April 20, 2014: Mars, three Messiers, a comet, and NGC 3507

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Yesterday evening was largely clear, with haze building later. I set up the scope early, and allowed it to cool fully. By 22:30, I checked out Mars, and although I could see quite a bit of detail, the seeing was not good, so I decided not to do imaging, but make use of the absence of moonlight to look at some DSOs. M65 and M66 were first up, and I spent some time with the Nagler 31T5 appreciating these old friends, before trying to find a new galaxy: NGC 3507. This proved hard despite its listing at mag 11.0 in the Revised Shapley-Ames Catalogue, and 10.9 in the Herschel 2500 list (although two other sources list it at 11.9). After a few attempts with the 31T5, I switched to my favourite galaxy hunter: the 22T4. After some consulting of the maps, and checking the alignment of the 14x70 finder (spot on), I noticed some nebulosity around a star (middle one in a row of three). This middle star seemed to give hints of being a double in averted vision, and the hints of nebulosity persisted, looking slightly blotchy and more-or-less circuler, like a face-on spiral.  I checked the web for images of NGC 3507, and it is a face-on barred spiral, which indeed has a foreground star just next to a very compact nucleus. NGC 3507 bagged! I tried a nearby fainter galaxy (NGC 3457), but without success. Haze was building up, so I swung over to comet C/2012 K1 PANSTARRS, which was closer to zenith. It was quite easy, and showed both coma and a short tail. I took one last look at Mars (seeing still no good), and M3 (which looked a bit washed out in the haze), and decided to pack in, as clouds approach.

[cotterless45]

Neat, I always try these fainter galaxies. Some clear dark nights it's very rewarding to pick them up. At the moment it's just cloud ,

Nick.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Cheers, Nick. This was not the faintest galaxy I have tried by far (tried it before without luck, but now I understand why). Actually, given that I could find it at all, I think that mag 10.9 or 11.0 is closer to the mark than 11.9.