Faint Fuzzies - 23/11/14

[DeepSkyBagger]

The 23rd November gave me a slightly better than average night, and I managed to bag some dim 'uns. All observations were made with a 12" Newtonian reflector at x150.

NGC 7810 (984 H.III), Galaxy in Peg., mag 13.0

Very tiny. Very faint but clearly visible to averted vision. Elongated. Quite clear at x375. No other details visible.

NGC 71 and others (Arp 113 group), Galaxies in Andromeda, mags 13.2 and below

Two or even three galaxies strongly suspected in the correct field, but not really seen with enough certainty, so I had to log this as a 'not seen'.

NGC 95 (257 H.II), Galaxy in Psc., mag 12.5

Very faint, small, round with a brighter middle. Visible only to averted vision. A possible elongation was seen occasionally. No other details seen.

NGC 63, Galaxy in Psc., mag 11.6

Faint but clearly visible to averted vision. It mostly appeared round, but occasionally slightly elongated. No other details seen.

NGC 83, Galaxy in And., mag 12.5

Very faint and very difficult. Round with a brighter centre. Small.

NGC 80, Galaxy in And., mag 12.1

Very, very faint and very, very difficult. Round and bland with an even surface brightness.

NGC 125 (869 H.III), Galaxy in Psc., mag 12.1

Pretty faint, round, gradually brighter towards a bright middle. No other details seen.

NGC 128 (854 H.II), Galaxy in And., mag 11.8

Fairly bright and visible to direct vision. Very elongated and lenticular in shape. No central brightening was seen.

NGC 673 (598 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 12.6

Very faint and very difficult. Pale, bland and circular with a uniform surface brightness apart from a very slight central brightening. Dull.

NGC 678 (228 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 12.2

Pretty faint but easily visible. Very elongated with a bright central area.

NGC 680 (229 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 11.9

Bright and round with a brighter centre.

NGC 691 (617 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 11.4

Pretty faint. Often invisible. Fairly bland. It usually appeared to have a uniform surface brightness but occasionally, a slightly brighter centre was seen.

NGC 697 (179 H.III), Galaxy in Ari., mag 12.0

Pretty faint. Very elongated. No central brightening.

NGC 695 (618 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 12.8

Usually not visible. Faint. Visible occasionally with averted vision, but then fairly clearly. Small, round with no details seen.

NGC 774 (214 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 13.0

Small, very faint and only occasionally visible to averted vision. Bland with no features.

NGC 972 (211 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 11.4

Pretty bright and easily visible to direct vision. There is a very bright nucleus within a round, bright central area and a highly elongated outer region.

NGC 877 (246 H.II), Galaxy in Ari., mag 11.9

Just spotted before cloud stopped play. Pretty faint, large and slightly elongated away from a 13.5 magnitude star at its northern edge. It seemed fairly uniform in surface brightness.

Congratulations if you've stayed with me right through to the end! It wasn't a fabulous night, and I had to strain to see some of these little fuzzies. However, I did pass one langmark during the session. I made my 250th drawn pbservation of the year.

Dark Skies All,

Patrick

[mdstuart]

That's a great list...do you have a spreadsheet of all the galaxies you have managed to see

[DeepSkyBagger]

I do have a list, yes.

[Qualia]

Impressive and very productive night, Bagger! Although this week has been blessed with clear skies, with the Moon out I've been concentrating mainly on open cluster, Jupiter and the Moon itself. If I manage to observe four or five celestial wonders and get time to sketch one of them, I'm thinking I have done wonders and have had a very productive evening . I just don't have the stamina to do more. Call me slow! But my kind of output pails when looking at your list of some seventeen galaxies in an evening Great stuff.

[DeepSkyBagger]

You're not slow. My efficiency has been hugely boosted by 1) a properly structured observing plan (with 3000 objects in it), 2) Use of Guide 9 planetarium software at the scope (on a rubylithed screen, of course) to show me what I'm looking for, and last but not least 3) a Goto mount.

I spent over 35 years using paper charts and star-hopping. I've earned my comforts!

Also, I don't produce a finished sketch at the eyepiece. I do a 'shorthand' sketch, using symbols and abbreviations which probably wouldn't mean anything to anyone else. I produce a finished sketch the day after. The shorthand sketch takes 5 - 10 minutes to complete, then sometimes I stay on the same object, using different powers to try to bring out any more detail that may be visible. Anything I see is then added either to the sketch or to the (shorthand) written description. 

Over the past two years, I have done much to improve my personal efficiency at the eyepiece. It's paid off. This year so far I have made 250 full observations (drawing and written description), and 64 written-only observations (mostly open clusters), making 314 in total. My previous record for a year was 57.

[mdstuart]

I have only seen 7 of those 17 galaxies so I have 10 new targets!