Fetchez la vasche!
Quoi?
Fetchez la vasche!
And now for something completely different.....an observing report:
Well I did'nt think I'd be doing much observing yesterday it was an especially long day at the barn (lots of lessons and that dreaded activity...manual labour!) but it was so nice Ithought I'd at least get a peek at Jupiter and Saturn . I got the 18" nicely collimated and ran the fan on it for an hour while it got dark enough to do a 2-star alignment. The seeing seemed best during this time, but deteriorated so I decided to do some deep sky. It turned out to be quite transparent and I stayed out much longer than planned..it was great!
Date- Mar 18th 2001, 7:00-9:00 pm
Location- 10km west of Perth Ont, Equuleus Observatory (roll-off roof type)
Conditions- Transparency LM 6.4 seeing approx 2-3 arcsec, 0 deg C no wind
Instrument 18" f/4.3 Starmaster dob with tracking
Objects viewed:
Ngc 1514: Large PN in Tau (2 X2 min) mag 10.9 annular shape with brightening at either end, hint of a dumbell-like shape easy central star.
Ngc 3115: "Spindle galaxy" in Sextans wonderfull high surface brightness galaxy with almost stellar nucleus. 8X3 min 9.3 mag somewhat like a "flattened sombrero " with no dark lane
Ngc 2359 Thors Helmet, an intricate emmision neb in Cma much more detail visible with OIII filter delicate loops and filiments visible
Ngc 2261: Hubbles variable neb, bright fan-shaped neb with central 1/3rd being quite bright bright star at its apex
Ngc 2392: Eskimo neb in Gem is a lovely bluish PN with a faint inner hood and easy central star
Ngc 3242: Ghost of Jupiter is a PN in Hya slightly smaller than 2392 and more condensed. It had a blueish-green colour with a thicker inner hood and a faint central star. The overall shape was more oblong than the Eskimo. If seeing was better the detail would have been amazing!
Hickson 44: A compact galaxy cluster with the brightest member being 3190. This group found in the neck of Leo is the brightest of the Hicksons and is visible in an 8". 3190 was the bright one at 13.1 it looked to be an edge on with "d" (3187) close by and also the faintest of the group (14.7) All 4 members were easily visible in the same FOV, very nice!
Hickson 57: Also in Leo but much fainter and more compact, this is Copelands Septet. This was my 1st time viewing this group and I only got 5 of the 7 but I think it will be easier with better seeing as several are very close together. Ngc 3753 is the brightest at 13.6, but these are much smaller galaxies than in 44, so they appeared as small soft stars. I'll have to try this one again at higher power.
I also did a bunch of Messiers but I think the highlight was seeing Copelands septet and the beauty of Ngc 3242.
I also got a great view of M82 at 3oox, tons of detail!
So is anyone into joining me this evening? I'll be out from 7:00 pm on so let me know if you're coming!
Ni!
Mike W
