Galaxy fest with newly coated 16 inch mirrors

[mdstuart]

Finally clear sky no moon....

Quick I have till moonrise at 8pm.

At 7.10 I located and sketched NGC 2534 in Lynx....basically left of Caster and Pollux. A faint one for a starter but it was pretty easy with averted vision in my new WO 7mm eyepiece..boy this is a keeper galaxy seeker eyepiece.

Then at 7.25 I picked up the brighter but still small edge on NGC 2481 in Gemini itself just below and left of Caster and Pollux....Just think of all those folks looking at the eskimo nebula and missing this little gem..

7.35 and on to NGC 2350 below Gemini..A very low surface brightness one this. In a rich star field. The faintest star logged was mag 15.0 which is pretty amazing given the low alt of the scope at this point of 36 deg.

Then quickly on ....7.50 ..7 mins to moon rise...and found the pair NGC 2767 / 2769 at the right end of UMA a lovely dot and slither...amazing..seemed to appear as you looked ....but wait is that not another galaxy not on my chart? Yes...after coming in I also saw NGC 2771.  Check this out can you see this awesome triple near the bright NGC 2841 when you are passing by. 

This is how it looks...

What fun with the new mirror..

Mark

[faulksy]

nice one mark, sounds like your mirror is great, have to look out for ngc2481

[swamp thing]

It's a great mirror you've got there Mark

Enjoy

[FenlandPaul]

I think you and that scope re going to have a lot of fun together!!

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[mdstuart]

Update....out observing again. This time for Quasars...Found PG 0844+349 which is a "quiet" quasar in Lynx.

http://quasar.square7.ch/fqm/0844+349.html

Now the quasar was relatively easy to see at about mag 14.5..certainly easier than the mag 14.9 star (4 on this chart).

Now I could just see the star which is one of a pair just right and down from a bright field star.  below left of the quasar. This one is Mag 15.2. This was at az 42..

Earlier in the evening I sketched a star near NGC 2373 in Gemini which turned out to be mag 15.27 at an az of 54...

So I think we are looking at 15.3+ as the limiting mag..

Now how high up does Pluto come??

Mark

[mapstar]

Nice report and nice to know that the guys at Orion can do a good job.

When I finally get mine finished it will be heading their way

I shall be stopping by some of those gems you've listed

Damian

[michael.h.f.wilkinson]

Lovely report. You're giving me aperture fever again

[DeepSkyBagger]

Hi Mark,

Nice report. I bagged NGC 2481 myself in December with the 12". I found it to be pretty bright and easily visible to direct vision. The elongation was clear to see. There's another little galaxy butting up to it from the northwest, NGC 2480, though I didn't see it. It's mag 14.3 or thereabouts, so it may be a challenge even for a 16".

There's another galaxy in the field of the triplet you mentioned. It's not shown on the image you attached, but lies just off the top right corner of it. This is NGC 2762, though almost at mag 16, it will have to wait for a really good night!

Cheers,

Patrick

[DeepSkyBagger]

Oh, yeah - also great bag with the quasar! I've rarely bothered with these object, just the usual suspects, 3C-273, BL Lac (not strictly a quasar, maybe) and so on. Might give them a go.

[acr_astro]

Wow! Great Image!   And nice observation of the Quasar.

Still waiting to get a view on a quasar myself...Should give it a try with the 10" f/5.

Achim