mdstuart

Just a short note to say my evening was very fruitful and I managed to observe a number of the galaxies on the list. The "doubles and triples" were the most memorable so Hickson 93 where I could pick out the three brightest galaxies and the pairs NGC 7563/7559 and NGC 7147/7149. Now I just need a few more clear nights. Mark

Thanks. That 21p comet looks good. Faint tail pointing to the left (west) Mark

Scope base out cooling.. All systems are nominal as they say. Sky is clear... No moon.

The weather looks more promising for tonight.. Mark

Hmm.. Yes I was hopeing that once the cold front was through I might have some joy. Well I have the list ready for whenever the next clear night comes along. Its probably my fault as I ordered a new AZ5 head for mounting my 130p scope on Saturday. Mark

Looking like it might be clear tonight. Going to mop up a few galaxies I have not yet seen in Pegasus.. I have a list to work through with charts. They are all mag 13/14 so if you have a 10 inch scope or above feel free to try some and report back Hickson 93 Trio.pdf IC 1473.pdf IC 5104.pdf NGC 7147.pdf NGC 7149.pdf NGC 7194.pdf NGC 7323 and 7324.pdf UGC 14.pdf NGC 7559.pdf I may just sneak in another view of comet 21p as I am going along. Mark NGC 7328.pdf NGC 7536.pdf NGC 7563.pdf NGC 7643.pdf ngc 7770.pdf UGC 12713.pdf

I was looking at it in a 5 inch reflector last night at the zenith and your description is spot on.. Now try comet 21p above Cassiopeia... Mark

I am Interested in your mount. Any chance you could meet at Shepton Mallet? I am there over the next few days...or at Bridgewater on Monday. Mark

I also looked for S3 last night in 100mm binoculars and could not see it so your observation is right. Mark

Nick Following your post I had a go at E2950. I used my 6 inch mask using my 16 inch scope and that then allowed me to split the star in to two lovely points. So I now will try the closer ones in your recent posts. I note you neglected to say you regretted selling your fine 130mm skywatcher dob to me on the scopes I regret selling post Mark

And NGC 2300 the visually easiest galaxy to see in the constellation. http://bristolweather.org.uk/galaxies/find.php?obj=NGC 2300

Welcome to the dob mob... Mark - with only a 16 inch..

Owen of the Webb Society kindly gave me more data on the LGG 37 group which includes the above galaxies and now it looks like a real group. Absolutely beautiful group of galaxies. This Galaxies3D software works well http://www.galaxies3d.org/starcl-messier-objects-excluding-gc-galaxies.htm Mark

So I put some data in some 3D software today. I thought lets try that Y shaped 708 group. I loved viewing this one visually. On the internet it is called an irregular group so I was not expecting a tight ball but you get this. Here is my data..The galaxies distances are 150 to 214 mly based on their redshifts. NGC 703 028.18 +36.10 212 AND NGC 704 028.15 +36.08 210 AND NGC 705 028.18 +36.09 202 AND NGC 708 028.20 +36.09 214 AND NGC 709 028.20 +36.13 150 AND This feels like that finger of God issue in redshift data but maybe this group is more of aline of sight group rather than a group group. Anyway I would welcome your thoughts. Mark

John Here are my thoughts on your question. Happy for others to correct me! Io is about 422K from Jupiter at its furthest point from Jupiter. Our moon is 384K from earth. So our moon would be about 90% of the distance Io gets from Jupiter at the maximum separation if we were looking back from Jupiter. Io is now just past maximum separation and moving towards Jupiter from what I can tell from the interactive tools. Our moon would be about 1 sec of arc across (like Europa) and at maximum separation from earth would be about as far from earth as Io looks to Jupiter now. I think the earth would look about four times the size of Europa looks to us. Mark