My 1,000th NGC

[acey]

1161,410 are both 8..1052 & 1084 are both 7 and 936 was a 6..How does this equate with your observations..

Your scale sounds very useful. I haven't observed 1161 or 410; I observed the others with my 8-inch. 936 was in 2003 - "faint and unimpressive (not well placed)" DSS shows it as a striking barred spiral so it would be worth another look with the 12". The other two were from the following year when I was starting to record a little more detail (and sketching frequently).

1052 (9.11.04) "Bright, mottled, possibly irregular in appearance." I just had a look at DSS to compare my sketch - it's an elliptical and the irregularity was probably due to foreground stars. NGC has B, pL, R, mbM * 12. Luginbuhl and Skiff describe its appearance in 6" as "a small circular spot with a sharply brighter stellar nucleus".

1084 (9.11.04) "Round/elongated, moderately bright, even brightness, possibly granular at centre". Despite the "even brightness" my sketch shows a clear suggestion of 2 spiral arms which matches the DSS image pretty well. NGC has vB, pL, E, gpmbM. Luginbuhl and Skiff describe its appearance in 6" as a "fairly bright, round, uniformly illumined patch about 1' diameter".

[acey]

WOW I love it, cheers for this.

I wondered how anyone could have claimed Aintno 100, "The arrow that points to Pluto". I found the answer in this "history of the Aintno list":

Houston Astronomical Society Articles

[pvaz]

Congratulations! That's a great achievement!

I'm amazed to see how well organized you keep your log. I just record the date of the 1st successful observation and the date I confirm it with either software or a detailed finder chart.

Right now my goal is to finish the Caldwell and Herschel lists which is becoming very hard with only 8". After that I may do it all again with a bigger scope and maybe start a more meticulous observing log.

[S.A.M]

Excellent milestone to reach, you must have spent many hours under the night sky with your telescope equipment? I am lucky if I have reached the 100 mark yet, would help if I kept a good log of all the items I have viewed. To the next thousand.

Peter

[acey]

Many thanks for the kind comments - good luck with your observing Peter, I didn't start recording things for a while but was glad when I did - it's nice to have a record to look back on.

Paulo, good luck with Herschel and Caldwell. Both are certainly do-able with 8-inch: I observed all the Caldwells down to my horizon with that aperture and did many of the more southerly ones with smaller scopes during holiday trips (think I got down to 80-something). There are certainly some very tough ones but I'd say one of the hardest for me was Barnard's Galaxy, which didn't need aperture but just a dark enough sky (I eventually saw it with a small scope in Greece). The Herschel 400 were all chosen as being suitable for small aperture - I started on that list but nowadays simply record if the object was in Herschel's own original lists - I've got about 600 of them logged and have found that with 12" they're all pretty easy, though some of his Class II or III objects would probably be beyond 8". The favourite I mentioned earlier, by the way, the NGC 68 group, isn't in the Herschel 400 (or plotted on Sky Atlas 2000) but was recorded by Herschel as a "very large nebula" and was a cinch with the 8-inch.

Anyway, don't know about the next thousand - now I'm just hoping for another clear night before Christmas!

[Ben Ritchie]

Congratulations, acey, that is a very impressive achivement (and not least in keeping your observing logs coherent to work out when you reached it )

Love the AINTNOs, hadn't come across those before.

[acey]

(and not least in keeping your observing logs coherent to work out when you reached it )

The wonders of Excel!

[Makron]

Congratulations !!!!

[Venus_is_my_friend]

WOW!

Very many congratulations, what a fantastic milestone.

[Dave]

What dedication.

Keep up the good work.