A night observing Virgo galaxies

[Mark at Beaufort]

The sky looked promising so I went observing with the 12" Dob. It was my intention to observe only objects in Virgo.

I started with M98 and M99 and then rather than going down to the Markarian's Chain I went up to M85 to work down. Close to M85 is NGC4394 then it was down to 4450, 4340, 4350, 4489, M100 and 4379. I then went over to M91 before starting the Chain - M88, 4474, 4459 4477, 4473, 4458, 4461, 4435, 4438, M86, M84 and finally NGC4388.

One of Steve o'Meara's 'The Secret Deep' is galaxy NGC4762 which you can star hop from Vindemiatrix. This galaxy has NGC4754 in the same FOV. Because I was in the area I went down to NGC4698.

I wanted to end the night hunting down the SN in NGC4277. Starting from Porrima then Zaniah you go to star no.16 then up to M61. A short distance upwards to star 17 and then slightly right to a group of galaxies which contains the SN.

I could make out NGC 4273, 4281 and 4270 but I could not see the fainter galaxy 4277 nor any stars in the area - so I failed to view the SN.

It was now getting late and after nearly 3 hours I decided to finish. 

[Alan White]

Sounds like a great evening Mark.
 

[John]

A good session despite that missing SN Mark.

Sorry that you did not quite get that but you did spy some other nice targets

 

 

 

[Karen Bexley]

Well Mark, a man after my own heart.

Having just started out to seriously follow this as my new hobby, I am wanting to view the Virgo constellation.  As this is my birth sign, I really wanted to start with this one.

Seems like you had a decent evening, but alas I'm just using a pair of binoculars at the moment, so I'm not expecting to see a whole bunch of detail.

Anything at this stage is a bonus for me 🙂

[Mark at Beaufort]

Hello Karen and welcome to SGL.

Reading back through your initial thread I notice that you live in the New Forest at a dark site which will be great as your knowledge and experience improves. As a member of the SGL Management Team we look closely at comments so we look after members in a friendly manner.

I certainly would recommend that you study the various constellations either with your naked eye or with your binoculars to get to know your way around the night sky. Certainly the planisphere is a good starting point and then possibly purchase a star atlas. I often use the free software https://stellarium.org/ to determine my observing programme for the night. This way you will get to know Virgo and then in the future maybe purchase a telescope to check out the brighter galaxies if that is the way you want to go.

Good luck on your journey.

 

[Karen Bexley]

Thanks Mark.  I'm thinking that the more advice I'm getting here, a reasonably priced telescope is going to be on my wish list.

[Froeng]

On 16/04/2020 at 14:40, Mark at Beaufort said:

The sky looked promising so I went observing with the 12" Dob. It was my intention to observe only objects in Virgo.

I started with M98 and M99 and then rather than going down to the Markarian's Chain I went up to M85 to work down. Close to M85 is NGC4394 then it was down to 4450, 4340, 4350, 4489, M100 and 4379. I then went over to M91 before starting the Chain - M88, 4474, 4459 4477, 4473, 4458, 4461, 4435, 4438, M86, M84 and finally NGC4388.

One of Steve o'Meara's 'The Secret Deep' is galaxy NGC4762 which you can star hop from Vindemiatrix. This galaxy has NGC4754 in the same FOV. Because I was in the area I went down to NGC4698.

I wanted to end the night hunting down the SN in NGC4277. Starting from Porrima then Zaniah you go to star no.16 then up to M61. A short distance upwards to star 17 and then slightly right to a group of galaxies which contains the SN.

I could make out NGC 4273, 4281 and 4270 but I could not see the fainter galaxy 4277 nor any stars in the area - so I failed to view the SN.

It was now getting late and after nearly 3 hours I decided to finish. 

Hi Mark,

very nice session you had there!

sounds like you managed a good haul of fuzzies. What Bortle category is your sky?

Regards

Frank

[Mark at Beaufort]

2 hours ago, Froeng said:

Hi Mark,

very nice session you had there!

sounds like you managed a good haul of fuzzies. What Bortle category is your sky?

Regards

Frank

Frank I have not officially had a reading but I think it is Bortle 4. Although I live on the outskirts of the City my East to West horizon looks towards good rural dark skies with no light pollution.