Mixed results night...and a SN to top it off

[m_j_lyons]

Well northern California is in-between winter storm systems and clear skies were calling for me to dress warm and pull the scope out. A sick wife going to bed early was the last push I needed...dressed for the cold temps - out i went.

New Finds

Old Friends

Goal for the night was to sight SN2012A in Leo...secondary goal was a good view of NGC1999 in Orion - hopefully seeing the void.

Conditions were pretty good...I could see 6 stars in the Little Dipper so I'd estimate transparency around 5 and seeing around 7-8. Light pollution was pretty bad in all directions except W. Skies in this Sacramento suburb are about a 6-7 on the Bortle scale. Temp was in the low 40s F and going into the 30s F as the night went on.

Starting out about 2130 meant Orion was in a great position to start the scope in. Despite the light pollution being just outside of Sacramento the view of the Orion nebula was great. The Trapezium stood out so well...and the nebula stretched for almost the entire 10mm eyepiece. Better views have been had under darker skies a few weeks ago...but I wasn't complaining.

Next I moved down the belt to NGC1999. Finding the target in the 26mm EP wasn't too tough...upping the magnification prooved a bit more of a challenge. Over the course of the next 10 minutes I moved from 26mm to 10mm to 10mm 2xBarlow to 6mm to 6mm 2xBarlow and found that with the 6mm and 2xBarlow (~400x) I was observing what appeared to be a small nebula with a bright star-like core...and just beneath the bright core was a very dark area...but all that was surrounded by faint nebulosity. I think I've completed my secondary objective for the night...YES! I would have like for the view to be more crisp...but all things in due time. Only today did I realize that my new scope was out a bit on the collimation...perhaps the next time out will be better...and darker.

Staying in Orion I went back to Nair al Saif and had an easy time splitting...nice view at 10mm.

Next moved (starhopped) up to M78 which was faintly visible with two stars and faint nebulosity surrounding...above and slightly to the right (EP view) was a slightly brighter area of nebulosity. No perception of the dark nebula off to the side of M78. Darker skies will make this much better.

After a short period of time going through Canis Majoris ... nothing new to report ... I went to see the view of Polaris with the new scope. Clear split between Polaris A and B with 26mm and 10mm. No need for Barlow.

off to Leo.

Starting off at Algieba (Gamma Leo) I hopped down to the area of NGC3239 - which is described as a very difficult Mag 11.7 galaxy due to the proximity and overwhelming of a Mag 9 neighboring star. Finding the "triangle" of the Mag 9 (listed as 10.0 in SkyTools), 11.5, and 12.9 stars wasn't difficult but the galaxy was pretty much invisible. I was able to get a few glimpses of a very faint glow in the area where I knew it should be...but it's hard to claim victory with what I had seen. Same with SN2012A contained w/in NGC3239. I was able to see it with averted vision once or twice while moving the view around with the 10mm EP with 2xBarlow (~400x). Faint and star-like is the only description I can provide...and Mag 13-14 (currently listed at 13.7 so that makes sense). I can't say I was super happy declaring victory on this one...but given the LP in the area...I'm content (for now).

Having met my objectives I decided to do a little galaxy hunting. I started back at Algieba and hopped over to NGC3226 and NGC3227 - a nice little pair that appear to be interacting in photos. It took patience...but with averted vision the two fuzzy areas came into view with the 10mm (~120x) EP. One of the smudges was elongated and about 90 degrees to the other 'blob'. I'll likely come back to these...and more of the faint Leo galaxies under darker conditions.

From there down to the Leo Triplet to see what I could see in the LP. In the 26mm EP I could make out M65 and M66 as faint fuzzies...slightly elongated. NGC3628 was a needle with averted vision. Darker skies are needed!

Overall a nice night...but for the effort to put the 10' scope in a kid's bike trailer...bungee it in. Pack up all the EPs and tech equipment. And HOLD the base in my hand as I biked the 1/4 mile to our close park. It may have been better to pack up the car and drive to my local dark spot...and the views would have been better. Oh well...I'm just glad nobody stopped me on my bike and questioned what I was doing...I must have been quite the sight.

cheers.

[Double Kick Drum]

That's a great report on an area I am just starting to get familiar with myself.

I think NGC 2903 is probably the pick of the Leo galaxies (at least with my scope) - even better than the five Messiers.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Really nice report! Congrats on getting that SN!