23.01.2012 Galaxy Hunting.... Mostly

[Double Kick Drum]

I had booked a few days off either side of New Moon in the hope that I could get some serious hours in with the scope.

Tonight has been the only night I have had the opportunity to do anything.

Seeing was pretty decent (zenith mag. 5 - 5.1) to start with although the odd wisp of cloud occaisionally dropped this by a half magnitude.

I started with a quick look at M81 and M82, with a view to moving on to NGC 3077 which I was able to see more easily than a couple of months back, although it was still an averted vision circular glow.

Buoyed by this, I thought i'd try a new one - NGC 4605, also in Ursa Major. Not the easiest to find but after 15 minutes or so star hopping, there it was. A very dim elliptical glow slightly larger than NGC 3077.

I then swung the scope around to Gemini to view NGC 2392 - the Eskimo nebula with my new eyepieces. The 8mm X-Cel gave a nice sharp image. A small circular fuzzy patch with a hint of a brighter and slightly elongated core.

Moving to Perseus I tried and failed to find NGC 1023, a galaxy with quite a high rated surface brightness. This area of the sky has rich star fields which make star hopping quite confusing. I gave up after 20 minutes but will return to this one at some point.

In Auriga, I spotted NGC 1664 - the Kronenbourg cluster. I think it is really called the Kite cluster as it appeared as a small faint kite with a tail set in between an almost rectangular trapezium (I hope that makes sense) of mag. 8 stars nearby to Epsilon Aurigae.

I then returned to Ursa Major to try to observe M108 but was unable to see it yet again. I will probably need as good a night from my back garden as you can get to see this one overhead, or close to.

I finished the evening by stepping across to Canes Venatici to catch a first glimpse of NGC 5005 (Caldwell 29), seen as a dull elliptical glow South East of Cor Caroli. The very nearby NGC 5033 was too dim to be seen under the circumstances. The sky had worsened slightly and the wisps of cloud were becoming more regular.

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Observing Session: Monday 23rd January 2012, 20:40 to 22:50 hrs GMT

Seeing at zenith: 5.1 dropping to 4.8 by the end

Seeing at 45 degrees: 4.7 dropping to 4.5 by the end

New Object - Observed Object - Failed

[Bart]

Nice , glad you got at least one decent night in.

Bart

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Nice collection of fuzzies. M108 is one of the harder Messier objects. NGC 1023 is quite easy, and best found from gamma And (Almach). Haven't tried NGC 4605 yet. Should give it a go when the weather clears.

[Double Kick Drum]

Nice collection of fuzzies. M108 is one of the harder Messier objects. NGC 1023 is quite easy, and best found from gamma And (Almach). Haven't tried NGC 4605 yet. Should give it a go when the weather clears.

It wouldn't be a challenge, if you could see everything first time. I did also have a quick go at M109 (slightly dimmer again) but gave up quickly to focus on stuff with higher average surface brightness.

I would also love to get the scope on M101 as I have only ever seen it through binoculars at a dark South coast site near Winchelsea.