May 5, 2013: Hazy night in Coma/Virgo, total DSO count over 700

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Yesterday was reasonably clear, but haze slowly increased. I decided that with my logged DSO count (excluding double and variable stars) was at 697, I should still give it a go. I first found M98, looking very pale and ghostly, followed by M100 (not looking as good as it has done before either). My first new target was NGC 4651, which I failed to locate. I then tried various others in the region near Porrima, but was singularly out of luck. Blaming the haze, I decided to swing the scope towards Cor Caroli, now near Zenith. This showed the finder scope had apparently been knocked out of alignment. After correcting this, and having a quick look at this nice double, I swung north and west towards Chara, and just east of it bagged my first new object of the night: NGC 4618 (DSO #698, galaxy #329), a quite extended, hazy patch, very easy even in these mediocre conditions. Moving back to the region around Porrima, I located NGC 4546 (DSO #699, galaxy #330) as a compact hazy patch of fuzz, somewhat elongated, maybe the condensed core of something bigger, but with a high surface brightness. Unmistakable despite the hazy conditions. Further south lay NGC 4699 (DSO #700, galaxy #331), very easy patch of fuzz. Should be awesome object under really good conditions. Definite candidate for a revisit. I tried a few more in the neighbourhood, of NGC 4699 but NGC 4818, NGC 4684 and NGC 4691 only gave such faint tantalizing glimpses that I decided not to log them and move north. The next two were to the north of Porrima, and showed up only n averted vision as two faint elongated wisps, NGC 4592 (DSO #701, galaxy #332) more westwards and NGC 4632 (DSO #702, galaxy #333 (half a beast )) to the north and east of it. Finally I returned to NGC 4651 (DSO #703, galaxy #334), aka the Umbrella Galaxy, much further north. With the finder fixed it popped into view very easily indeed. A quite extended hazy patch with distinct central condensation.

I then moved a bit further south to the area around M49. NGC 4526 showed up first. It has a very good surface brightness, and slightly upstaged M49. The latter is bigger, but the former is somehow a bit more pleasing. I tried as best I could to spot a few more candidates I had noted before (NGC 4488 and NGC 4519), but failed at both.

To while away the time before Saturn cleared the trees, I had a look at M3; always a treat. At 119x in the 17T4 it just looks superb, easy in direct vision, but far better in averted vision, when the myriad stars that make up this ball of fuzz show up in all their glory.

Finally, Saturn cleared the trees at about 0:30, and I was right in suspecting seeing would be better on this hazy night, than a few nights ago when the sky was much clearer. I started out with the XW10 at 203x (too little for the seeing), tried the XW7 at 290x (too much), and switched to the XF8.5 at 239x (Goldilocks' zone!). The view was stunning: 4 moons were visible (Titan, Iapetus, Rhea and Tethys) The rings showed great detail, with the Cassini Division clearly visible, The A, B, and C rings were easily discernible (with the distinct variations within the B-ring as well). I thought I occasionally spotted a hint of the Encke Division, but I am not sure enough to call it bagged. The pole looked impressively dark, the equatorial zone and the banding was clear, as was the shadow of the ring on the surfaces. Brilliant finale to the session.

Despite the failures, bagging 6 new objects, and visits to a couple of old friends, and of course the spectacular views of Saturn makes it all worthwhile.

[Lorne]

Good report, a well planned, productive nights viewing by the sound of things. My nights tend to be more random... usually chasing gaps in the clouds!

[Double Kick Drum]

Congrats on breaking through the 700 barrier.

I had similar conditions here but decided against after a long day.

NGC 4699 is well up on the wish list: a surface brightness of just 11.9 should make it stick out despite its fairly low elevation. Of all the remaining galactic targets, only the Silver Coin galaxy is brighter and I expect that to pose a much bigger challenge given where Sculptor is situated.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Cheers DKD, I almost gave up as well, but I am glad I didn't. I got the Silver Coin last year from southern France, but only with 15x70 bins. I hope to get it this year with the big scope from Italy.

[Qualia]

That's an impressive evening, Michael and thank you for writing this up.