Galaxies, More Galaxies, and a PN

[PeterC65]

I managed an EAA session last night in between all the rain.

The rain has given me time to upload several object catalogs to Stellarium as Observation Lists. I could search these catalogs on Stellarium, but what I like about the Observing Lists is that I can highlight all the objects listed on the sky map and see which ones are above my local horizon. During an EAA session I can then just click on the highlighted objects and GOTO them.

Last night I highlighted the Caldwell Catalog, Imm’s Orphaned Beauties, and O’Meara’s Hidden Treasures. I’ve only recently become aware of all but the first of these, having downloaded the excellent spreadsheet and companion eBook produced by Gary Imm (see here). The spreadsheet lists thousands of interesting objects from many catalogs and allows these objects to be filtered and sorted. It is a tour de force in spreadsheet building! The eBook shows thumbnails of the more interesting objects from each catalog. Both are well worth downloading.

The Caldwell Catalog was indicating several objects would be visible to me, enough to keep me occupied all evening. All the objects were small so I setup the Explorer 200PDS with the x1.7 Barlow which gives me the highest magnification and smallest field of view of all my kit, and accompanied it with the 72mm refractor which gives a nice widefield view for context.

It being galaxy season, I spent the session looking at … galaxies, oh, and one PN.

I started with M44 as it’s bright and a good object to check that things are working, then on to the non-galaxy, NGC2392 (Eskimo Nebula). This really needs the magnification of the Barlowed 200PDS, and interestingly, it looked better with the UV / IR cut filter than with the L-eNhance.

After that came a string of galaxies …

NGC2775 – I could only make out a blob, no structure and an annoying satellite passing by.

NGC3115 – the Spindle Galaxy, but not M102, bright centre and edge on, still no structure visible …

NGC3626 – another blob with no structure, this time thankfully without the satellite trail, and with a smaller companion.

NGC4216 – a nice looking galaxy made more interesting recently by a supernova discovered in January. I’ve been keeping an eye on it every month, watching the supernova fade. Here is the progress so far …

NGC4449 – The Box Galaxy, it looks more like a nebula, with structure but not like you’d expect from a galaxy …

NGC4244 – the Silver Needle Galaxy, now I was seeing some structure, but the secondary was dewing up, despite the new dew shield …

NGC5005 – a spiral galaxy showing some structure, despite the dew.

NGC4631 – the Whale Galaxy, lots of structure and a definite whale shape, it looked better with the (dew free) 72mm refractor …

NGC4559 – the Koi Fish Galaxy, another spiral galaxy showing detail that I need to revisit when the secondary is free from dew.

NGC4889 – Coma B, not a very impressive galaxy in itself, but there are masses more nearby, enough to fill the field of view of even the 72mm refractor …

NGC4565 – the Needle Galaxy, too big to fit into the field of view of the Barlowed 200PDS normally, but conveniently on the diagonal last night, and probably the most impressive sight of the evening …

NGC4169 – The Box, this time not a single galaxy but four, arranged in a box …

NGC4395 –  the dew was really getting in the way which is a pity as this face on spiral galaxy showed some promise. Another one to revisit.

Lots of galaxies, but lots of variety, and almost all of them were new to me.

 

[Fir Chlis]

50 minutes ago, PeterC65 said:

The rain has given me time to upload several object catalogs to Stellarium as Observation Lists. I could search these catalogs on Stellarium, but what I like about the Observing Lists is that I can highlight all the objects listed on the sky map and see which ones are above my local horizon. During an EAA session I can then just click on the highlighted objects and GOTO them.

Last night I highlighted the Caldwell Catalog, Imm’s Orphaned Beauties, and O’Meara’s Hidden Treasures. I’ve only recently become aware of all but the first of these, having downloaded the excellent spreadsheet and companion eBook produced by Gary Imm (see here). The spreadsheet lists thousands of interesting objects from many catalogs and allows these objects to be filtered and sorted. It is a tour de force in spreadsheet building! The eBook shows thumbnails of the more interesting objects from each catalog. Both are well worth downloading.

 

Well, that certainly looks to have been a more productive session that mine last night. Some nice interesting targets/images there.

I'd just discovered the Stellarium highlighting feature, and used it 'in anger' for the first time last night, although I'm typing the target name into SharpCap rather than using Stellarium to push the scope.

I've downloaded the Imm stuff to add to my collection of catalogs, but as far as I can tell O'Meara is just in book form?

 

Geoff

[PeterC65]

2 hours ago, Fir Chlis said:

I've downloaded the Imm stuff to add to my collection of catalogs, but as far as I can tell O'Meara is just in book form?

The O'Meara objects are included in the Imm spreadsheet. I just filtered for them then copied that list into another spreadsheet that I've built to convert lists of objects into the JSON code needed to build a Stellarium Observing List.

 

Edited April 10 by PeterC65

[RobertI]

Lovely captures and informative comments. Thanks for the link too! 👍

[josefk]

nice report Peter - "galaxy season" seems fleeting indeed, like the clock is ticking and the clear amenable nights few and far between...👍

[bosun21]

21 hours ago, PeterC65 said:

I managed an EAA session last night in between all the rain.

The rain has given me time to upload several object catalogs to Stellarium as Observation Lists. I could search these catalogs on Stellarium, but what I like about the Observing Lists is that I can highlight all the objects listed on the sky map and see which ones are above my local horizon. During an EAA session I can then just click on the highlighted objects and GOTO them.

Last night I highlighted the Caldwell Catalog, Imm’s Orphaned Beauties, and O’Meara’s Hidden Treasures. I’ve only recently become aware of all but the first of these, having downloaded the excellent spreadsheet and companion eBook produced by Gary Imm (see here). The spreadsheet lists thousands of interesting objects from many catalogs and allows these objects to be filtered and sorted. It is a tour de force in spreadsheet building! The eBook shows thumbnails of the more interesting objects from each catalog. Both are well worth downloading.

The Caldwell Catalog was indicating several objects would be visible to me, enough to keep me occupied all evening. All the objects were small so I setup the Explorer 200PDS with the x1.7 Barlow which gives me the highest magnification and smallest field of view of all my kit, and accompanied it with the 72mm refractor which gives a nice widefield view for context.

It being galaxy season, I spent the session looking at … galaxies, oh, and one PN.

I started with M44 as it’s bright and a good object to check that things are working, then on to the non-galaxy, NGC2392 (Eskimo Nebula). This really needs the magnification of the Barlowed 200PDS, and interestingly, it looked better with the UV / IR cut filter than with the L-eNhance.

After that came a string of galaxies …

NGC2775 – I could only make out a blob, no structure and an annoying satellite passing by.

NGC3115 – the Spindle Galaxy, but not M102, bright centre and edge on, still no structure visible …

NGC3626 – another blob with no structure, this time thankfully without the satellite trail, and with a smaller companion.

NGC4216 – a nice looking galaxy made more interesting recently by a supernova discovered in January. I’ve been keeping an eye on it every month, watching the supernova fade. Here is the progress so far …

NGC4449 – The Box Galaxy, it looks more like a nebula, with structure but not like you’d expect from a galaxy …

NGC4244 – the Silver Needle Galaxy, now I was seeing some structure, but the secondary was dewing up, despite the new dew shield …

NGC5005 – a spiral galaxy showing some structure, despite the dew.

NGC4631 – the Whale Galaxy, lots of structure and a definite whale shape, it looked better with the (dew free) 72mm refractor …

NGC4559 – the Koi Fish Galaxy, another spiral galaxy showing detail that I need to revisit when the secondary is free from dew.

NGC4889 – Coma B, not a very impressive galaxy in itself, but there are masses more nearby, enough to fill the field of view of even the 72mm refractor …

NGC4565 – the Needle Galaxy, too big to fit into the field of view of the Barlowed 200PDS normally, but conveniently on the diagonal last night, and probably the most impressive sight of the evening …

NGC4169 – The Box, this time not a single galaxy but four, arranged in a box …

NGC4395 –  the dew was really getting in the way which is a pity as this face on spiral galaxy showed some promise. Another one to revisit.

Lots of galaxies, but lots of variety, and almost all of them were new to me.

 

A very nice and productive night of EAA. I also found your post very inspirational. You must have your work flow pretty polished now Peter. All those previous nights of trial and error are really paying dividends now.