My Biggest Galaxy Catch Yet - Mon 28th Feb 2022

[Captain Scarlet]

After a fortnight of either howling winds or heavy cloud and rain, or both, the weather conspired last night to be clear and not too windy. So I set up my OO/Helmerichs 12” Newt in the South-East facing area behind my house, intending to scour The Plough of Messier objects and move West from there through Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices to Virgo and Leo. My immediate topology precludes Orion from now on unfortunately, unless I hoik my stuff (5-6 awkward-load trips) an extra 50 metres further up the boreen.

In the end, if you caught my brief “what did you see tonight” report, you’ll have seen that I collected quite a big haul, in fact the biggest bag I can recall from any session so far, so I was very well pleased. It may appear that I simply raced through a list going “tick! tick! tick!”, it wasn’t like that at all. I was actually doing quite a lot of staring.

My last dark-sky-Moon-down 12” session 3-4 weeks ago started off similarly, “doing” Ursa Major and the Leo Triplet amongst others. This time I built on that and filled in some gaps, although the transparency wasn’t quite as good as then, I think. My SQM-L gave me 21.76 at the end of the session, but there was a slight milky sheen to everything which seemed to extinguish anything fuzzy below about mag 12-13. Certainly M108 and 109 for example were still obvious, but not quite as stark as I recall before. Beggars and choosers, though.

Anyway, what did I see? Until towards the end, I, once again, couldn’t move beyond my Ethos 13 giving me 141x and 0.71 degrees (with Paracorr2). At the end, I revisited some objects with the Nagler 31 for 1.4 degrees FoV, but no other eyepieces or filters were harmed during this shoot.

M51 was first up, and this was the exception of the evening. If anything, I could see MORE detail than my best-ever-by-miles view three weeks ago. Not only could I see spiral detail, but I fancied I could catch the “linking arm” between the cores as well. I can’t find the superlatives. When I finally get around to dobbing-up my currently unhitched 20” mirror, I can only imagine what M51 will look like.

M101 was next, and although it was obvious when it came into view, it wasn’t as surprisingly bright as I recalled from last time. Tick and move on. M102 was a galaxy I’d never looked for before, or seen. It was a small tight and bright streak, very nice. Apparently M102’s identity is controversial. What I looked at was in fact NGC 5866 which it seems the majority think is what Messier observed as M102. It has a highly-defined sharp dust lane, which I’ll have to look out for next time with more magnification.

I moved across to M63, which as a nearly face-on was a bright patch, much the same as I saw before.

M94, though, was startlingly bright and very round! Last time I think I ticked it off and moved on, but it’s worth a stare. I looked it up and noticed it’s called the “Croc’s Eye Galaxy”. Although I couldn’t make out any “rings”, it is nonetheless strikingly circularly symmetric (i.e. round 😉 )

Whilst in the close neighborhood I quickly took in Cor Caroli, a lovely double.

My next target should have been M106, also not seen before by me, but for some reason I overlooked it and selected instead M109: a face-on smudge. Tick. M108 next, not quite as mottled as I remember before but still obvious. M97 Owl nebula very nearby seemed also actually to be a better view than before: I could just make out the owl-eyes.

Finally in that Ursa Major/Canes Venatici region I selected NGC 4036, a quite bright galaxy just “above” the open top of Uma’s saucepan, right where the steam would be if there were baked beans cooking. I should also have gone for NGC 4041 quite close by, but next time. I also skipped M81/82 as they were too high up for me to risk tripod-strike with the back of my tube.

Time for Leo: I started off with the Leo triplet, again all very clear and bright. M65 and M66 I could get in the same field in the Ethos 13 but I had to pan away a little to find NGC 3628. Later I returned to them with the Nagler 31 and the Triplet all together in the same field at 59x magnification and 5mm exit pupil (my max) was something else!

The “Other Leo Triplet”, M105, M95 and M96 were next: new I think, to me. Dimmer and a bit wider-spaced than the bigger cousin but none the less entrancing, especially in the Nagler 31.

My plan was next to start at M98, a bright galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, and head South-East picking off galaxies and looking them up as I went along. I soon got lost of course, but managed to identify (using Nexus DSC’s “what’s here?” facility) NGC 4216: Silver Streak Galaxy, a rather bright, er, streak; NGC 4212 a dim mag 12 blob not very distinct; NGC 4237 not dissimilar to 4212; NGC 4262 even dimmer (12.5 lenticular). I saw others but didn’t try to look them up. They were being swallowed up by a background milkiness more than I was expecting and more than I’ve seen before in better transparency (in Markarian’s Chain for example where I recall multiple light patches on a dark background). I think there was a thin sheen of high cloud. Nonetheless, I was pleased.

I shifted West now, with the Nagler 31, and quickly took in Auriga’s M36, M37 and M38. All lovely of course. Bright red star right at the centre of M38. A few times I’ve mentioned M38 one of you good readers (can’t recall who now, sorry! But thanks) has suggested I also look for a small but very cute oc quite close to M38 called NGC 1907. This time I remembered, and it was worth it! Very nice small collection of stars, at the scale I was viewing almost like a glob. I’ll have a look next time with more magnification.

To finish off, I looked at one of our commonest targets of all but one which for some reason I almost always think “ach next time”. The Double Cluster. What a beauty. Obviously I have observed it many times but almost always through binoculars. Now, at 59x with the wide wide N31 and getting both clusters in the FoV, at this level of darkness it was simply exquisite. I shall return to it. What have I been missing?

And finally to finish finish finish off, I looked at a rather nondescript yellowish star called Mebsuta, for a strange reason. I have a group of (Donegal and Northern Irish) friends who for a bit of a laugh (or whatever) will occasionally announce “don’t kick me in the Mebs!” or “I need to go and wash my Mebs” or similar, you get the picture. I leave to your imagination what “Mebs” refer to. These people are in their 50s and 60s, I feel I need to add. Naturally, I and others often ask where the term originates, but nobody has the slightest clue, they just know what Mebs are. Well I was perusing a star chart recently and came across this:

Problem solved! Perhaps. They’re convinced and impressed, anyway. It would’ve been the crowning glory if Mebsuta had been an equal-brightness double star 😊 😊, alas no.

Anyway, Thanks for reading,

Cheers, Magnus.

 

[cajen2]

Magnus, it never ceases to amaze me how much you manage to cram into one session. I'm normally punching air if I observe three new doubles (etc) in one night!😄

[Epick Crom]

What a haul of objects you saw Magnus! Well done👍. Your descriptions of M51, Double Cluster and other far northern sights has me dreaming ☺️

[Captain Scarlet]

13 hours ago, cajen2 said:

Magnus, it never ceases to amaze me how much you manage to cram into one session. I'm normally punching air if I observe three new doubles (etc) in one night!😄

I've learnt that even a cursory amount of pre-planning makes all the difference. I had too many sessions when I'd done no planning, and simply cycled through what I could remember, which turned out to be the same things every time. So I'll make a quick list of what's about where I want to look, and I also keep an informal literally back-of-an-envelope dynamic list based on what I've seen in reports on here. Also I've just learned how to use the Nexus DSC "what's near me within x degrees" function in the field, which contributed to some of the more obscure galaxies this time around. The combination of those have transformed my sessions into being far more productive.

Cheers, M

[faulksy]

On 01/03/2022 at 23:36, Captain Scarlet said:

After a fortnight of either howling winds or heavy cloud and rain, or both, the weather conspired last night to be clear and not too windy. So I set up my OO/Helmerichs 12” Newt in the South-East facing area behind my house, intending to scour The Plough of Messier objects and move West from there through Canes Venatici, Coma Berenices to Virgo and Leo. My immediate topology precludes Orion from now on unfortunately, unless I hoik my stuff (5-6 awkward-load trips) an extra 50 metres further up the boreen.

In the end, if you caught my brief “what did you see tonight” report, you’ll have seen that I collected quite a big haul, in fact the biggest bag I can recall from any session so far, so I was very well pleased. It may appear that I simply raced through a list going “tick! tick! tick!”, it wasn’t like that at all. I was actually doing quite a lot of staring.

My last dark-sky-Moon-down 12” session 3-4 weeks ago started off similarly, “doing” Ursa Major and the Leo Triplet amongst others. This time I built on that and filled in some gaps, although the transparency wasn’t quite as good as then, I think. My SQM-L gave me 21.76 at the end of the session, but there was a slight milky sheen to everything which seemed to extinguish anything fuzzy below about mag 12-13. Certainly M108 and 109 for example were still obvious, but not quite as stark as I recall before. Beggars and choosers, though.

Anyway, what did I see? Until towards the end, I, once again, couldn’t move beyond my Ethos 13 giving me 141x and 0.71 degrees (with Paracorr2). At the end, I revisited some objects with the Nagler 31 for 1.4 degrees FoV, but no other eyepieces or filters were harmed during this shoot.

M51 was first up, and this was the exception of the evening. If anything, I could see MORE detail than my best-ever-by-miles view three weeks ago. Not only could I see spiral detail, but I fancied I could catch the “linking arm” between the cores as well. I can’t find the superlatives. When I finally get around to dobbing-up my currently unhitched 20” mirror, I can only imagine what M51 will look like.

M101 was next, and although it was obvious when it came into view, it wasn’t as surprisingly bright as I recalled from last time. Tick and move on. M102 was a galaxy I’d never looked for before, or seen. It was a small tight and bright streak, very nice. Apparently M102’s identity is controversial. What I looked at was in fact NGC 5866 which it seems the majority think is what Messier observed as M102. It has a highly-defined sharp dust lane, which I’ll have to look out for next time with more magnification.

I moved across to M63, which as a nearly face-on was a bright patch, much the same as I saw before.

M94, though, was startlingly bright and very round! Last time I think I ticked it off and moved on, but it’s worth a stare. I looked it up and noticed it’s called the “Croc’s Eye Galaxy”. Although I couldn’t make out any “rings”, it is nonetheless strikingly circularly symmetric (i.e. round 😉 )

Whilst in the close neighborhood I quickly took in Cor Caroli, a lovely double.

My next target should have been M106, also not seen before by me, but for some reason I overlooked it and selected instead M109: a face-on smudge. Tick. M108 next, not quite as mottled as I remember before but still obvious. M97 Owl nebula very nearby seemed also actually to be a better view than before: I could just make out the owl-eyes.

Finally in that Ursa Major/Canes Venatici region I selected NGC 4036, a quite bright galaxy just “above” the open top of Uma’s saucepan, right where the steam would be if there were baked beans cooking. I should also have gone for NGC 4041 quite close by, but next time. I also skipped M81/82 as they were too high up for me to risk tripod-strike with the back of my tube.

Time for Leo: I started off with the Leo triplet, again all very clear and bright. M65 and M66 I could get in the same field in the Ethos 13 but I had to pan away a little to find NGC 3628. Later I returned to them with the Nagler 31 and the Triplet all together in the same field at 59x magnification and 5mm exit pupil (my max) was something else!

The “Other Leo Triplet”, M105, M95 and M96 were next: new I think, to me. Dimmer and a bit wider-spaced than the bigger cousin but none the less entrancing, especially in the Nagler 31.

My plan was next to start at M98, a bright galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, and head South-East picking off galaxies and looking them up as I went along. I soon got lost of course, but managed to identify (using Nexus DSC’s “what’s here?” facility) NGC 4216: Silver Streak Galaxy, a rather bright, er, streak; NGC 4212 a dim mag 12 blob not very distinct; NGC 4237 not dissimilar to 4212; NGC 4262 even dimmer (12.5 lenticular). I saw others but didn’t try to look them up. They were being swallowed up by a background milkiness more than I was expecting and more than I’ve seen before in better transparency (in Markarian’s Chain for example where I recall multiple light patches on a dark background). I think there was a thin sheen of high cloud. Nonetheless, I was pleased.

I shifted West now, with the Nagler 31, and quickly took in Auriga’s M36, M37 and M38. All lovely of course. Bright red star right at the centre of M38. A few times I’ve mentioned M38 one of you good readers (can’t recall who now, sorry! But thanks) has suggested I also look for a small but very cute oc quite close to M38 called NGC 1907. This time I remembered, and it was worth it! Very nice small collection of stars, at the scale I was viewing almost like a glob. I’ll have a look next time with more magnification.

To finish off, I looked at one of our commonest targets of all but one which for some reason I almost always think “ach next time”. The Double Cluster. What a beauty. Obviously I have observed it many times but almost always through binoculars. Now, at 59x with the wide wide N31 and getting both clusters in the FoV, at this level of darkness it was simply exquisite. I shall return to it. What have I been missing?

And finally to finish finish finish off, I looked at a rather nondescript yellowish star called Mebsuta, for a strange reason. I have a group of (Donegal and Northern Irish) friends who for a bit of a laugh (or whatever) will occasionally announce “don’t kick me in the Mebs!” or “I need to go and wash my Mebs” or similar, you get the picture. I leave to your imagination what “Mebs” refer to. These people are in their 50s and 60s, I feel I need to add. Naturally, I and others often ask where the term originates, but nobody has the slightest clue, they just know what Mebs are. Well I was perusing a star chart recently and came across this:

Problem solved! Perhaps. They’re convinced and impressed, anyway. It would’ve been the crowning glory if Mebsuta had been an equal-brightness double star 😊 😊, alas no.

Anyway, Thanks for reading,

Cheers, Magnus.

 

great report magnus

m51 and m101 will blow your socks off in a 20"

owl is great with and without a 0iii filter. some nice finds there mate

i also use nexus with my 20"

[jetstream]

Excellent report Magnus!

Yes, you saw the bridge of M51, great catch!