Stargazing May 1

[YKSE]

By some reason, weather on May 1 has always been great, no exception this year, so another travel to my dark site for DSO hunt.

The Sun had just set after settting up the scope at about 21:00,

In waiting for darkness to fall, I took a nap in the car, so that I'd not risk dozing off driving home as it happened last time. Woke up about 10:30, mag 0 and mag 1 stars were blinking in the sky, just perfect for a good 3-star alignment.

Half an hour later, SQM showed 20.6, first target was Caldwell 23, since it's on the way down, faint because of still bright horizon, but visible in direct vision. Turning to another low declination galaxy NGC3962 in Crater, bagget it too in 31mm finder EP.

SQM showed now 21.3 on zenith, and 21.1 in south, Swung to Markarian's chain, with M86 centerred, there were 8(!) galaxies in FOV, NGC4407 and 4425 were the new ones, visible in averted vision.

Following my list, NGC 4546, 4697, 4699, 4958, 4995, 5248, 5363, 5364, 5576, 5574, 5474 and 5473 were all easy seen. Actually 4697 and 4699 were brighter than many Messiers.

Gobular Caldwell 66 were spotted when it was passing among the trees due south, just barely, will be difficult for other DSOs this low when more leave come out.

Michael mentioned in other thread that Surface Brightness should be a better measure than magnitude for extended faint fuzzies, I took NGC5373 (mag14, SB12.2) adn NGC5366(mag13.7, SB12.5) in my list for a test. After about 5 minutes on each with finder EP. these could actually be spotted in averted vision, and verified in 81x and 114x. their star like size did make them easier seen than their mag indicated.

Now the Messiers in Ophiuchus and Scorpius. M107 and M12 were reasonable high, and easily seen, M80 was a little lower, but no challenge either, M4 turned out to be more difficult, of about the same declination as C66, it went to due south about 3:15, sunrise about 5 o'clock, and the sky started to brighten near 3 o'clock, SQM droped quickly from 20.8 to 19.0, M4 was nowhere to be seen, not even a star among the trees.

May 1 turned out to be a good working day for a stargazer with 2 Caldwells, 3 Messier and 17 NGCs   Just need to find another site with better southern view to get those low Messiers.

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Vey nice report. A couple there that were not on my charts (fainter ones like NGC 5366 and 5373). Might give the a bash

[cotterless45]

Lovely, the beginning and end of May here attract the weather demons. Being bank holidays, these periods are known as washouts. Braving wind, rain and cloud has indeed shaped this nation.

However there's nothing to say we like it !

Some lovely targets there, thanks for posting,

Nick.

[jetstream]

Nice site Yong!I hope you can find some more for any weather conditions and that provide the needed views.Great report,hope to hear more.

[jetstream]

Thanks for posting your galaxies seen.With luck I'll try NGC 4697 & 4699,I haven't gone over that far yet,a bunch there too.