A bit of everything!

[Davesellars]

No Moon and a possible clear night!  The forecast was depending where you looked mixed with clouds or fantastic...  Its been several weeks since I last got out and was started to get the shakes from going cold turkey so there was no stopping me from getting out even it meant shooting through holes in the clouds...

So, having lugged my scope and stuff earlier in the evening to my allotment with my family taking advantage of the nice evening and light, I trotted back there later and setup for 11:30ish.  There was still low cloud in patches which was reflecting the LP right back ruining the darkness to a reasonable extent in areas. Undeterred, I looked up the Herschel 400 sub list I'd made earlier (which certainly helped a bunch rather than seeing the entire 400 on the screen) and decided to start with Leo to hoover up some of the remaining galaxies from this area.

NGC 3607 mag 9.9, SB 10.9 - relatively bright core and dim oval.  Best viewed with at 58x.

NGC 3608 mag 10.8 SB 11.2 - dim elliptical the shape rather indeterminate much more difficult to see requiring more averted vision.

NGC 3395 mag 12.1 SB 12.4 - (FAIL) Absolutely nothing there or I wasn't looking hard enough.  Seeing the magnitude of the galaxy on Sky Safari decided this was probably going to be too much until it was darker (i.e.,  no clouds reflecting light back)

I'd noticed the lights had gone off at the railway which does help darken the entire site by a smidge (it all helps). The clouds also were moving off and it was becoming considerably clearer.

NGC 3432 mag 11.4 SB 13.1 - Nice! A fine obvious edge on galaxy.  I like these because they always appear quite large the brightness across pretty
much the entire size of the galaxy.  unfortunately, I could not really see any detail nor difference. Slightly lost though at the higher
magnification of 100x with the 13mm EP.  I'm wondering if the jump from 58x to 100x is too much for galaxies in some cases.  I'm finding the dimmer Herschel objects much more sensitive or maybe I'm just making excuses for my (lack of) ability

I then decided to relax a bit after a fatal user error star-hopping and regain my concentration - It was 1am and really clear and dark now.  Ursa Major nicely positioned close to the zenith I hopped over to M97 and M108 (also on the Herschel list so at least not wasting time... ;))

M97 - At 58x This stood out immediately like a sore thumb no OIII filter necessary.  I've viewed this a few times before but it's always been very faint - This time wow...  I put in the OIII just for giggles and the contrast certainly improved to distinguish a slight difference in the outer part of the nebula to the centre in contrast.

NGC 3556 (M108) mag 10 SB 13.1 - This one I've always had issues with before in fact this was an averted vision object only for me previously.  Despite the magnitude not being particularly low the surface brightness is low enough to cause issues with any LP so this was a good test after M97 had showed so well.  For the first time I could make out the brighter core shape of the barred spiral, the centre being particularly bright but the bar extending almost the length of the galaxy and surrounded by a fine haze with subtle mottling around the central region.  I kind of regained a little bit of self confidence at least in my ability to observe galaxies but still found that the magnification of 100x was a little too much destroying some of the detail seen at the brighter 58x.

Well, since the conditions looked so good I had to go to M51...  it's an old favourite I like to visit every session I can.

M51 - Wow, I think this has to be the clearest I've seen it.  The 13mm EP at 100x this time winning in giving me a top notch view including the tightly wound spiral around M51's core and with a bit more work, the bridge to its partner also showing a decent and bright core.

It was about 2am so a little break for a cup of tea and a look around.  I noticed something bright and orange low in the South...  Mars.  Not particularly high (barely 10 degrees), despite the low altitude I couldn't resist.

Mars - Not a mere point of light any more! My max magnification the EPs I had with my for the night was 160x but this showed a nice (small) disc
with the merest hint of diference in colour in a couple of regions across the planet.   I'll be looking forward to revisiting this later on in the year as it gets closer for a proper session when the seeing allows

Saturn - Even lower at 5 degrees, hell, why not! It was a quick nudge east on the EQ mount and it was there, rings and all.  Always a great sight and able to view clearly the rings and subtle differences in colour / contrast on the surface.

Back to DSOs and remembering a recent quick imaging session I attempted with the C8 (with laughable results) I did with M13 I decided to see this one for myself agai it's an object I've observed before but not with any real clarity through the EP.

M13 - Stunning, just stunning...  I headed straight to 160x with the 8mm EP.  While faint in parts at this magnification this massive globular cluster pretty much filled the FOV of the EP and the core was resolved almost right to the centre with many stars in the outer regions.

Ok, it was 2:45am and wanted to head over to Coma Berenices to make some in-roads to the many galaxies on the Herschel 400 list here.  Starting from Cor Caroli (BTW, a very easy nice double star to resolve if you're that way inclined)

NGC 4631 mag 9.3 SB 12.4 - A lovely large edge on showing some difference in contrast the central core figured...  I spent a good time observing this one at both 58x and 100x deciding again that 58x really showed it better and 100x proving too much.

NGC 4656 mag 11.2 SB 15.1 - (FAIL) This one kicked my butt.  This is right at the side of NGC 4631 so you can't miss it... averted vision fail, tapping, covering myself and naaaada.  How hard is this one?  After about 15 minutes I gave up and moved on...

NGC 4414 mag 9.7 SB 11.4 - Spiral galaxy at 58x the bright core obvious surrounded by a lighter region that I could just make out shape (arms) that that seemed tightly wound around the core.

I moved down on the the next group of galaxies NGC 4314 etc I felt like I could make some decent progress...  Then the view at the EP went a bit hazy, the galaxy wasn't there but I could just see the stars still...  I looked up and there was indeed faint clouds that had bombed in out of nowhere... OK, it had been forecast to cloud over around 3 to 4am so I was pretty much on borrowed time already.  ho hum.

So, it was time to pack it all up and head home. It was now 3:30am anyway and it's a school night.  Home for 4am and a couple of hours shut-eye.
 

[John]

What a cracking report !

What scope were you using for this lot Dave ?

 

[Davesellars]

4 minutes ago, John said:

What a cracking report !

What scope were you using for this lot Dave ?

Hi John,  Many thanks!  For this I was using my trusty Celestron C8 with the focal reducer.

 

[Piero]

Excellent report!  it makes a very enjoyable reading. 

[Davesellars]

Thanks, Piero!

[laudropb]

Very nice report of a very productive session. A most enjoyable read.

[chiltonstar]

Very nice read, from another Oxford resident!

Chris

[Stu]

Great stuff Dave, a very entertaining and enlightening report, lots of detail in there to help us observers! An excellent session ??

[YKSE]

Excellent report Dave, glad to see another more C8 owner using it as galaxy hunter

The hockey stick (NGC 4656) is very tuff, I got it only in averted vision in 50x under 6.0 sky.

[Size9Hex]

That sounds a tremendous session! Fair play to you staying out so late. All the caffeine in the world wouldn't help me survive a day at work after a session like that. I packed up last night with great reluctance under a beautiful sky before midnight!

[scarp15]

Quite a full on session and dedication considering getting up for work. I have occasionally used my allotment patch for unobtrusive views, a little less local light pollution, no neighbours window or security lights and a bit of tranquility. 

[Davesellars]

Thanks all!  Last night I had everything ready to go thinking about heading out at 1am seeing the forecast was good and it was indeed very clear, however my brain and body said no when I did wake up  Having seen the forecast it looks OK for tonight so I thought better to recover slightly! Hopefully, I won't be lamenting that decision tonight!

NGC 4656 sounds like it's going to need (alot) more aperture to see then from my site...   I'm not sure I'm going to be able to get to a mag 6 site any time soon as I don't have a car so it will have to wait.

[Special K]

That's an excellent report, Dave, hats off to you for burning a late one!  I was exhausted by 2am and didn't have to go to work today.  Really useful to read observations of what was seen with these galaxies. I count myself lucky just to have located the grey smudges let alone actually SEE something 

Knowing the surface brightness beforehand looks key to the exercise.  

 

[Davesellars]

Thanks, Kevin!

Indeed, surface brightness is absolutely key data but it's not everything nor is even the given magnification of the object as it is very much dependent on the structure of the galaxy as the distribution of brightness within it.

I've been doing a bit of reading since and I think I'm a little more prepared now for the next time on some of these.  Like a mentioned before going from Messier galaxies (for the most part) to the Herschel 400 list galaxies (for the most part) is a completely different game. I need to pay more attention to observing the faint and small with actually higher magnification.   I believe that NGC 4656 after doing some reading should have been well visible at the core which is actually brighter than its companion, NGC 4631 however it would have been very small so perhaps I just did not use enough magnification on it (I remember I only used the 22mm at 58x to look for it).

So, all in all more experience needed... I'll get there!