M13 and a few more...

[David Smith]

Made the most of a clear Saturday night last night and spent 3 hours under starry skies. Started in Virgo, looking for supernova sn2012cg. In order to find the host galaxy ngc4424 I started at delta virginis, hopped to 32 and then along a chain of stars and fuzzies that included ngc 4612, ngc 4526 and M49, all of which I have visited recently (used my notes from that session to guide me). Once I got to M49 I had to use Stellarium as the field stars are not shown in PSA. I found ngc 4424 reasonably easily at 68x although it showed up better at 104x. Tis very faint but showed a star-like point near to the centre which I suspect could have been the sn but cannot be sure. May have to revisit tonight!

After this I noticed Ophiuchus was high in the south and so decided to pay a visit as there are still a couple of Messier objects that I need to pick off here. Managed to locate M9, although it wasn't easy as it is very low to the local horizon (which also includes many street lights). I was unable to find M19 as it is even lower than M9.

Next I moved out of the glow of the street lights and up to almost the zenith for a look at M13, always room for a crowd pleaser! In my Revelation scope it does not matter what power you throw at it, it is just fantastic. PSA showed ngc 6207 near-by and a short hop at 104x soon revealed this galaxy as an oval smudge with a slightly brighter core.

After enjoying M13 so much I decided to have a look at M5 which is also spectacular. This lead me onto a group of fuzzies near to 110 virginis (almost back where I started). Managed to pick up ngc5846, 5838 and 5813, all of which were little more than smudges but then it was gone 2am local time and virgo was getting quite low in the sky.

[rory]

Great report. I'd like to try the supernova but my max mag is currently x100 and might not be enough.

[David Smith]

You never know until you try Rory.

[cotterless45]

Superb,these globular clusters have a story of their own.It's great to see Ophuichus up.

I always good night ( morning ) to Hercules.It's funny that he's upside down in the sky and has his foot on Hydra's head.

Afraid that I use M13 as a check on alignment, against a dark sky site,it's like spilt diamonds, nice.

Nick.

[Mr Q]

Nice catch with NGC 6207. It is a faint one and if it is detectable, that means a nice view of M13. I have observed it several times in dark sky with a 10" newt and have not detected any structure details yet except for "a faint smudge with a brighter core".

[Double Kick Drum]

Thanks for sharing a nice collection of objects, especially the ones further East in Virgo. I seem to have missed all of those this season.

Happy hunting!

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

David: I think you have bagged SN2012cg. Your description is very similar to what I have seen. NGC 4424 does not have a stellar core, so the little point you saw must be the SN. Congrats!

Rory: 100x with an 8" scope is enough for SN2012cg, I got it with my C8 at 93x, though the view was better at 119x and 169x. It was a bit fainter then. Go for it if the skies allow!