mdstuart

If you mask down a dob the star bloat can be made to dissappear.. Mark

Today I have been looking through the NASA Atlas of galaxies. It lists galaxies in red shift order. I found out that I have only seen 3 of the first 10. Some are southern objects and some have a low surface brightness but I might try this one. NGC 4395 in CVN. Do others find targets when reading? Mark

Well done Hutch star or finding that black eye galaxy, I always find it hard to hop too. The needle galaxy is much fainter but a lovely sight with that star next to its central core. Saganite - I have that book as well and used it last night to try to spot ARP105 but failed - see below. A NIGHT OF OBSERVING GALAXIES ON A COLD CLEAR NIGHT WITH THE 20 INCH DOB So I set up which took about 15mins, put on lots of layers of clothing and was out by 8.30pm. Looked clear, a bit murky to the SW. Just a check for the cirrus ahead of the atlantic fronts but nothing evident so we proceed.

Just in after a good session. A lovely clear sky but becoming less transparent with time as John has just posted. I will report back tomorrow. Mark

Mike I saw NGC2805 back in January. Very tough low surface brightness object according to my notes. Mark

The chunks should fade, it's the cirrus from the West that troubles me.. Mark

Looking clear so I have been preparing my galaxy target list. I have been doing this for a while so these galaxies are typically mag 13/14 with a relatively high surface brightness in the plough. They have been selected using the skytools software. I have preflagged those galaxies that look possible with my 20 inch dob in mag 5 skies. Normally I have a 90% success rate with this method. I pick those to the N to NE which is darker for me as this is towards the Cotswolds. I have printed off charts to aid with star hoping. I use a RACI finder, then a 16mm eyepiece to locate the fie

I am grateful we have companies like Orion optics still making and resilvering mirrors in the UK. They resilvered my 16 inch and the results were superb. Mark

I also observed Arp224 last night. In the image below I could only see the mag 13.6 star, ngc 3921 and ngc 3916 but I was pleased with that .

I was observing the edge on galaxy NGC 4617 tonight in my big dob. It is a mag 14 object in Canes Venatici. Here is an image. It was hard to spot requiring averted vision. What struck me was that it grew at both ends as I applied averted vision. As I looked at it directly it was clearly an edge on galaxy but as I looked to the side of it with averted vision it grew at both ends. So find an edge on galaxy and see if you can get it to grow and shrink by applying averted vision. It is the galaxy equivalent of blinking a planetary nebula! Mark

Wookie It is steel. Just a basic laptop stand. I was just looking for something suitable and stumbled across it. Mark

They are print outs from the software sky tools. I find I need the detailed maps to locate the fainter objects. It's good that each chart section can be orientated to match my RACI finder / Newtonian view and adjusted to match my frequently used eyepieces.

As I picked up and put down my charts the other night I thought there has to be an easier way. Here it is! Might need lights on the feet to stop me tripping over them.

Wim I saw NGC 2469 when I had a 14 inch scope. I saw it as a small galaxy between two stars. The galaxy required averted vision to spot. NGC 2488 was a lot further back when I had my 10 inch Skywatcher. I noted it as a very tough galaxy to spot with an oval shape. I will go back and re-visit the field with my 20 inch scope sometime. My skies are OK overhead with a limiting magnitude of about 5. Mark

Fascinating image. I have seen NGC 2488 and NGC 2469 visually but you have captured so many more. I must revisit this region. Thanks for sharing. Mark