Meade Lightbridge Observing report as of 4.4.2010

[Doc]

4.4.2010

Meade Lightbridge 16" F4.5 FL1829mm

No Moon Visible

Cold with slight wind

Seeing 4.2 Mag

First time out for a while so I made the effort to drag the beast out onto the patio at 19.00, when it got dark I polar aligned and set the setting circles, collimated the scope and waited till about 22.00 when I started observing.

First galaxy of the night was Ngc4565 a fantastic edge on spiral galaxy in Coma Berenices, I have seen this one a few times and no matter what the seeing this one is always putting on a show. It's 15'x 2' in size and shines a mag 9.4 through the 28 Uwan at x 65 it looks like a long streak of light with a notable bright star embedded very close by the centre. Through the 16 Uwan a brighter core becomes visible and the overall elongated shape becomes more pronounced.

Over to Virgo next and a new one for me M61, measuring in at about 100,000 light-years in diameter, It is estimated to be located some 60 million light-years from Earth. Through both the 28 & 16 uwans this galaxy appeared as nothing more then a oval smudge with no core that was very hard to see with direct vision. With a surface brightness of only mag 13.4 and a size of 6.5' x 6.0' it was easier to spot with averted vision. Charles Messier mistook M61 for a comet in May 1779 and I can see why, I had a really hard time making any details out and could only really see a very faint round smudge.

Staying in Virgo I tried finding Ngc4216 an edge on spiral galaxy 8.3' x 7.8' in size. This was a tough object to locate and I eventually detected it after a fast sweep of the known area, by fast I mean that if you sweep your scope over the area faster then normal sometimes background objects that are very hard to see jump out at you as you sweep by, you can then go back and use higher power to see if this is the object you are seeking. I was lucky as this was the galaxy and it turned out to pretty well visible with averted vision when placed at the extreme edge of the FOV and very faint when placed in the centre. Through the 16 Uwan I could detect a slight brighter core and the elongated shape was just visible. I'm sure I could detect a few more galaxies surrounding it but cannot be dead sure of this.

Over to the constellation of Leo next and to a wonderful spiral galaxy Ngc3521. This was very easily seen in my 28 Uwan at x65, it's large and bright and could be seen with direct vision as a oval fuzzy patch 9.5' x 11.2'. A dim core was detected in the 28 Uwan, what amazed me was how easy the object was seen, maybe a rare occurance of good seeing at that time.

Next was M60 an elliptical galaxy in Virgo, this galaxy is pretty bright at mag 8.8 and is 7.6' x 6.2' in size. Through my 28 Uwan it is easily seen with direct vision but the core is only just visible. It looks oval in shape but try as I could I did not detect the galaxy Ngc4647 that sits on it's borders. Overall a lovely bright and an easily detected Messier that I was able to observe.

M3 next and what a wow moment. I love looking at this globular cluster of almost 500,000 stars. This cluster is located approximately 30,000 light-years from Earth. It contains about 170 faint variable stars, which is more than any other globular cluster. At a visual magnitude of 6.2 it is so easy to spot. With my 7 Uwan at x261 I could resolve individual stars within the cluster, it was just one awesome experience.

Next I tried for a smaller globular cluster called Ngc5466. It resides in the constellation Bootes and is mag 9 in brightness and 11' in diameter. I'm embarrassed to say I failed on detecting this one, why I don't know, I was in the vicinity but just could not detect it.

Back up to Coma Berenices and the spiral galaxy Ngc4725, this turned out to be very tough but looking at CduC it only shines with a surface brightness of Mag 14 but it was seen with averted vision and a very dim core was also detected, the overall elongated oval shape was also seen. Quite impressive considering the brightness of the galaxy.

I looked the clock and saw it was almost 01.00 so decided to call it a night.

[SAB]

Excellent Report Doc! NGC 4216 is part of a fantastic trio of 3 needle-thin edge on galaxies, the other being NGC 4222 only about 10' to the NE (which is quite a bit smaller and fainter) and NGC 4206 a similar distance to the SW. Certainly a rare display of awesomeness. All 3 are visible in a low-moderate power field.

[Doc]

I bet I saw that trio SAB but it was just on my absolute visual limit, it was extremely hard to tell.

[SAB]

I bet I saw that trio SAB but it was just on my absolute visual limit, it was extremely hard to tell.

Yup it sounds like you did see these galaxies. An truly fantastic group of 3 edge on spirals, I suggest you give this group alot of hard observation, you will be rewarded! I can't wait to get my re-built 12" dob and have a look at this group But living in this subarctic maritime climate the only thing I'll see is clouds I've had it on my list for a couple of years, but cloud and these stupid bushfire-fuel reduction burns we get here have always gotten in the way

[DarkerSky]

Nice one Mick. Super selection of galaxies there. You stayed ahead of the cloud too. By half ten I had high cloud all over the show, ruling out DSOs for me.

I used an LPR filter (Lumicon) on M61 - found that it really helped reveal a much larger fuzzy halo around the core, which I was quite surprised about at the time as my track record with that particular filter is a bit hit and miss

[Doc]

DS I always seem to observe through a Baader Neodydium filter now. I have compared the view with and without and it definetly cuts down on the skyglow and increases the contrast slightly.