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When I arrived at Blue Canyon, about 4
others were already there setting up. When I
finished setting up, 2 others showed up making a total of
7 of us there on a rare Friday evening observing session
for me. I decided to make the trip a day early as
the forecast called for 10-20% chance or rain the
following day.
NELM was about
6.5, but seeing was above average and transparency was
above average for this site. This
collection of objects listed below were high over the
southwestern horizon and fairly close to the upper part of
the Sacramento light dome.
It was nice getting out and taking a more "serious" approach to observing. The level of difficulty of these object is a bit less challenging than what I'm accustomed to. Not "seriously observing for 4 years, I didn't want to be frustrated, so I selected some mid-level objects based on my capability.
Note: The coordinates, size and magnitudes are from the VV list otherwise noted. References and components are always listed from west to east according to RA.
Equipment used for this observing session:
22” f/4 reflector with Crossbow platform
24mm TeleVue Panoptic finder eyepiece
12.5, 9 and 7mm Baader Genuine Orthoscopics
10 and 6mm Zeiss ZAO-II Orthoscopics
VV 335 (13 55 59.6 +17
30 21 0.9x0.6', 0.7x0.2' mag 14.5,
15.5)
(22” - 255, 328 and 383x) – This is the first object
of the evening, so I wasn't quite warmed up. Component B
was pretty easy to find even with the finder eyepiece
running at 96x. Appears as a 3x1 elongated glow with
defined edge and even surface brightness. Component
A was a bit more difficult to see, but picked up nearly
100% of the time as a small diffuse round even surface
brightness glow. I didn't see it until I bumped it
up to 383x with my 6mm Zeiss ZAO-II, but when I dialed it
down to 255 and 328x with the 9 and 7mm Baader Genuine
Orthoscopic eyepieces, I was able to see it nearly 100% of
the time knowing where to look for it.
VV 103 (14 07
00.1 0.8x0.5' mag 14.8)
(22” - 255, 328 and 383x) – The object appears as a
ghostly slightly elongated glow with diffuse edges.
Surface brightness is a bit lower than I expected when I
saw it for the first time with my 24mm Panoptic finder
eyepiece. Elongated about E-W I also noted
that the "star" is actually a star, but picked up only 50%
of the time at the southern edge.
VV 299 (14 13
06.9 +08 37 31 0.6x0.2', 0.6x0.6'
mag 15.8g, 15.0)
(22” - 184, 255 and 328x) – Component
A was seen as a considerably bright 2x1 elongated
object with defined edges and a much brighter elongated
center. PA is nearly N-S. Component B was a
bit of a challenge, appears as a low and even surface
brightness round ghostly glow with diffuse edges.
Good view of two distinctly different objects, one a low
surface brightness spiral and one nearly edge on high
surface brightness galaxy.
VV 70 (14 13
38.8 +07 39 34 1.0x0.5'', 0.8x0.7''
mag 14.5, 15.5)
(22” - 255 and 328x) – Component A was immediately
seen as a 2x1 elongated glow with defined edges with a
brighter center. PA is about E-W. After some
patience, component B was seen attached to the east edge
of component A that was visible about 50% of the
time. Once both are picked up at the same time, the
pair appeared as an "L".
The Sloan Digital Sky Survey image
shows it as a mini version of the Antennae Galaxy (NGC
4038, 4039) in Corvus.
VV 223 (14 13
44.7 +08 13 13 1.0x0.2', 0.4x0.2',
0.5x0.2' mag 16.0g, 14.7, 15.3)
(22” - 184, 255 and 328x) – Components A and B was
immediately picked up as an equally bright double galaxy
that forms a tight parallelogram with the double star to
the SW of the pair. Both are round with brighter
nearly stellar cores. Component C was fairly
challenging to pick up as it popped in and out 75% of the
time. Low surface brightness 3x1 elongated
glow with a very slightly brighter center.
(22” – 184, 255, 328 and 383x) – Component a was not an easy object is it is literally to the north of a magnitude 11.5 star. Using averted vision and a bit of patience, I picked it up popping in and out more than 75% of the time. Appeared as a 4x1 elongated ghostly even surface brightness glow with somewhat diffuse edges. PA is about 90 degrees. It's neighbor, component B was fairly easy to see, a 2.1 elongated glow with defined edges and a much brighter center. Component B is about half the size of component A.
(22” – 255, 328 and 383x) – Component A was seen as a round glow with diffuse edges and a very slightly brighter center. A double star is just off the NE edge. Component B was apparently picked up about 50% of the time. After looking at the magnitude (found to be mag 18.7 from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey) after the observing session, I'm not quite sure if I saw it. I will take another look at it.
I scattered a few "eye candy" objects throughout the evening. Some notables:
Whirlpool Galaxy M-51 - Wow! the spiral arms showed a lot of structure, dark lanes, bright knots within the apiral arms. It was a pleasing view. This is a good indication on how the evening will go.
Veil Nebula - How could I go on without looking at this one? With the "NPB" filter, I saw all kinds of detail. Funny thing is that I thought I pulled out the Lumicon O-III filter and put it on, but found out much later that it was the NPB filter.
Ring Nebula M-57 - Picked up the central star fairly easily at 688x. IC 1296 was fairly easily seen.
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