September 29/30: Got my 150th galaxy!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Tonight was a night of differences: I first had a look at M101 and SN2011fe. M101 only showed a faint core, and SN2011fe was now at about mag 10.9. After that I had a go at the lone Herschel 400 object in Ursa Minor. After star hopping from Kochab and Pherkad, I found the right spot, and lo and behold, my first new fuzzy of the day, galaxy 147 for me: NGC 6217 showed up in averted vision. I decided to hunt some more galaxies, and star hopped from M101 to M102 (NGC 5866), which showed up rather faintly. Other galaxies nearby stubbornly refused to show up, and even M13 looked suspiciously washed out. DEW!!

I decided to get the scope in and let it dry. After a fairly prolonged stay indoors (and putting the latest batch of quince jelly in jars (27 jars this last week and a half)), I set up the scope again. This time I checked out Pegasus, first getting NGC 7479 (Caldwell 44). This proved hard, but when my eyes were properly adapted to the dark, a faint object showed up first in the 40mm as a somewhat amorphous patch, and even showing some hints of detail in the 22mm (curved brighter region). Galaxy number 148 bagged.

Moving north, I got NGC 7448, as a small nebulous patch, averted vision only. Galaxy number 149 bagged. Moving to Aries, NGC 772 proved the easiest of the bunch, showing up quite easily in averted vision as a more-or-less circular glow. Galaxy number 150!!

Finally, I tried NGC 891 (Caldwell 23). I finally managed to get it: a faint edge-on spiral, faintly showing up in the FOV of the 40mm, and slightly better in the 22. I should watch this one from a really dark site, should be much better. Nonetheless, Galaxy number 151 bagged!

To finish, I had a peek at Jupiter, and was impressed by the seeing. I got out the camera and took a few stacks. I will post them when they are properly processed. Now I must really tidy up the stuff and get some sleep.

[m_j_lyons]

Good on you. Just noticed that you already noted the decline in

the SN. It was a tough find in my scope tonight...probably the last week I'll be able to spot it.

Congrats on 150, that's quite the achievement.

Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk

[David Smith]

Much respect!

[swamp thing]

150:hello2:

Nice haul of galaxies, well done

Regards Steve

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks guys! Had another look at SN2011fe yesterday. Looked more like mag 11.0.

[iamjulian]

Congratulations. Your recent posts inspired me to step away from the messiers and have a go at a few NGCs. Ironically, my first non messier turned out to be M102, though I didn't know it at the time.

May I ask which charts you use to find your way around? Thanks.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Congratulations. Your recent posts inspired me to step away from the messiers and have a go at a few NGCs. Ironically, my first non messier turned out to be M102, though I didn't know it at the time.

May I ask which charts you use to find your way around? Thanks.

Thanks for that. M102 is very nice, I find. I generally use Tirion's Sky Atlas 2000.0 (Deluxe edition). Sometimes I check the objects in Stellarium as well.