Gone deep again

[John]

I had a couple of objectives this evening:

- Have another look at Nova V1405 Cas

- Try and locate and observe supernova SN 2021 hiz in the faint galaxy IC 3322A in Virgo

The first objective was achieved with my 4 inch Vixen refractor. The nova looked to me to be still around magnitude 8, which is where it's been for the past week or so.

I used my 12 inch dob to try and find the supernova and managed that as reported here:

https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/375004-three-new-bright-supernovae-to-look-out-for-ic3322asn2021hiz-ngc3310sn2021gmj-ngc5018sn2021fxy/?do=findComment&comment=4070864

With the sky transparency looking quite good I spent some time on other galactic challenges:

- I managed to see the 4th member of the Hickson Compact Group 44 group in Leo, sometimes also known as the "Leo Quartet". I've seen the other 3 before (NGC's 3190, 3193 and 3185) but tonight I was also able, with the help of 200x magnification and a little averted vision, to see the fainter NGC 3187 as well. So that was a good result.

- I had a look at the other end of Leo for traces of some of the members of the Copeland's Septet group of galaxies also known as Hickson Compact Group 57. The location is not too difficult to locate but actually seeing these dim galaxies is pretty challenging under my skies. I did get clear sightings of two of the brighter members of this tight knit group (probably NGC's 3753 and 3745) and some vague hints of others in this area. Under better skies I think this group would be worth a re-visit. These are 400 million light years away I believe so no wonder they are faint !

- I took a high power (199x) look at the lower end of the Markarian's Chain where the 4 galaxies that form what is sometimes known as "The Face" are situated. This triangular grouping of Messier's 84 and 86 and NGC 4388 with the fainter NGC 4387 right in the centre looked really well defined (even the fainter NGC 4387) at this high magnification and more or less filled the field of view.

With some clouds starting to interfere with things I decided to call it a day there. Another enjoyable deep sky session though with some good objectives achieved

 

 

Edited April 11, 2021 by John

[Pixies]

April is turning out to be a good month (for a change). A little like last year, I remember.

I've had more clear night these past 2 weeks than we've had since the start of the year! Some have had good transparency, and others good seeing, too.

 

[mdstuart]

Yes lovely and clear. Pleased you managed to see the fourth galaxy ngc 3187.

I managed to observe some more markarian galaxies. Some of them are visible even up to 400 million light years away given their active nature.

Mark

[John]

3 hours ago, mdstuart said:

....I managed to observe some more markarian galaxies. Some of them are visible even up to 400 million light years away given their active nature.

Mark

Excellent Mark

I get a real thrill from observing these very distant objects even if the view through the eyepiece is often very faint and challenging. When I finished last nights session I had a touch of "aperture fever" and started looking at 16 inch and over dobs that I could get if I ditched a refractor or two.

If I had somewhere better to store scopes and a wider open aspect to my garden I think I could become a "faint fuzzy" hunter with a whopping light bucket

The image I posted above of the 4 Markarian's Chain galaxies was the newtonian orientation. Flip it the other way up and the reason that these are called "The Face" becomes clearer: