April 19th, 2012: Faint fuzzies, quasars, and novas...oh my!

[m_j_lyons]

My scope has been in the trunk all week waiting for a clear night - and last night was the best (and last) chance to do some observing on this trip. Too bad yesterday was the start of a clearing trend that will lead to blisteringly clear skies for the next week...oh well. I hit my dark spot at Red Rock Canyon State Park about an hour prior to sunset, setup, had dinner, read, and waited. Temps dropped from the low 90s (F) to the upper 60s (F) over the course of the evening...high thin clouds cleared out for the most part but remained to the south...winds were gusty at sunset but calmed by about 10pm. The Milky Way wasn't really out - wrong time of year...but the Beehive Cluster was naked eye - so conditions were pretty good.

Just as the sun set I pointed the scope at Venus more to center the finder scope than anything else...a brilliant crescent was observed at 200x. Over the next 90 minutes while awaiting astronomical twilight to end I pointed the scope at Mars @ 400x (one of the polar caps was visible with a distinct dark band running along it and along the other pole), Jupiter @ 400x (although very low on the horizon and behind clouds I could just make out some cloud bands on the giant planet but could not see any moons), and Saturn @ 400x and 200x (too low on the horizon for good observing but the rings were there...but no detail and a boiling appearance).

I was using M65, M66, NGC3628 to judge my ability to see galaxies. When the trio was all visible it was time to have some fun.

I started with M95 and SN2012aw - hopping down from Mars I found M95 easily enough and SN2012aw was still blazing away a little fainter than the last time I observed it - but it was still a touch brighter than the mag 12.9 star to the E in my flipped EP (so really to the W). Skies were still a touch illuminated and M95 was rather unimpressive...no obvious bar...perhaps a hint of where it be seen in another 30 minutes.

Next I decided to shoot for the moon and quasar OJ 287 - I had saved a finder chart because SkyTools was telling me that I wouldn't be able to see it at mag 15...but every bit of documentation is saying that the mag is currently in the 14s so I had to give it a shot - it proved to be one of the more difficult finds of the night! Going from the Beehive Cluster over HD75974 and then down to a kite shaped asterism of mag 14.x stars I could pick out in the kite's tail and extra star that shouldn't have been there. At 400x the mag 14.1 and 14.7 stars were solid with averted vision...but to the left of them (W) was an equally dim star that wasn't quite so misty...nothing was shown there in SkyTools but the finder chart showed that as the location for the quasar - success on my first quasar (and a meager 3.2-3.5 billion light years away!) <insert little happy dance here>

Having hit the moon I decided to shoot for it again and seek quasar 3C 273 in Virgo. Star hopping up from Zaniah I got into the area pretty quickly and was able to pick out this 1.9 billion light year distant object. The surrounding galaxy was not visible...but I was still beaming.

Next I wanted a good view of the Sombrero Galaxy - I hopped up through a "spaceship" asterism and the "shark" asterism and found M104 pretty easily. Nice views at 200x - nice bright galaxy area with a distinct dark band running along it and making it look slightly out of balance (heavy on the bottom side in my EP). At 400x the view was stunning - clear dark dust band running for fully 1/2 my EP while a little bit of light was visible on the other side of the dust band...a more complete view of the galaxy. Very nice.

Next it was up to the Coma Cluster - after hopping into ACO 1656 I parked on the mag 7 star that appears to anchor this cluster. The entire area was mottled with very faint fuzzies...just beyond resolving. NGC 4884 and NGC 4874 were the most obvious but as I spent more time sweeping and going back and forth to the charts I was able to pin down the following galaxies - NGC 4921, 4919, 4923, 4911, and MGC 5-31-94.

Then moving away from the cluster NGC 4839 was visible as an angled smear.

The hits kept on playing - Whale galaxy with companion NGC 4627. The Whale had a mottled appearance at 200x but wouldn't stand up to 400x. A nice bright view.

Close by was NGC 4656 which appeared thin and brighter at the bottom part...on initial view nothing was really visible below the bright spot...but after sticking with it for a while more faint structure was present below the bright (core?) but more interesting was what appeared to be a tail to the top that bent about 90 degrees away...to the left in my EP at 200x. After reviewing some pictures this morning i see that my eyes weren't deceiving me...how cool!

Rather than make this report as long as the night was I'll summarize the next 2 hours of observing.

Failed to see the M87 jet (wasn't sure where it would have been anyways) but found surrounding galaxies NGC 4476, 4478, and 4486a.

Saw the Siamese Twins with a very nice V structure but distinct separation between the cores.

Found SN2012au - this one was a bit difficult and was averted only. Failed on SN2011ja in Centarus - just too low on the horizon to pull out things that faint in the haze.

Observed the Omega Centarus Cluster - big but most of the detail was lost in the haze...just too low on the horizon.

Few more Messier objects that I hadn't collected yet - M83, M102.

Back to M51 for a stunning view of the spiral arms...I'm in love with the Whirlpool.

And a few more assorted faint fuzzies here and there...what a night. NGC 4839, 5102, 4564, 4608, 4781, and 4790.

2 quasars, 1 new SN, 23 new galaxies, and 2 more marks off on the Messier hunt.

Happy hunting all!

[WayBig]

That's quite some haul for an evenings viewing, a nice variety of objects too, bet you had a whale of a time (sorry)

[Double Kick Drum]

The hits kept on playing - Whale galaxy with companion NGC 4627. The Whale had a mottled appearance at 200x but wouldn't stand up to 400x. A nice bright view.

Close by was NGC 4656 which appeared thin and brighter at the bottom part...on initial view nothing was really visible below the bright spot...but after sticking with it for a while more faint structure was present below the bright (core?) but more interesting was what appeared to be a tail to the top that bent about 90 degrees away...to the left in my EP at 200x. After reviewing some pictures this morning i see that my eyes weren't deceiving me...how cool!

Thanks for sharing, especially as the skies have been full of rain laden cumulonimbus over this side of the pond for the last few days and reports are somewhat few and far between!

The brighter part of NGC 4656 is actually another galaxy (NGC 4657) which is interacting with it. Sadly my aperture has only allowed me to see the brightest element of the pair known as the Hockey Stick.

I guess that makes 24 new galaxies.

The Whale galaxy is one of my favourites as it appears as more than just a smudge in my 5 inch refractor.

Let's hope for some better viewing in the coming days!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Awesome report. Glad you got OJ 287, and not just because it confirms my own sighting. An excellent haul of galaxies as well.

[m_j_lyons]

Thanks, I was very pleased with the quasar in Cancer. It was a challenging target being so faint...but it all matched up to the charts.

Sent from my HTC_Amaze_4G using Tapatalk 2

[rory]

great session, thanks for sharing.

[Mike73]

I'd be happy with half that in one night!

Given me so many ideas of what to look for newt time I'm out.

Thanks for the right up.