Decent DSO haul tonight with the 12 inch dob

[John]

Quite a good haul of (mostly) galaxies spotted tonight despite mediocre transparency:

 

Ursa Major:

M 81

M 82

NGC 3077

NGC 2976

M 101 (faint trace !)

M 108 (M 97 planetary nebula close to it)

M 109

 

Canes Venatici

M 51

NGC 5195

M 106

M 94

M 63

NGC 4490

NGC 4485

 

Leo:

NGC 2903

NGC 3193

NGC 3190

NGC 3162

NGC 3226

NGC 3227

M 105

M 95

M 96

NGC 3384

M 65           }

M 66           } The Leo Triplet

NGC 3628   }

 

Coma Berenices / Virgo

M 64

M 84

M 86

NGC 4402

NGC 4387

NGC 3388

NGC 4435

NGC 4438

NGC 4458

NGC 4461

NGC 4473

NGC 4477

NGC 4459

NGC 4474

 

Note: M84 through to NGC 4477 are members of the well known Markarian's Chain of galaxies that span the Coma / Virgo border.

 

Hercules (rather low but a good place to end the session !)

 

M 13 (globular cluster)

NGC 6207 (same field as M 13)

M 92 (globular cluster)

 

Packed in at just after midnight - got rather cold !

 

Not a bad night - 2 comets (earlier), 2 globular clusters, 1 planetary nebula and 42 galaxies.

 

Markarian's Chain was the highlight I think. I've attached a photo (not mine !) of this spectacular galaxy group. The IC and PGC galaxies are very faint - didn't see any of those !

 

John

 

[geoflewis]

7 minutes ago, John said:

Quite a good haul of (mostly) galaxies spotted tonight despite mediocre transparency

That's quite a list, good session John...

[Ciaran Meier]

Thats quite a list,  you'll sleep well tonight 😁. 

Favourite one apart from the chain ?

 

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Ciaran Meier
Update.

[Ships and Stars]

Wow John, you cleaned up! Markarian's Chain is incredible, I love looking around that area. Seems like the galaxies keep going and going. In a way, they do I suppose. 

Transparency here was pretty atrocious, I viewed M97 and just managed M108 and packed it in, but we had close to 40mph gusts earlier.

PS think I confused seeing with transparency in my other post in 'Anyone playing', sky seems really bright and washed out with LP scatter, but I was getting sharp stars through the 10mm BCO (a very sharp EP if you can keep your target in the FOV and not lose it like I kept doing on M97

Excellent job, especially on the galaxies!

 

Edited March 23, 2020 by Ships and Stars

[John]

13 minutes ago, Ciaran Meier said:

Thats quite a list,  you'll sleep well tonight 😁. 

Favourite one apart from the chain ?

 

 

The Leo Triplet looked nice.

I could have gone on and on in the Virgo / Coma area. I spotted a dozen or more other fuzzies that I could not ID with any certainty. There are quite a few Messiers in amongst the NGC's and it can get a bit confusing !

 

[Ships and Stars]

I was going to ask if you had a effective method for keeping track of galaxies in that region. It does get a bit overwhelming for me. My best solution so far is just to have the S&T atlas on my lap and tick them off with a pencil, but on the fainter ones I'll have to print off a page from the deep sky atlas I think. 

Anyway, well done again!

[Paul73]

Great haul John!

I’ve just come in from a cracking session centred around the chain. Too many galaxies making navigation a welcome challenge. 

NGC4710 was a Virgo highlight. Total accident, stumbling on this little sliver of a galaxy.

Then a quick tour of the Coma showpieces of m53, m64 and NGC4565; followed by m81/82 and comet c/2019 Y4 which was a first for me.

Paul

 

[John]

3 minutes ago, Ships and Stars said:

I was going to ask if you had a effective method for keeping track of galaxies in that region. It does get a bit overwhelming for me. My best solution so far is just to have the S&T atlas on my lap and tick them off with a pencil, but on the fainter ones I'll have to print off a page from the deep sky atlas I think. 

Anyway, well done again!

I tend to hop from galaxy to galaxy and that way have some idea what I'm looking at. If I bump the scope away from my path though, I get lost rather easily in that part of the sky.

Still, being lost in "the realm of the galaxies" is a rather nice thing in these troubled times !

 

[cotterless45]

Superb report John , thanks for posting ,

keep safe , Nick.

[Stu]

Fantastic stuff John, I think that counts as a little better than just decent!

Just wish my skies were better from home, not much chance of those from here. I still recall doing similar things with my 16” at SGL10, wonderful stuff.

[wookie1965]

Wow what a haul I am not jealous not jealous at all, Leo trio not seen from home M51 not seen from home and many more fainter ones never going to see from home, encourages me to find a dark site and try for them.

Great report thanks for sharing and the inspiration.

Paul

[bomberbaz]

Yeah thats a pretty busy haul. I love the fact you can get almost lost amongst the fuzzies, even push to loses you as things are crammed so close together, I reckon I had 15-20 galaxies in the space of 20 minutes last night to in and around the markarian chain but I had gotten so cold I gave up counting or making notes. 

 

I note you only had a faint trace of M101 John, I was the same with M100, checked three times with pushto coordinates and although it seemed a little off where it should have been, it was the only DSO that it could have been. Face on galaxy suffering badly with the seeing!  Shall have to revisit that next time.

Edited March 23, 2020 by bomberbaz

[Mark at Beaufort]

Reading your report John reminds me of the observing session we had together at a SGL star party when we were jumping from one DSO to another.

Last night was really good for DSO observing although I did start with observing the 3 Comets. After viewing c/2019 Y4 (Atlas) I had to visit M81 and M82 these galaxies are a wonderful site in a 12" Dob using an Ethos 13mm EP. Checked out M51 whilst in the area.

I made a list of DSOs I wanted to visit - some for the first time. I tried to concentrate on DSOs crossing the meridian.

Started with NGC 2775 (Caldwell 48 - last viewed in March 2008)

NGC 3115 - lovely Spindle Galaxy (Caldwell 53)

NGC 3242 - Ghost of Jupiter - (fantastic PN viewed with 9mm Myraid)

NGC 2784 - very low on the border of Pyxis - not seen before. Tried to view NGC 3109 - too low for Dob.

Next a lovely close group of Galaxies in Sextans and an easy star hop from Alpha Sextans. NGC 3166, 3169 and the fainter NGC 3156. Well worth seeking out.

Ended the session with NGC 2903 in Leo.

I am hoping to carry on tonight, if it stays clear, and view more DSOs in Leo.

 

 

[scarp15]

Very good haul, a proper tour indeed.

[John]

18 minutes ago, scarp15 said:

Very good haul, a proper tour indeed.

Thanks Iain.

So many others that I could have got as well when I look at my charts.

[Barry-W-Fenner]

Excellent viewing John! The 12" dob really had a work out!

I thought I did well to find M81 & 82 🙂

Considering how stunning yesterday was I also found  the transparency to not be great. 

Another great day today so hopefully we all get another go tonight.

 

Baz