Tales from Santa Luce, Tuscany, Episode XI: Last of the Summer Galaxies

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

In this penultimate report on my observations from Santa Luce, and following up on the August 11 session, August 12 was clear and devoid of clouds. Initially, moonlight hampered the view, but it set at 20:30, so it was no big deal. Early views of Saturn and the moon revealed the usual boiling skies.

I started out from M5, which looked great in the clear skies, but instead of taking time to admire it, I simply used it as a starting point for the star hop to NGC 5921. I finally found this object, which is quite a faint patch of haze. Nearby NGC 5962 was quite easy by comparison, slightly elongated. I tried NGC 5996 and NGC 6012 but no result.

NGC 5984 could be found after a prolonged effort. It is odd how these faint objects elude you for a while, and then quite suddenly appear, often as you move your eye, or the scope. Once found, you wonder how you missed them before.

NGC 5957 showed up as a hazy oval (averted vision).

After this trawl westwards of the band of the Milky Way, I did a quick trawl through the Sco/Sgr region picking up M8, M17, M16, and M18 on the way. I gave Pal 11 a quick look, but that is beyond the reach of the scope (Member of the Palomar list of globulars discovered on plates, and really considered a challenge to imagers). My real aim was NGC 6814, which was surprisingly easy, despite the rich star field in which it lies. An oval patch of fuzz could even be seen in direct vision.

I picked up planetary nebula IC 4846 again, and had a look at M72, for the first time using the C8 (I had only seen it in Olly's 20 Dob, a.k.a. "Sir Isaac"). It could even be seen in the 14x70 finder, quite a nice globular, but mostly interesting to me because it was my penultimate Messier (not counting Messier A and B). M73 (my last Messier, also only seen with Sir Isaac) was next up, and probably the least impressive Messier (bar M40).

From these Messiers, it was a quick star hop to NGC 7009, the Saturn Nebula. The Saturn-like shape was evident even at 93x in the 22T4, and the blue-green colour showed clearly.

Moving back to galaxies, I tried NGC 7183 (just because it was close) but no result. NGC 7184 showed up nicely, however. It is a fairly easy elongated patch of fuzz.

After failing to spot IC 1438 (bit surprising as it is not that faint, as I found out just now; maybe I should have spent more time), I had a look at the Helix Nebula, NGC 7293. I swapped out the 22T4 for the 31T5, and the view was the best I have ever seen. Even so, it really needed the UHC filter and averted vision to see the whole extent. It is really a ghostly smoke ring.

Going back to summer galaxies, NGC 7314 was quite a looker, despite being just a few degrees above the horizon, and should be a stunner from down-under. Nearby, I also bagged NGC 7377 and NGC 7392, which showed up as two similar fuzzy patches.

I then moved far further north, hopping past M2 (beautiful globular, not often seen by me), and M15 (better known) to NGC 7177 in Pegasus. Very nice, very easy in direct vision, core quite condensed, elongated.

Finally, I sped southwards again, as Fomalhaut had moved sufficiently to show that NGC 7507 must have cleared the trees. This is a very compact, near circular blob of very decent surface brightness.

With my galaxy count now at 392, I decided to call it a night.

Next episode: Last session in Santa Luce

[KevUU]

Another busy session! I'm properly jealous, Michael, but well done for making so much of this holiday