24 February 2012: The early bird catches the...

[m_j_lyons]

Another 3am wake up...another early morning under the dark sky.

This morning's destination was my Bortle 4.5 location...25 minutes from home. Conditions were good enough...no clouds (good)...but seeing was poor/average and transparency was average. The goal for the night (I mean morning) was faint fuzzy observing in Leo and Virgo.

Quick question before the dialog starts - how do you all fight dew on eyepieces and sighting scopes? My main mirror was fine...but my EP and finder scope fogged up in the last 20 minutes of the session. Do you just take a lens cloth with you?

All observations tonight were made with the 10" dob using 10mm EP giving 120x magnification.

OK...here we go - started off in Leo and hopped my way over to 52 Leo and made short observations of NGC 3377 and NGC 3367. Short because they were faint and revealed little detail. 3377 appeared elongated N/S in the EP with a strong central core and more faint outer area that extended about 3-4x the core width. 3367 was just visible with averted vision...appeared roundish but almost like a wide comma...curvature was most visible after extended viewing (few minutes).

Next I hopped up to NGC 3384 and M105. 105 was very large (but diffuse) in the EP - clearly the most impressive sight of the night. Without cheating and looking it up it was clearly either a large face-on galaxy or bit fat elliptical. Very strong central core with diffuse glow out to 3-4x the core width. NGC 3384 was very visible but less impressive with averted vision. Core was clearly visible and glow extended about 2-3x the core width with an orientation about 45 degrees oriented NW in the EP. I tried to observe NGC 3389 but it was beyond the conditions.

Next up to M96 and M95 - both were pretty faint...dim cores with light extending about 2x the core width. M96 was aligned roughly NE/SW. M95 was a little more ENE/WSW.

Moving over to Virgo I started at 32 Virgo and hopped over the the triangle of stars around NGC 4526 - this galaxy must have been an edge on galaxy and was actually pretty bright. It sat running NE/SW in the EP and was light was pretty evenly spread across the galaxy...no clear core.

Next I hopped over to M49 which pretty bright - I logged "wow...bright!" in my log book. Strong core with light spreading out 2-3x the core width. Almost had a mottled look...like a double core or faint foreground star...I'm not sure exactly what I was seeing. Close to M49 was NGC 4470 which was just faintly visible with averted vision...barely more than a faint glow as I moved through the area with my EP. Appeared to sit aligned NE/SW. Staying in the vicinity I went to the Lost Galaxy (NGC 4535) - it was where it was supposed to be...but wow it was faint...very low surface brightness I guess. I was nothing more than a very faint glow between some stars. Wouldn't be able to tell from my view if it was elliptical or spiral or what...looking at pictures afterwards it's actually a very beautiful galaxy but those pix must have had LONG exposures.

From the M49 area I moved up to M58 which was very faint (I think my EP was starting to fog up at this point). Hard to get any detail other than that it was faint. I think it was elongated a little E-W. I then parked the scope over M59 which was fainter than expected and looked a little irregular in shape/brightness. Clumpiness possibly on the NE side. NGC 4638 was faintly seen ... nothing interesting. NGC 4606 was missed (I think I was losing the EP for dew/fog). M60 was easily seen but NGC 4647 was not discernable.

The sky was starting to brighten with morning twilight...so I threw on the 2xbarlow and moved over to Mars...forget about it...I couldn't even focus on it effectively - clearly a problem now with dew/fog...so I packed up and threw in the towel.

Pretty good time overall - coyotes made a kill (I'm guessing) in the first 20 minutes of the session and were yapping excitedly about 100 yards from my location...they were unimpressed when I yelled at them to shut-it! They left after they'd done there business and nothing more interesting than a duck paid me a visit (thank goodness).

A few new faint fuzzies logged...a few more ticks off the Messier list.

Happy hunting!

[Double Kick Drum]

Great report.

I hope to have a couple more sessions in that area before moving on to more Summery things.

Agree M105 is probably the best view but M49 not far behind.

With regards to avoiding moisture on my finder, I just cover it with my lens cap when I have found what I am looking for. I have been lucky recently with some slightly dryer nights.

[andrew63]

Sounds like a good night - must say of the leo group for me M95 was the least significant of the four.

andrew

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great night and very nice report!