Peashooter Going Deep

[John]

For the past few nights I've been using my 12 inch dobsonian to hunt galaxies in Leo and environs as reported here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/374989-change-of-horse-midstream/?tab=comments#comment-4067516

Feeling a little guilty towards my 100mm refractor that I had so rudely cast aside in favour of the "light bucket" and also that I rather disparagingly referred to as a "Peashooter" in another thread, I decided to see what just 3.9 inches of aperture could do within Leo.

I did preface the galaxies with a quick look at the nova in Cassiopeia - it still looked to be holding on at around the low magnitude 8's to me.

Using the 14mm Delos eyepiece (64x / 1.12 degree true field) and moving around the main galaxy hotspots in Leo, I found that I was able to spot a few more than I expected with the skinny Japanese wonderscope:

NGC 2903 (quite easy really), NGC's 3190 and 3193 (2 of the Hickson 44 group) which were hard to spot, NGC's 3226 and 3227 just behind the golden double star Algeiba (Gamma Leonis) again, quite challenging.

Then down to M 95 and M96 and the pale pair of eyes of NGC's 3384 and 3379 all of which were fairly obvious.

Then back along and under the lions "belly" to the Leo Triplet of M 65 and 66 (quite easy) and the rather challenging (in this scope) NGC 3628 AKA the "Hamburger Galaxy" tonight re-named the "faint wisp and only really visible when you don't look at it" galaxy

Some rather larger and menacing clouds were now rushing across from the NE so I had a quick look up at M51 / NGC 5195, which actually showed rather well and then it was eyepiece out and scope caps on time.

That's probably it for tonight and maybe the next few days looking at the forecast but it's been a good run of sessions and I feel that the 100mm acquitted itself rather well this evening on the faint and distant stuff. I promise not to call it a "Peashooter" again 

 

Edited April 6, 2021 by John

[RobertI]

Peashooters can be deadly in the hands of an expert. Some nice catches there. 🙂

[IB20]

I took the 8” dob out tonight and bagged my first views of M65, M66, M84, M86 and M60. No luck with NGC 3628, just couldn’t tease it out but very happy that I can find the Leo triplet without too much effort in the future. Also looking forward to probing more into the realm of galaxies next session when my neighbours aren’t trying to outdo each other with who can leave the most house lights on.

Tried a few times to split Izar too but only got the occasional glimpse of separation as the atmosphere seemed very turbulent. 

A quick and cold but fruitful session.

[cotterless45]

90mm here John , fancied the same change ! 

Nick.

[SuburbanMak]

Nice report and had a similar experience to @IB20 last night, in my case with another peashooter, the 127 Mak (+ ST80). 

My son is back from Uni & was keen to see some far off things, to keep his interest I didn't linger much if objects didn't make themselves apparent fairly easily so more than a few to go back and hunt for... Transparency was intermittently excellent but in bands of high mist would deteriorate rapidly, seeing wasn't great on the few doubles we did try for.

Picked up M64 quite nicely with a hint of shading in it.   

M65 & M66 popped in quite easily with a hint of structure in M66, but NGC 3628 was very shy, debatable whether there was actually anything fuzzy going on between the two 10th magnitude stars above and below.   

M95 / M96 - oddly couldn't find last night as have been landing on these reliably, blaming high level haze. 

M51 I couldn't find at all + is very much overhead which was a bit positionally awkward. Am very keen to see this one however. 

In need of a win I dropped to Virgo & picked up M86 & M84 in the same field (24mm, 68 degree so just over a degree TFOV).  Great view.  I was picking up something top right which I am fairly certain was NGC 4438/5  although not registering as distinct objects.  My son could also see something below which would correspond to NGC 4388, he has a 30 year retinal advantage on me...  

Also looked at M13 early on which was lovely & stars resolving as diamond-dust, M44 super as always, M53 visible but not impressive grey blob, and a highlight I'd not looked at before- the Coma Cluster (Melotte 111, Collander 256) which we picked up naked eye as a shape behind Leo and swung the ST80 to. Its a lovely wide field view quite Beehive like, probably just me missing a trick but I haven't seen a lot of references to this super object. 

Splitting Izar was messy which shows what the seeing was like but it was late enough to finish on Albireo and show Charlie a coloured sparkler to finish the night! 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 7, 2021 by SuburbanMak

[Paul73]

Sounds like a fun session.

You did well to catch the Hamburger with only 100mm. 
 

Paul