Galaxies galore in Sextans, Leo, Virgo and Coma Berenices [sketches] - 09/10.04.24

[josefk]

There's a more descriptive observing report over here for the session that enabled these sketches: https://stargazerslounge.com/topic/421050-galaxies-galore-in-sextans-leo-virgo-and-coma-berenices-09100424/#comment-4477013

This post is the tidy version of 11 out of 12 thumbnails made at the eyepiece (in the cold) on the 9th and 10th of April. I've enjoyed drafting these tidy versions just now as nearly as much as the actually observing - that's another win win from sketching - you get twice the pleasure of the event. Small proviso - taking pictures of pastel on card nearly always heightens the contrast versus how the sketches appear in real life and definitely versus the actually view at the scope.

The Intergalactic Wanderer, NGC 2419 and Herschel I-218 It's been on my spring target list since being discussed on here:

 

NGC 2683 a spiral galaxy in Lynx:

 

NGC 3227 & NGC 3226. A spiral and an elliptical galaxy pair in Leo. two weeks ago in a 130mm refractor at x70 these were a single smudge. With a bit more "gain" using a bigger scope they were very satisfying indeed. This FOV should also include another NGC galaxy NGC 3222 to the west but i couldn't detect that:

 

Another pair here, NGC 3193 and NGC 3190. There are two "missing" undetected galaxies in this FOV too - One of them (NGC 3185) should have been available to my aperture but i couldn't see it:

 

The Spindle galaxyNGC 3115  in Sextans. These next few were at lower elevation/altitude and i suspect were diminished by atmospheric extinguishing. I suspect i was only seeing the very brightest part of their cores. I wanted to make sure i captured something this season though before they are fully rotated out of view:

 

This one is interesting - NGC 3166 and NGC 3169 - two softly glowing balls. There is another NGC galaxy in this FOV, NGC 3165 but it is Mag. 14.5 and i almost certainly can't observe that with 185mm of aperture and almost certainly NOT at this altitude BUT - there was suspicious soft star exactly were it should be (preceding this pair to the west). I'm not counting it in the bag 🙂 ...

 

NGC 3521, also at quite low altitude and suffering for it i suspect:

 

NGC 3640 and a Herschel 400 target (as are some of the others in this session):

 

Messier 95 and Messier 96. Very strange that these two and the sort of nearby M91 are Messier discovered objects because i found these to be dimmer than other very nearby galaxies on this night. M91 particularly so - i wonder if these really get bigger and better in darker skies?

 

 

...and finally a very pleasing group, M105, NGC 3384 and NGC 3389. NGC 3389 wasn't detected with the Delos at x141 but was detectable some of the time with slightly higher magnification (x174). I also proved to myself again the value of sketching the star field as carefully as possible because it really helps with confidence in the observation when following up after the fact...

 

 

if you got this far thanks for looking - fingers crossed for more clear skies this weekend.

Joe

Edited April 11 by josefk

[SwiMatt]

Wow, these are awesome, Joe! It must have been an extraordinary night!!!

[josefk]

I will remember this one for a while @SwiMatt for sure - i'm so glad i kept my concentration up (and recorded everything) by sketching everything in the first half of the session too - priceless really (for me) as a record of the night.

An interesting "after the fact" artefact as well is that, as i sketched everything using the same EP and on the same night, the "collection" i have now is a nice set of comparable visual records of these beautiful objects on this night - this one brighter, that one longer, those two together, and so on...👍

[YogSothoth]

Great sketches. Sketching really makes you observe an object, rather than just looking at it.

[AlcorAlly]

Great selection, I really enjoyed looking through those.