Mike JW

Hi Mark, I thought of you last night as I viewed the Milky Way just after midnight - a poor night I could only see visually down to mag 5!!!!! and there is you viewing from your kitchen. Good to know that you enjoyed M13 and there was me viewing mag 18 galaxies using the 15/ultrastar............... Mike

I saw this SN in the list on the Skytools 4 software and the other night when looking at SN 2021wuf in NGC 6500 (see earlier post by Martin) I gave it a go. At the time I had no idea if I was in the right area until today when I have spent time cross referencing to star charts/DSO images. There were so many stars in view that there was no way I was going to spend observing time tracking it down. It does not lie in an obvious galaxy. Looking at DSO images of the area it would seem to coincide with a faint tiny fuzz patch. What a lark and test of scope alignment and syncing to actually get this "little white dot" in a view full of other little white dots. Mike

Arp 150 also known as Hickson 95 lies in Pegasus. The brightest galaxy is NGC 7609 (an elliptical). Arp put the galaxy in the "with jets" classification. The jet(s) would appear to come from the companion. This is not the first time I have visited this group but it certainly my best shot as it clearly shows the straight tidal stream between the two galaxies and a separate curving stream (or is it - could simply be curving spiral arm). Below the companion is yet more tidal stream - quite wide rather than narrow. I read one article suggesting there are 4 tidal streams which are shown in quality images. The companion is the galaxy that is being the most disrupted suggesting it has much less mass than NGC 7609. Also in high resolution images the companion clearly has two bright nuclei. As always the question to ask, is are the four galaxies a true group? - only the right hand three are near to each other and may well in time merge. They lie somewhere between 539 and 564 million lyrs away. The galaxy to the left is 376 million lyrs away and intrigues me - does it have two nuclei (implies a merger) or is that a star superimposed to the right of the nucleus. Decent images would suggest it is a star. Mike

The crescent is not the only DSO worthy of an annual visit. Mike

Always enjoyable to see your cluster shots and the info. Mine are never worth posting being in mono. I have checked to see if there are any doubles in this cluster - none shown in my star charts software. Mike

Mark, I live in rural Suffolk. When I was doing between 120hrs and 150hrs observing in a year - may be a dozen. The most transparent skies seem occur in the summer months - July/August. All too often the humidity levels are too high. May of 2020 was a wonderful run of transparent nights (so little car and aircraft pollution) - mag 5.7 at the zenith and tacking the milky way close to the horizon. Light pollution steadily increases making it increasingly difficult. In August this year I did eight observing sessions and just on one of them could I detect mag 5.7 stars visually. A poor night for me is mag 5.0. A typical night is mag 5.4/mag 5.5 high up. I use the stars in Ursa Minor as I guide. Milky Way is always visible!!!!! Mike

Your NV set up would out do a large Dob quite easily. I live under the sort of skies you experienced (I can see M13 naked eye, just) on those rare good nights) and using a large Dob is impressive but has a narrow fov. Mike

Hi Martin, Last night I took a look at the SN with the 15 but the shots do not add to your image. I tried 5, 10 and 15 sec subs but I could not get any evidence of the possible arm leading to the SN. I love the term galactic fluff and further to the left of the double star is another galaxy with no info. The double star intrigued me - would it be possible to actually show it is a double using my set up - see below. The shot is just 1 sub and linear setting. Mike

Abell 72 (PK 059+18) in Delphinus is tricky even in a large telescope (can be picked up in a 24" scope in good conditions). It lies about 3700 lyrs away and is about 3lyrs across. There are some beautiful images on the internet which pick up much detail. I was pleased just to get a hint of it. The CS star is visible in my shot. This PN is likely to be Bi-Polar. The obvious adjacent galaxy is 200 million lyrs away. Mike

My first reaction to seeing PCG 232329+173715 in Pegasus appear on the screen was 'no way - you're having a laugh!' What do you see? - yep 1 galaxy and 3 stars. However go onto Aladin and sure enough the 3 stars are galaxies - no other info - tight galaxies. could they be ellipticals? In fact Aladin shows the main galaxy as having a companion but my diff spike has covered it up. Mike

Beverley Lynd compiled this list of bright nebulae in the 1960s. using the Palomar Plates. The co-ordinates are for the centre of the clouds. They really are suited to smaller scopes with a wide fov but I thought I would give them a go using the 15/ultrastar set up. It makes a change to not be chasing distant galaxies. Please feel free to add into this thread especially you folk who have a wider field set up. LBN 438 in Lacerta LBN 462 in Lacerta LBN 132 in Delphinus LBN 141 in Delphinus - I think this nebulosity and not just noise? I am reasonably pleased with the results but to be honest I suspect I should only tackle these objects on very good transparent nights to keep the noise down. Mike

Superb capture. Mike

Always amazes what can be achieved with a small scope, Mike

PN: M 2-54 in Lacerta. Not much to say - if it wasn't for Jocular plate solving I would not have been sure I was in the right area. Really needs colour to locate it. Mike

Well spotted - I thought I had posted something but could not find it!! Oh dear age is catching me up - must up the medication!!!!!!! Thanks for highlighting it. This second attempt is somewhat better? Cheers, Mike

Oh no not another image of the Crescent Nebula!!! However having checked the EEVA section we last had a post in 2018 and previous to that it was 2014. What prompted me to have a look was an image with a small scope that had 3 hours or so of run time. and wondered what the EEVA technique would achieve. What you see is 4m 30 sec of 10 second shots using my 15" Dob and the ultrastar. A pity I don't do colour. I had to combine two shots to get the full width of the nebula in view. A few facts: this emission nebular is about 25 lyrs across and around 5000lyrs away. It is caused by the Wolf Rayet star (WR136,HD 192163) - it is the bright star more or less at the centre of the fov. This star is shedding the mass equivalent of our sun every 10,000 years. Its super fast solar wind has caught up the slow moving wind from when it became a red giant and the interaction is heating up the gas - shockwave effect; which is what we see. Mike

I was pleased to pick up the loop - obviously not as sharp as decent images but the shot gives a feel what is going on with this pair. Mike

Delphinus -VV102. I visited this pairing a year ago (see earlier in this thread). This a much better shot - more detail in this pair of spirals and the wider fov picks up a few more galaxies, including another galaxy pair in the lower part of the view.

FGC 2291 (UGC 11647), classified as Scd and about 364 million lyrs away. Mag 13 ish galaxy in a nice star field. FGC 2292 (PGC 91683) lies about 250 million lyrs away. It is there in the shot! It is a mag 17 edge on (I think the faintest edge on I have picked up). Look below the bright central star, about half way to the next bright star. FGC 2309 (PGC 91695) lurks around the 1 billion lyrs mark and is another mag 17, edge on. Look between the two bright star that are just above the centre of the fov. FGC 2302 (UGC 11666) gets you two galaxies, in a crowded star field. The question is, 'are they near to each other'? - the edge on is about 250 million lyrs away and the nice face on spiral is twice as far away - around the 500 million lyrs away. Always interesting to go off the beaten track. Mike

No need to use eq mounts. I use a Dob which is Alt/Az. Provided the virtuoso mount will track reasonably accurately then you can do EAA with it. Mike

Yes, very useful. I do something similar in Jocular but manually. Mike

Hi Roelb, Thanks for adding in your shot which gives the wider fov. Mike

Martin, you make a good point. Mike

Hi Martin, I had not fully appreciated the artistic side of this shot. You are quite right the way the surrounding stars frame the SHK group. Mike

Hi Martin, Really interesting to read your observations/thoughts. Here is a close up from my shot. It confirms the sudden drop off in luminosity of the northern arm. The lower arm is somewhat wider, fainter and appears not to extend as far as the upper arm. Mike