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A Planet, Galaxies and Globs


Scooot

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I put my dob together early in the light in anticipation of a nice evening. Then from about 9pm I spent the best part of a relaxing hour in a chair facing west with my bins. Venus was looking bright again with the Pleiades a little further away, level with it to the right. The rest of the time I spent in and between Auriga and Perseus, picking out the Messier's in Auriga, and memorising the star patterns around them using sky safari, to make them easier to pick out on not so good nights. Similarly in Perseus I identified the oval of stars with the double cluster at its top left and the chain at the top of my oval leading to stock 2. The time flew by and then I thought I'd better take advantage of the conditions with the dob.

The more I've used my newish 16", the more I've come to love it. Tonight's sights were incredible but I'll limit my descriptions to a few.

I can never resist having a look at Jupiter so this was my first port of call. As I'd just aligned my nexus I was using my 17.3mm giving 120x. A shadow transit was half way through with a pin point black dot right in the middle. Three bright well shaped moons to the right. To the far left of the fov there were three bright stars forming a triangle. I increased the mag slightly by switching to the 13mm Ethos and then the 10mm (207x) and spent a while watching and nudging. It was so sharp, the best I've ever seen it. Swirls occasionally showing in the two main bands and a thin band showing clearly near the top just before the polar region began. The polar regions looked as if they had light shading on them. I eventually tore myself away and moved on.

I'd highlighted the caldwell catalogue on the screen for a change and was looking at a few galaxies around Coma Berenices. I don't usually spend much time looking at galaxies as my skies at home don't usually do them justice. I was quite surprised how some were quite bright tonight and good to observe. By chance I came across NGC 4565 which I spent an age looking at with my Ethos. I now know it's the Needle Galaxy which is an edge on spiral and rather than just seeing the core I convinced myself I could see a hint of its elliptical shape at the top and bottom. The bottom was close to a string of 4/5 fairly bright stars running diagonally down slightly from left to right and below this there were 1 or 2 doubles. The whole view with other bright stars framing the Galaxy was so good I wanted to sketch it, and I nearly went in to get my pad and pencil but decided against it because I wanted to look at some other things before I had to pack up.

Next for some globulars which turned out to be true wow moments. First the core of M3 was filling a good portion of my fov with bright stars spilling to the outer edges. I could resolve many stars in the core and I found myself identifying what I thought were doubles. I was then pondering whether some in the centre were actually a lot closer than the rest of the core as there seemed to be a slight three D effect. M13 was even better despite being lower at the time and the 3 D effect with M92 was even more pronounced reminding me of a kaleidoscope with the outer stars frozen as they raced towards me.

I looked at many other things but being a Tuesday I started packing up at about half past midnight when the skies were still lovely.

I had a fantastic evening, the top quality mirrors seemed well collimated throughout the night, the seeing was good with no sign of dew. I spent most of the time using the 13mm Ethos which showed sharp views across the whole Fov. It was one of those nights that makes me so pleased this is my hobby. :)

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Sounds like you had a great session Richard. I love the Needle having seen it under good skies at Lucksall. The edge on spiral arms were really clear under the dark sky.

One point of note, I believe you were actually looking at a transit of Ganymede rather than a shadow. I only know this because I watched the moon start its transit as a bright disk, but by the time it got beyond the limb darkening it had become a dark spot, similar to a shadow. I have posted about this in the planetary observing forum.

http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?/topic/241831-Galillean-moons---differing-albedo/page__view__findpost__p__2624687

Glad the scope is living up to expectations.

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Good report Richard. It is nice to read some well written highlights. And from such quality kit!!

Quick question: the spiral arms mentioned in the Needle Galaxy. Are these in addition to the arms that make it look like a needle with the bright lump of the core in the middle? Or are that above/below these?

Paul

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Sounds like you had a great session Richard. I love the Needle having seen it under good skies at Lucksall. The edge on spiral arms were really clear under the dark sky.

One point of note, I believe you were actually looking at a transit of Ganymede rather than a shadow. I only know this because I watched the moon start its transit as a bright disk, but by the time it got beyond the limb darkening it had become a dark spot, similar to a shadow. I have posted about this in the planetary observing forum.http://stargazerslounge.com/index.php?/topic/241831-Galillean-moons---differing-albedo/page__view__findpost__p__2624687

Glad the scope is living up to expectations.

Thanks Stu, I didn't look it up so just assumed it was a shadow :)

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Good report Richard. It is nice to read some well written highlights. And from such quality kit!!

Quick question: the spiral arms mentioned in the Needle Galaxy. Are these in addition to the arms that make it look like a needle with the bright lump of the core in the middle? Or are that above/below these?

Paul

Thanks Paul. i think all of what we see are edge on spiral arms with the hole in the core giving it the Needle name.

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Thanks. I've never noticed the hole! Must try harder.

Paul

Is that an effect of the dust lane running down the middle?

I thought the name related to the appearance of the arms as long points, particularly with averted vision?

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sounds like you had a great time richard, shame theres no pics of your scope set up though :smiley:

Here it is, set up and ready for action :)

.post-20507-0-07173100-1429387409.jpg

post-20507-0-97730300-1429387447.jpg

Nexus unit with the AA battery holder I'm using.

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Lovely report. From a dark site, even my old 6" Newt could pick out the long thin shape of the needle, and my old sketches (1980!) show hints of dust lane. The C8 on a dark site definitely shows the dust lane. It is one of my favourite galaxies. Would love to see it through a big Dob like yours

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