Last night delights of the spring GSP 2017

[mapstar]

The spring Galloway star party was drawing to a close and some of the hardy souls had departed, leaving but a handful to try and salvage a few views on the Sunday evening after storm Doris and Ewan had blown though. The forecast got better through the day but storm Ewan had not quite relinquished its windy grip across the large open site. There were still gusts whistling up and down to contend with. Having set up the scope on Saturday near the handy cooking area I readied it with a quick check and tweak to the collimation and then lined up all the ancillaries on the few stars that had begun popping through. By 8pm all was revealed and dark enough to start hunting.  

Photo Courtesy of James (FLO)

David decided to set up his Televue 101 refractor in the same area as it provided shelter from the SSW breeze and meant we could still catch a few targets.

I started off with a group of galaxies in Gemini mentioned elsewhere in the observing section. NGC 2290 is a compact group to the north and the 13E framed them nicely. I could make out what looked like 6 in a large 'C' shape, although after discussing with Patrick, I put the 6th down to light cloud obscuring a star at the bottom of the eyepiece. The main 5 were easy to spot with NGC 2290 having a couple of close in stars which can be just teased out. Ranging from Mag 13.2 to 14.4.  Here's a picture of the group and quite a nice sight in the FOV.

 

 I then moved across west from this group to NGC 2275 and 2274 which were both very easy in the conditions which were getting better all the time. Averted vision was revealing a galaxy toward the right hand of the eyepiece. I spent quite a bit more time on this than the last group. After a check I can't be certain but it looks like I was seeing UGC3537. I shall have to revisit as this is a Mag 16.8 galaxy!

 All the while others were able to grab some views as I made my way along with James having his first look though the scope at the NGC 2275 group. Not being far away was NGC 2392 the Eskimo PN it was a good object for everyone to view. Looking really good and had plenty of inner structure showing I got it as a green colour this time which was a bit strange. We also took in the PN NGC 2371-2 on the way past. It is small even in a large scope but both David and James could see the bow tie type structure coming through.

I went back to galaxy hunting just south of Pollux with NGC 2449 being a nice spot and with averted there was something else nearby but I couldn't quite pin it down? so I left and moved onto the next group locating Omega 1+2 Gemini quickly and NGC 2498 in between a pair of minor magnitude stars.

Westward and NGC 2486 and 2487 were much bigger and brighter than the last few and a nice view for the rest who took their turns at the eyepiece sharing the view. Always nice to show others minor magnitude galaxies. I dropped down to look at NGC 2481 which revealed a partner not marked on the star chart I use. NGC 2480 at mag 13.8 is very close in and took some separating from it's close neighbour. Moving east I finished with NGC 2512  over the border in Cancer. A face on spiral galaxy.

Not to disappoint we had a look around at some show piece objects as the skies darkened, namely M51, M101, IC434 HH, Double cluster and also the flame. It was nice to compare the view on some of the objects with David's refractor. The skies were opening up lovely

Photo Courtesy of James (FLO)

M51 was not the best I've seen it but most were amazed and one exclaimed at the scale and that it was no longer two fuzzy blobs but had the structure and detail which you want to see when you first get into astronomy. The faint bridge and the large spiral arms led quite nicely into the vast M101 showing the outer massive spirals and NGC regions. The Televue refractor gave mostly a misty patch view on this large diffuse galaxy. Gav, James and David all had a good look at each.

The double cluster was a funny one. The refractor gave very sharp views and lots of colour to the pinpoint stars. I have to admit I could only bring half of the scope aperture to bear on it with the roof line of the cooking area cutting off the bottom half!! still it was a sea of immersive stars.

NGC 2024 (flame neb) was bright and easy to see without any filtering with the best view just settling Alnitak out of the view. Looking expansive even the most inexperienced of observers would be able to pick it out under such skies.

IC434 the HH I took a couple of minutes to locate before I was pulling at it's mane just up from the two base neck stars. Slotting in the 1.25" Lumicon H-beta filter on the 13E the contrast of the nebulosity was there. James had been with me most of the clear spell and knowing he wasn't really a visual observer I expected him to struggle with it but the words wow came out and he explained the notch and was taken aback by the size of it. Trying the Lumicon UHC both myself and James could still pick it out, although as I'd said before trying, there is much less contrast but was happy that James could still see it. A testament to how good these skies are.

The clouds by this time had brought things to a close so the cover was pulled over the scope and we retired to the warm room to drink to some astronomy firsts and good views. Thanks to all that attended and glad it was worth the wait to see skies as good.

Like most I have already booked and I shall be back in the Autumn. I will pray that everyone who does attend will be blessed with frosty dry weather and those big crystal clear skies which become addictive.

Damian

[swamp thing]

Great report Damo. Very nicely written  

 

[mapstar]

4 minutes ago, swamp thing said:

Great report Damo. Very nicely written  

 

Cheers Steve shame Elan skies didn't come off. Sounds like you had a tin bath though  

[Uplooker]

Yet another excellent report. Great that others had the opportunity to experience the views that you get with your behemoth scope.

I am already booked for the Autumn SP and may just jinx things by staying the Sunday night

[mapstar]

38 minutes ago, Uplooker said:

Yet another excellent report. Great that others had the opportunity to experience the views that you get with your behemoth scope.

I am already booked for the Autumn SP and may just jinx things by staying the Sunday night

Thats it! I'm leaving Sunday then 

[Paul73]

Great writup. It is really nice to read about a big scope getting enjoyed!

Paul

[faulksy]

brilliant report damo, glad you all had some clear skies at last

[estwing]

Wonderful report mate ...and a great mix of targets to boot!...glad you got time at the eyepiece. I will have to come to Galloway not only for a chance to observe in its great dark skies but also the site sounds like it's a good set up...thanks for posting, see you at PSP 

[cotterless45]

Breathtaking report ! You must have caught IC 2205 near NGC 2449, nice !

Old Nick.

[mapstar]

20 minutes ago, cotterless45 said:

Breathtaking report ! You must have caught IC 2205 near NGC 2449, nice !

Old Nick.

Cheers Nick

Missed it I'm afraid. Also missed IC476 close by NGC2449. 

As always these brief sessions throw up more queries than they answer. Will have to try on my next tour of the constellation 

 

[DeepSkyBagger]

Great write up, Damian.

Regarding NGC 2274/5 and UGC 3537... you said you saw a galaxy on the RIGHT side of your eyepiece. I assume, being a Newtonian scope, that this is east. U3537 is west of N2274/5. There *is* a galaxy to the east, UGC 3344. U3537 is mag 15.4, whilst U3344 is mag 16.3. 

See attached chart. The circle is of 20' diameter, and I've added North and East markers.

Patrick

 

[mapstar]

13 minutes ago, DeepSkyBagger said:

Great write up, Damian.

Regarding NGC 2274/5 and UGC 3537... you said you saw a galaxy on the RIGHT side of your eyepiece. I assume, being a Newtonian scope, that this is east. U3537 is west of N2274/5. There *is* a galaxy to the east, UGC 3344. U3537 is mag 15.4, whilst U3344 is mag 16.3. 

See attached chart. The circle is of 20' diameter, and I've added North and East markers.

Patrick

 

Thanks Patrick.

I think I dropped a bit of a dangly with that. 

I think whilst researching it I've listed the true view in my write up. More likely UGC3537 being the higher magnitude and the correct side of the eyepiece. James also saw it but it was extremely difficult to make out. 

Did the magnitude come from the sloan sky survey data as I used DSO browser.

[DeepSkyBagger]

Those magnitudes were straight off Guide, and thus possibly a wee bit unreliable. I agree that you more likely saw U3537, though it looks a toughie on the DSS image. U3344 looks harder, though. Either way - good catch!

[DeepSkyBagger]

5 minutes ago, DeepSkyBagger said:

Those magnitudes were straight off Guide, and thus possibly a wee bit unreliable. I agree that you more likely saw U3537, though it looks a toughie on the DSS image. U3344 looks harder, though. Either way - good catch!

Just checked up in the Uranometria Deep-Sky Field Guide, which I always find to be more reliable, and this gives a magnitude of 14.0 and a quite bright surface brightness of 13.5 for U3537, making it even more likely.

U3344 isn't mentioned.

[mapstar]

5 hours ago, DeepSkyBagger said:

Just checked up in the Uranometria Deep-Sky Field Guide, which I always find to be more reliable, and this gives a magnitude of 14.0 and a quite bright surface brightness of 13.5 for U3537, making it even more likely.

U3344 isn't mentioned.

Great bit of research Patrick thanks. Uranometria field guide and companion is very good. Myself and Calvin (Estwing) spent a fair few hours pouring over it during the Isle of Skye trip whilst looking at the clouds.

Mag 14 sounds about right as NGC 2288 in the NGC 2290 group was a bit tougher to spot  although not as hard as I thought it would be.  

Just realised I've not listed the five galaxies in that group. NGC 2290, 2291, 2289, 2294 and 2288 which is by far the hardest and smallest of the group. 

[niallk]

Great report!! 

[mapstar]

7 hours ago, James said:

Nicely said Derek

I was only able to get the one, all too brief timelapse done of Damian, David and myself observing   I set the camera up low to the ground so didn't have a great view of the screen... perhaps I might have noticed the washing line otherwise  No sound I'm afraid.. timelapse pictures were taken with a Canon 6D through a 14mm Samyang lens. 

I had a great time - even if my memory isn't quite so clear on what happened Friday night... Sunday nights' chat in the warm room with another Derek who is deaf and speech impaired was a real eye-opener, there's a notepad out there with everything we all said (we did a lot of writing!). A little sign language was learned .. perhaps just as well as at least two of us (me included) really struggled with handwriting!!

Patricks going to have a go at me for my apostrophe's soon too I think  

I don't need to describe the stars visible in the short time lapse below but hidden in the dark there were Damians 22" f/3.4 homemade Dob and Davids 4" Tele Vue..

James

 

 

 

A short time lapse of the viewing session here taken by James from FLO. 

Many thanks to him for posting it.

[PeterW]

As I always say.... stay to the bitter end, sometimes the skies open up to those who stay the distance!

PEterW

[ASTROSTUART]

On 28/02/2017 at 14:34, mapstar said:

The spring Galloway star party was drawing to a close and some of the hardy souls had departed, leaving but a handful to try and salvage a few views on the Sunday evening after storm Doris and Ewan had blown though. The forecast got better through the day but storm Ewan had not quite relinquished its windy grip across the large open site. There were still gusts whistling up and down to contend with. Having set up the scope on Saturday near the handy cooking area I readied it with a quick check and tweak to the collimation and then lined up all the ancillaries on the few stars that had begun popping through. By 8pm all was revealed and dark enough to start hunting.  

Photo Courtesy of James (FLO)

David decided to set up his Televue 101 refractor in the same area as it provided shelter from the SSW breeze and meant we could still catch a few targets.

I started off with a group of galaxies in Gemini mentioned elsewhere in the observing section. NGC 2290 is a compact group to the north and the 13E framed them nicely. I could make out what looked like 6 in a large 'C' shape, although after discussing with Patrick, I put the 6th down to light cloud obscuring a star at the bottom of the eyepiece. The main 5 were easy to spot with NGC 2290 having a couple of close in stars which can be just teased out. Ranging from Mag 13.2 to 14.4.  Here's a picture of the group and quite a nice sight in the FOV.

 

 I then moved across west from this group to NGC 2275 and 2274 which were both very easy in the conditions which were getting better all the time. Averted vision was revealing a galaxy toward the right hand of the eyepiece. I spent quite a bit more time on this than the last group. After a check I can't be certain but it looks like I was seeing UGC3537. I shall have to revisit as this is a Mag 16.8 galaxy!

 All the while others were able to grab some views as I made my way along with James having his first look though the scope at the NGC 2275 group. Not being far away was NGC 2392 the Eskimo PN it was a good object for everyone to view. Looking really good and had plenty of inner structure showing I got it as a green colour this time which was a bit strange. We also took in the PN NGC 2371-2 on the way past. It is small even in a large scope but both David and James could see the bow tie type structure coming through.

I went back to galaxy hunting just south of Pollux with NGC 2449 being a nice spot and with averted there was something else nearby but I couldn't quite pin it down? so I left and moved onto the next group locating Omega 1+2 Gemini quickly and NGC 2498 in between a pair of minor magnitude stars.

Westward and NGC 2486 and 2487 were much bigger and brighter than the last few and a nice view for the rest who took their turns at the eyepiece sharing the view. Always nice to show others minor magnitude galaxies. I dropped down to look at NGC 2481 which revealed a partner not marked on the star chart I use. NGC 2480 at mag 13.8 is very close in and took some separating from it's close neighbour. Moving east I finished with NGC 2512  over the border in Cancer. A face on spiral galaxy.

Not to disappoint we had a look around at some show piece objects as the skies darkened, namely M51, M101, IC434 HH, Double cluster and also the flame. It was nice to compare the view on some of the objects with David's refractor. The skies were opening up lovely

Photo Courtesy of James (FLO)

M51 was not the best I've seen it but most were amazed and one exclaimed at the scale and that it was no longer two fuzzy blobs but had the structure and detail which you want to see when you first get into astronomy. The faint bridge and the large spiral arms led quite nicely into the vast M101 showing the outer massive spirals and NGC regions. The Televue refractor gave mostly a misty patch view on this large diffuse galaxy. Gav, James and David all had a good look at each.

The double cluster was a funny one. The refractor gave very sharp views and lots of colour to the pinpoint stars. I have to admit I could only bring half of the scope aperture to bear on it with the roof line of the cooking area cutting off the bottom half!! still it was a sea of immersive stars.

NGC 2024 (flame neb) was bright and easy to see without any filtering with the best view just settling Alnitak out of the view. Looking expansive even the most inexperienced of observers would be able to pick it out under such skies.

IC434 the HH I took a couple of minutes to locate before I was pulling at it's mane just up from the two base neck stars. Slotting in the 1.25" Lumicon H-beta filter on the 13E the contrast of the nebulosity was there. James had been with me most of the clear spell and knowing he wasn't really a visual observer I expected him to struggle with it but the words wow came out and he explained the notch and was taken aback by the size of it. Trying the Lumicon UHC both myself and James could still pick it out, although as I'd said before trying, there is much less contrast but was happy that James could still see it. A testament to how good these skies are.

The clouds by this time had brought things to a close so the cover was pulled over the scope and we retired to the warm room to drink to some astronomy firsts and good views. Thanks to all that attended and glad it was worth the wait to see skies as good.

Like most I have already booked and I shall be back in the Autumn. I will pray that everyone who does attend will be blessed with frosty dry weather and those big crystal clear skies which become addictive.

Damian

Great report and the volume of targets you mentioned give encouragement to return later in the year. Well done and thanks for taking the time and effort to compile such an interesting read.

[mapstar]

One thing I forgot to mention in the report was the extremely bright Iridium flare that myself, James and David saw passing through Gemini. We got the time as 19:17 but weren't bang accurate as the actual time shows at 19:14. One of the best and brightest I've ever seen here is the chart courtesy of heavens above.