May 25/26: 30 DSO session in Virgo (at long last)

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

After a frustrating time under clouds, the skies finally cleared yesterday, so I spent a happy evening setting up the kit, looking at Venus and the moon through the 15x70 bins (two really nice sickles visible), and pouring over my copy of the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalog of Bright Galaxies to make a list of fuzzies to chase.

At about midnight it was just about as dark as it was going to get, and I trained the C8 at Spica to align the big finder. I first chased a pair which had shown tantalizing hints under moonlit conditions a few weeks back.

NGC 5077 and NGC 5079 showed up in averted vision to the southwest of Spica, NGC 5077 showing up as a faint, not very elongated ellipse, and NGC 5079 as a slightly more elongated one to the south east of it.

After a fruitless chase of NGC 4939 and NGC 4818, I managed NGC 4958, which was quite easy in averted vision, and could even be seen in direct. It is a bright (mag 10.4), very elongated lenticular, and my first Herschel 400 object of the night.

A quick detour to Corvus bagged me NGC 4782 and NGC 4783, the second pair of the evening. These were harder at mag 12.3 and 12.4, but these ellipticals are quite compact so the surface brightness is not to bad.

As the trees started to encroach on that part of the sky, I shifted eastward, to a region of Virgo I have not really looked at before, around Syrma (iota Virginis) and to the east, after a short detour to admire Saturn. NGC 5426 and NGC 5427 are a nice pair too, one elongated blob pointing towards a more round blob. Averted vision required. Nearby I found NGC 5468 and NGC 5493. Not very remarkable, quite small blotches.

NGC 5634 is a very small globular cluster found to Syma's east. Through the C8 it looked almost like the view of M13 through my 15x70 bins, but with stronger hints of stars.

More northward I got NGC 5584, a very difficult, quite low surface-brightness galaxy. One of the hardest objects of the night. This was followed by two more Herschel 400 objects: NGC 5576, which was quite easy, and compact , and NGC 5566, which was more difficult, and diffuse.

NGC 5638 (fairly easy compact) and NGC 5701 (blotchy, lower surface brightness) followed shortly. NGC 5668 was very difficult, and I spent a lot of time tweaking the position, changing eyepieces, until I spotted a faint circular glow, just made out in averted vision. A face on spiral as I learned afterwards, and indeed it looks like M101 on hunger strike .

I then left the original plan a bit, moving further east to objects that I had not looked up in the Shapley Ames Catalog, but looked like an enticing area in the star atlas. I was immediately rewarded by the sight of NGC 5746, a striking edge on galaxy, and one of the easiest of the night. It is like a miniature NGC 4565. A real surprise. Nearby NGC 5740 was much dimmer, but could just be kept in the same FOV with the 22mm Nagler. The two form an interacting pair (quite a few spotted this night). The two are galaxies 249 and 250 in my personal tally respectively.

NGC 5774 and NGC 5775 are yet another pair found, with the latter an edge on galaxy, and the former face on (and harder to spot).

Nearby I found NGC 5806 and NGC 5813. Both looked fairly compact, and otherwise unremarkable. Nearby NGC 5831 was more diffuse in appearance.

NGC 5846 and NGC 5850 form the final pair spotted this session. Very easy compared to the others. Closeby, NGC 5838, NGC 5854 and NGC 5864 showed up as fairly similar slightly elongated fuzzy blotches. They brought up 260 in my galaxy tally. NGC 5869 was more elongated, and after a detour to M5 (great!), I got NGC 5750 further west again. This was much more difficult, but after a couple of attempts, I managed to spot a very faint elliptical blob at the right location.

The sky in the east was starting to brighten (about 2 A.M.), so I packed in the scope. This session really showed me the use of the Shapley-Ames Catalog, and how many non-Herschel 400 objects are well within range of the 8" scope I have, even though the skies were not perfectly dark (but very transparent). The faintest spotted were about mag 12.6-12.8, which is not bad at all. I was very tired, but completely chuffed to have spotted 29 new galaxies, and one globular, along with a couple of old friend. The only thing I missed was NGC 4424 (not on my plans) which is host to SN2012cg (mag 12.7). If the skies are good, I will give it a try tonight. Still, I cannot complain about the few failures, can I now

[Ponoobersie]

Wow! that was a busy night! sounds like you had a good one too!

[Mike73]

29 new galaxies?! What a night!!!

Enough to charge the batteries up eh?

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

29 new galaxies?! What a night!!!

Enough to charge the batteries up eh?

For now. I hope it does not get too hazy tonight, as I am itching to get that supernova, and I found I have not logged NGC 4424 yet, nor nearby 4417 (both mag 11, so quite doable).

Galaxy hunting is quite addictive.

[Double Kick Drum]

Someone's been making up for lost time!

Congrats on a big big Virgo haul.

Hopefully I will have one more session this evening going through what I have missed in Virgo. Skies look promising.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Someone's been making up for lost time!

Congrats on a big big Virgo haul.

Hopefully I will have one more session this evening going through what I have missed in Virgo. Skies look promising.

I really worked hard last night. Under darker skies, quite a few of these should be in reach of your scope. I was also thinking that having passed the halfway mark in the Herschel 400, I would be running out of objects, but many of the ones I spotted last night were easier than some Herschel 400 objects.

[KevUU]

That's really impressive stuff!

For a second I was dejectedly thinking that it puts my efforts to shame, but actually it's nice to know there's so much more to see out there

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Thanks Kev. Don't forget I have been stargazing on and off for 35 years, and experience really helps. Yesterday I showed some people Saturn and three moons, but they could only see one. The two fainter ones required averted vision, which they were not used to using.

That's really impressive stuff!

For a second I was dejectedly thinking that it puts my efforts to shame, but actually it's nice to know there's so much more to see out there

[Glen]

Quiet an amazing tally! Just goes to show what's up there.

Hope you had clear skies for the sn. would that be another to the list[?]

Thanks for the report it was very enjoyable.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Quiet an amazing tally! Just goes to show what's up there.

Hope you had clear skies for the sn. would that be another to the list[?]

Thanks for the report it was very enjoyable.

Thanks Glen. I got the supernova last night, together with NGC 4424, and two others. It was less transparent last night, so I stopped after finding 3 fuzzies, and had a quick look at M53 and M57 before catching up with some much needed sleep. I will write a separate report later.

Clear skies!

[Glen]

Nice catch, Look forward to the other report