March 19, 20, 21 - Three nights lost in space

[m_j_lyons]

This week I found myself in southern California for business and the skies north of Edwards AFB can get very dark so I just had to bring my scope along..."just in case". The "just in case" turned into 3 nights of pretty clear and pretty dark skies.

I'm going to summarize all three sessions into one entry for simplicity and time.

March 19 - I pulled into Red Rock State park where the skies are listed as solid blue (Bortle 3) and was setup in plenty of time to get frustrated at how long the sut took at set and nautical twighlight to pass...eventually the skies were dark and the Milky Way shone brilliantly across the sky. Temps were about 40F...and with the wind it fealt much closer to freezing.

The best planetary views came WHILE the sun was setting - the 1/2 disk of Venus was brilliant and Jupiter (+4 moons and storm bands on the planet) were enjoyed while the sun was setting. Seeing was listed as average to poor for the night and as the evening progressed I got less and less detail from Jupiter so I guess that forecast was accurate. Never got any real detail from Mars and had packed in for the night as Saturn was rising. As the sun set the winds started to pick up...and it was a cold wind that cut through my gloves...and shook my scope...not the best conditions. Winds only picked up as the eveing progressed.

For DSOs I started with the great Orion Nebula just as soon as the belt became visible...the nebula was visible as a 'puff of color' very early in the evening and was stunning as full darkness settled in. Other nebula in the area that were enjoyed included M43, the Running Man (NGC 1977, NGC 1975, and NGC 1973), and NGC 1980.

Moving up to the belt I was able to get my first view of the Flame Nebula (NGC 2024) by using the 10mm EP and moving the view so Alnitak was NOT in the view. I was very pleased by this...and was able to repeat it on the next few nights...several dark fingers spread through the nebula. Encouraged by the success with the Flame Nebula I decided to shoot for the moon and go for the Horsehead Nebula - despite about 10 minutes of staring...moving...staring some more - no luck was to be had here. I could just make out a slight nebulosity in the vicinity of a mag 13 star I was using as my guidepost...but I couldn't make out the dark horsehead.

M78 showed more nebulosity than I've ever seen before...almost taking on a puffy or flowery appearance. And I could make out more distinct areas of darkness marking the dark nebulae.

During this entire time I'd been gauging the darkness by going back to PGC 17965 - a mag 12.9 galaxy off the left hip of Orion. By the time I was clearly picking out mag 13.6 stars I knew it was 'dark'. I really wanted to observe this galaxy for no good reason...but I had a 2 night obsession with it. During the 19th I was able to JUST get the faintest of dusty light (I won't even call it fuzz) in the area of the galaxy...it wasn't until the end of the second night that I realized how low the surface brightness of this galaxy is. It doesn't even show up well on deep sky survey images...it's small and the light is diffuse. So having picked up some very faint light - I'm happy (and won't be spending any more time there).

The only other interesting thing to note from the first night was sighting comet C2009/P1 in UMa...a relatively bright frozen snow ball...couldn't discern a tail...just was a big fuzz ball.

With the wind increasing and my scope buffeting all over the place as a result I threw in the towel for the evening after about 90 minutes in the cold.

March 20 - I intended to go to Walker Pass Campground which is a dark grey (Bortle 2) location...but when I got there I was concerned about the sight lines given the surrounding hills/mountains...wasn't sure if i'd be able to see Leo, UMa, or Ori. So i drove back down the mountain to a pull-off that I thought woudl still be good and dark. Turns out it left me directly in the line of light from a community about 20 miles away - so it wasn't that great a dark spot (considering where I'd just left) - oh well. To add injury to insult i pulled a muscle while getting to scope out of my car (just one of those wierd things i guess). Winds were light at first but grew as the night went on and eventually were so strong they blew some of my equipment around leading me to call it a night after about 2 hours. Temps were warmer than the night before...in the upper 40s I'd guess.

Finished up the second night of trying to see PGC 17965 in Orion and truely decided that I won't be going back. M42 was stunning as usual. Flame Nebula was a hit again...Horsehead was still a no-show.

Then decided to go deep - so I started with the Leo Triplet - M65, M66, NGC 3628. All stood out very well and I could just discern the dust lane in NGC 3628.

Next I moved to M81/82 - stunning views. M82 stood out so well and I could make out the dark lane running through the center of the galaxy perpendicular to the disk. Other galaxies I pulled out in the surrounding area included NGC 3077 and 2976.

Feeling that I was on a roll in UMa I opened my "galaxy hunting" list for UMa and sorted by magnitude and started star hopping. Here's the list in decending order of magnitude - NGC 2841, NGC 3184, M109, NGC 3953, NGC 3077, NGC 3631, NGC 3726, Coddington's nebula (IC 2574), NGC 2976, NGC 4605, and NGC 2768.

Got another view of comet C2009/P1 and called it a night feeling pretty good about my results.

March 21 - at first I was going to not go out...but I decided to give it a shot and as it turned out this will be a night to remember! Perfect conditions...and spectacular results for me. Winds were pretty much calm and temps were in the low-50s. Seeing was still average to below average but transparency was outstanding!

During the twilight hour I observed Jupiter and Mars at 240x - neither would accept that much magnification and I couldn't pull any real detail at 120x. Same with Saturn later in the night - no real detail. Seeing just wasn't that good.

After darkness truely set in the fun started - Orion was a stunner as usual, the Flame Nebula was still great, but still couldn't pull out the Horsehead. I need to get that filter (OIII right?).

I took one more look at my "galaxy hunting" list for UMa and decided to go for a few more on the list - i started with NGC 3893 and found the faint galaxy along with the companion NGC 3896. There appeared to be a star just to the side of 3893 that doesn't show up on any of my charts - looked about mag 13. It was on the opposite side from 3896 and was very distinctly dimmer than the mag 10.9 star that was to the SW of the galaxy in my 10mm EP. I'm not showing any SNs in that galaxy...anyone have a clue?

Thinking Supernovas at this point and having read people finding a SN in M95 i decided to start hunting. First up was SN2012A in Leo - it's listed at Mag 14.4 right now and at 240x i was able to just make out the fuzz of the parent galaxy and the faint supernova where I first saw it many weeks ago. Definately an averted target only now (for me). Next I jumped down to M95 and was shocked to see SN 2012aw shining brightly...it stood out distinctly at 120x. Up to M101 I wanted to find 2011fe and I think I was able to pull it out very faintly...but I'm not 100% sure because it's listed at mag 15+ now.

I made a quick jump down to M51 and was SHOCKED to find that I could make out a sprial arm! I never guessed that I'd be able to pull out that sort of detail and I let a few joyous explitives fly through the night air. What a sight! And clear interaction with NGC 5195.

Next I sorted my Messier List by "best seen time" and started going through those that I hadn't logged yet. That pretty much led me to the Com/Vir constellations. For the sake of time, carbon credits, and my need to get to bed - here's the list of what I observed over the next two hours - M98, M99, M100, M84, M85, M86, M87, M88, M89, M91, M53, and M64.

M53 was a stunning globular - like looking at a ball of sand in the sky. Individual stars stood out but only as much as you could see stars behind it...and more behind them...and deeper on. What a view tonight. A short hop away was another GC - NGC 5053 - listed at mag 9 but wow was it faint. I could barely see anything other than a group of very faint stars that looked more like an open cluster...but there was a faint haze there that hinted of more stars beyond the magnitude of my scope tonight. Mag 9?...really?

Now the true kicker for the night was diving into Markarian's Chain - I was able to discern M84 - NGC 4387 - NGC 4388 - NGC 4413 (Averted only) - M86 - NGC 4402 - NGC 4438 - NGC 4435 - NGC 4425 (Averted only) - NGC 4461 - NGC 4458 (fuzzy elliptical?) - NGC 4473 - NGC 4479 (faint) - NGC 4477 - NGC 4459 - NGC 4468 - NGC 4474. I did a little dance (good thing it was dark) when I first saw "the eyes".

What a night. Saturn still wouldn't show me the Cassini Divide...and I couldn't pull out any detail from Mars...so I packed it in for the night.

So a new SN to log, a BUNCH of new galaxies, and getting closer to finishing the Messier list. Oh the afterglow is grand...

Happy Hunting...

[Black Knight]

Excellent report

Sent from my mobile using Tapatalk, so please excuse the speeling and granma!

[Double Kick Drum]

That is epic in scale!

An awesome three nights of viewing and good write up.

I had hoped to add a few more Coma Messier galaxies to my log yesterday but was denied by fog that rolled in after just over an hour of viewing.

[m_j_lyons]

Epic - indeed. I don't know when I'll have the chance to ever do that again but I wish everyone to have a night like my last night - just perfect conditions where the heavens open up before your eyes.

[m_j_lyons]

Setup from Red Rock State Park and a view of the scenery driving in.

Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using Tapatalk

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Great report of a stunning set of sessions! That 10" is pulling in the faint fuzzies and no mistake. Reminds me of my record haul of 77 new galaxies in one month in March 2011. You could try NGC 4790 with its resident SN2012au. I got both galaxy and SN yesterday with my 8". I should try some of the fuzzies you list next time with my scope.