Observation report 13/3/10 and sketch

[SAB]

Took advantage of a very rare clear night on Sat with a few hours of observing. Was quite mild, infact comfortable in a t-shirt. Seeing was crud, but improved a bit later on, although still pretty ordinary. While the 12" dob is away busy becoming awesome, the 10" was the weapon of choice.

Time: 9:15pm-12:30am

Scope: 10" F/5 GSO dob

Seeing: 4/10

Transparency: 3/5

Temp: 20ºC

Dew: no

Started off with Mars, but it was the usual blurry fuzzball. Later on however, I was able to see the polar cap but little else. Had a look at a few galaxies and PNe's I've been meaning to check out for a while now.

NGC 3195

PNe, Chameleon, Size=42x37", Mag V= 10.0, SFC brightness= 8.8

Have been wanting to check this one out for a while. A moderately faint round grey orb at 156x. At 250x however, I could detect annularity, with the ring only slightly brighter than the interior. Adding the OIII filter enhanced the annularity, which was now quite obvious and the E and W edges of the nebula appeared brighter than the N and S ends.

NGC 2362

OC, Canis Major, Size= 8', Mag V= 4.1

I've always enjoyed this cluster since I first saw it in a 60mm refractor several years ago. At 96x about 30 stars could be seen packed around Tau Canis Majoris, including a pair almost touching Tau at the east of the star. A very nice rich starfield surrounds the cluster, and would probably look even better at slightly lower magnification. See attached sketch.

NGC 2997

GX, Antlia, Size= 8.1x6.5', Mag V= 9.41, SFC brightness= 13.5

This spiral was very underwhelming at both 96x and 156x (thanks light pollution. All I could see was a ghost of a core, only slightly condensed, and perhaps a very, very faint oval surrounding it and elongated E-W. I've seen many ESO galaxies that are much more impressive from my location! These face on spirals certainly are hopeless at the first hint of light pollution. I was gonna go after nearby IC 2531, which is a nice edge on spiral a la NGC 891, but silly me forgot!

NGC 2903

GX, Leo, Size= 13x6.6', Mag V= 8.9, SFC brightness= 13.5

A much lauded object, but being in the most light polluted section of my sky I didn't see much here. At 156x, it showed a large condensed core, perhaps slightly elongated N-S, surrounded by a strongly elongated low sfc brightness haze, with diffuse spindle like protrusions jutting out either side of the core. Bigger and brighter than 2997, while being much lower and in worse light pollution, I'd imagine this would be a fantastic sight from a dark sky!

NGC 2867

PNe, Carina, Size= 27", Mag V= 9.7

This is an exceptional planetary and is easily found just to the north of the eastern star of the false cross. At 156x, it appeared as a very high surface brightness orb, pale blue in colour. I increased mag to 357x (bit much for the seeing), and it appeared slightly oval in a N-S direction, with annularity showing. The interior was only slightly fainter than the ring, making the annulus challenging to spot.

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Here is the sketch of NGC 2362:

[Doc]

Excellent report as always SAB. I agree Ngc 2903 is a fantastic galaxy to observe, I can even see it through my LP so it's got to be pretty bright.

[lunator]

SAB

Very nice report

A good collection of targets

Cheers

Ian

[DarkerSky]

20c ...nice:glasses1:

Great write up and sketch there. As Mick says NGC 2903 is a pretty spectacular galaxy. Shame you couldnt get the best view of it. With a darker sky you can see a brighter notch in the galaxy halo to the north of the core

[SAB]

thanks all. I have to go to dark skies to get the best of 2903. Recently I went on a houseboat in Renmark, South Australia (lat 34º south) and the sky was so dark and transparent that I could see 6th mag stars north of Capella, and the Triangulum galaxy was naked eye when it was about 5º above the horizon. Even the northernmost star of Andromeda was gleaming bright.

[Jove]

Thanks for that. It's interesting to hear what the other half of the sky is like!

Nice sketch too... how long did it take you to do that?