomy] Weekend observing report from Gravel Pit & Rush Valley
Friday night proved to be pretty good from the Gravel Pit. Three scopes showed up; my 16, Daniel "Galaxy Hunter" Turner's 17.5" and Lou Griffin's 20-inch, joined later by a group of enthusiastic young adults. The seeing was poor/fair until the clouds fully departed about 10:30, and seeing was decent as we lingered until about 1:30. I managed to log about 25 H-400 objects there, mostly open clusters and galaxies in Orion, Auriga, Cam. and Gemini, and one nice PNe, NGC 1501. The weather was downright balmy. Over 40 degrees at least until midnight, and I never even donned the gloves. The most difficult object of the night was NGC 2185, a diffuse nebula in Orion. Very challenging object. Anyone on the list have any luck with this one? I barely saw the nebulosity, but the seeing was poor and it was low in the sky. Any personal observing notes on this as to what to expect with good seeing would be appreciated. Saturday at the "pit 'n pole" in Rush Valley the sky was much clearer. Unfortunately I arrived late and a bit frustrated from getting lost (sorry to bark at you Jim!), joining a large group (including my 2 compainions from the night before) that was quickly dissipating about 10-ish. While it has a better South-Western horizon than the gravel pit (in spite of some light pollution from the chem depot), overall isn't a better site, and was actually much colder than the gravel pit ironically. Again I managed to bag approx another 25 objects, spending most of the night hunting galaxies in Leo and UMa; some nice galaxy cluster surprises, e.g., NGC 3681,3684, 3686, and 3691 in the same eyepiece field (@115x in the 22 Nagler), and 3185, 3190, and 3193 in another view, etc. Lots of fun multiple galaxy pairs, trios, and quads, including groups near NGC 3395 and NGC 3607. Saw the beautiful dual transit on Jupiter (with superb color banding in the 17.5") about 11:20, and was treated to an easy find of Omega Centauri (my first view ever) skimming along just above the horizon approx. 2 a.m. (just two of us left by then). I'd sure love to see that baby overhead before I die in a big dob under clear dark skies... Tired (yet happy) after two nights of getting to bed after 3am and not being able to sleep in past 8. Yawn. (Sorry, I suspect this post is a yawner too), -Rich __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html
Actually, not a yawner at all. It was fascinating, Rich! But for those of us who don't know the nomenclature, what are H-400 objects? Best wishes, Joe
Joe Rich is working on the Hershel 400. See: http://www.saguaroastro.org/content/00_ALL-OF-HERSHEL400.html JG Joe Bauman <bau@desnews.com> wrote: Actually, not a yawner at all. It was fascinating, Rich! But for those of us who don't know the nomenclature, what are H-400 objects? Best wishes, Joe _______________________________________________ Utah-Astronomy mailing list Utah-Astronomy@mailman.xmission.com http://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/utah-astronomy Visit the Photo Gallery: http://www.utahastronomy.co Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time.
Thanks Jim, they look interesting. -- Joe
Hi Richard: concerning your mystery companion to NGC3226 and NGC3227: I checked the observing reports in seds.org and it seems that NGC3222 is the most likely and NGC3212 is also expected to be seen in that field. Clear Skies Daniel Turner. Observation Poster: Charles Rose <crandar@bellsouth.net> Observer: Charles Rose Your skills: Intermediate (some years) Date/time of observation: 9:45 pm CST Location of site: Southaven, MS (Lat , Elev ) Site classification: Suburban Sky darkness: 15 <Telescopic LM> Seeing: 5-6 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Moon presence: None - moon not in sky Instrument: 444.5 mm Newtonian Reflector f/5 Dobsonian Magnification: 69x,118x,229x Filter(s): Object(s): NGC 3222 Category: External galaxy. Class: Constellation: Leo Data: mag 13-14 size Position: RA : DEC : Description: This object is about one quarter of a degree west of the pair NGC3227/6 parked next to a 14th magnitude star. At 118x averted vision was required to see it, but 229x allowed it to be held with direct vision. It appeared as a small circular patch of nebulosity. Nothing too exciting visually, but it is proof that larger apertures really do see deeper even under heavy light pollution. The object is invisible with my 250mm Newtonian. -- Observer: Lew Gramer, Dan Winchell, Mike Aramini; Steve Clougherty Your skills: Intermediate (some years); Advanced (many years) Date/time of observation: 28/29 Mar 2001, 03:15 UT Location of site: ATMoB Clubhouse, Westford MA USA (42oN, 86m elev) Site classification: Exurban. Sky darkness: 5.6 <Limiting magnitude>, 6 <Bortle Scale> Seeing: 9 <1-10 Seeing Scale (10 best)> Moon presence: None - moon not in sky; Cirrus bands nearby Instrument: 17.5" f/4.5 dob Magnification: 57x, 220x, 285x Filter(s): None. Object(s): NGC 3226, NGC 3227 (Arp 94), NGC 3222 Category: Group of galaxies. Class: E2, SAB(s)abP, SB0 Constellation: Leo Data: mag 12, 11, 14; size 3.2x2.8 15o, 5.4x3.6 155o, 1x1 Position: 1023 +1954 Description: As a gauge of our conditions in between the cirrus bands tonight, we decided to try viewing this lovely trio (actually a quadruple) of galaxies, which lie tantalizingly close (40'-50' E) of gamma Leonis (Algieba). Despite searching at high power, I just didn't find the third member (n3222) at all tonight. It has shown up to averted vision very well in this scope on earlier occasions, so I think this entire observation was hampered by moisture tonight. We did not even bother to look for the fourth eg, n3213, tonight. -- On the other hand, the bright interacting Arp pair, NGC 3226 and n3227, showed up passingly well tonight. Northerly member n3226 had a bright, well-defined core which was striking at all powers. At highest power, this bright inner nugget occasionally seemed to show a much smaller, sparkling nucleus, not quite at center. But it displayed no other detail, in the core or in the diffuse halo. -- NGC 3227, the Southerly member of the pair, was just a bit of a disappointment tonight, showing only a modicum of detail: it had a nicely (N-S) elongated, but mostly diffuse core, set inside a similarly elongated (NW-SE) halo, which nearly touched the outer halo of n3226. However, none of the fine spiral structure we'd seen on a prior night (especially with Dan's fine new 14" dob!) was even hinted at tonight. Nor was the spiral arc that reaches out right up to the hub of n3226 visible, at any power. -- Coincidentally, this group appears to belong to a larger cluster of galaxies, which also includes the NGC 3190 group (Hickson 44). Does anyone know if these 4 egs are also catalogued as a group, or which if any catalogued cluster these groups both belong to? -- __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Finance Tax Center - File online. File on time. http://taxes.yahoo.com/filing.html
The weather gods have added the phase "and then mostly clear" to tonight's weather following the usual evening thunderstorm warning. It's the first time this week that the words "mostly clear" have appeared in a short or longterm forecast. I've got two new eyepieces burning a hole in my case and I have to try them before the moon reclaims the night and the Virgo cluster disappears into the twilight for the year. Call me nuts but this is more important than sleep. Off to the gravel pit. Regards Daniel Turner __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Domains Claim yours for only $14.70/year http://smallbusiness.promotions.yahoo.com/offer
participants (4)
-
daniel turner -
Jim Gibson -
Joe Bauman -
Richard Tenney