October 16, 2009 at Blue Canyon

Good and pretty steady night.  NELM 6.5, seeing 4/5, transparency 3/5

Equipment used:

22” f/4 reflector with no tracking

20mm Pentax XW finder eyepiece

7.5, 5 and 3.6mm Takahashi LE

10 and 6mm Zeiss ZAO-II Orthoscopic

3C465  (23 38 29.4  +27 01 54  13.3)  3^rd closest quasar at a distance at 129 Mpc. 

22” at 306 and 383x – NGC 7720 is a bright round glow with a much brighter center.  Very high surface brightness for a galaxy.  0.5’ across.  5 other galaxies are seen on the same 6.6’ field.  Starting with the closest, MAC 2338+2702B, is an extremely faint very small round glow, detected 50% of the time using averted vision (AV).  MAC 2338+2701A is considerably bright 2:1 elongated glow with a slightly brighter round center.  PA = 0 and 0.3’ long.  IC 5342  is a bright small round glow with a brighter center.  0.3’ across.  IC 5341 and it’s western neighbor, CGCG 476-90, are equal in brightness and appearance.  Both are considerably faint round patches with brighter centers.  0.4’ across.

V396 Her  (17 22 41.2  +24 36 18  mag range 15.7 – 16.7)  Variable galaxy

22” at 383, 460 and 639x – This object is stellar and very faint.  It was fainter than nearby star stars visible in the 3.9’ field.  About ½ the brightness of both nearby 16.2 magnitude (red) stars located 0.8’ NE and 1.2’ SW.  I estimate the magnitude of this object to be about 16.8 to 16.9.  This was the second attempt at this object.  I didn’t see it the first time around.  An object for those with 20”+ telescopes.

S10721  (00 38 33.1  +41 28 50  mag range 16.9 – 19)  Variable Galaxy

22” at 383, 460 and 639x – This object appears slightly diffused with a stellar center.  Diffuse part is about 0.2' across.  Fainter than the mag 15.1 star that lies 0.9’ south and about the same as the mag 15.8 star. 

ESO 535-12  (23 15 46.1  -25 54 16  mag 15.5  size 0.7x0.6’) Ring Galaxy

22” at 383 and 460x – Very faint round glow with no detected detail.  Even surface brightness.  0.5’ across. 

UGC 6  (00 03 09.6  +21 57 39   mag 14.4b   size 0.9x0.6’)  Ring Galaxy

22” at 383 and 460x – Considerably bright slightly elongated center with an extremely faint hook starting at the SE edge hooking clockwise to the east and to the north.  The hook ends halfway between the center and the mag 14.6 star that sits 0.6’ ENE from the center.  Center is 0.4’ long and PA = 90.  The hook is 0.4’ long.

IC 5285  (23 06 58.7  +22 56 14   mag 13.6b   size 1.6x1.2’)  Ring Galaxy

22” at 306, 383 and 460x – Bright round glow with very diffuse edges.  About 0.3’ across.   Two very faint stars (mag 16.8 and 17.8) detected 0.9’ south.  A 14.8 mag star lies 0.3’ NW.  A blazing 10.4 mag star lies 1.6’ SSE and best kept off the field.   The faint outer ring was not detected.

NGC 100  (00 24 02.6  +16 29 08   mag 13.9b   size 5.4x0.6’)  Flat Galaxy

22” at 306 and 383x – Considerably faint thin glow.  Low surface brightness.  No central brightening.  PA = 45 and 2.4’ long.  A small arc of three 15 to 16^th magnitude stars lies 1.5’ south.

UGC 711  (01 08 37.0  +01 38 29  size 4.4x0.3'   mag 14.4p)  Flat Galaxy

22” at 306x – Faint thin glow with no central brightening.   Even surface brightness.  PA = 120 and 2.5’ long.  A blazing bright mag 9.4 star lies just 1.8’ due east.

I Zw 207  (18 31 10.4  +55 16 32   mag 15.5   size 0.5x0.3’)  Peculiar galaxy

22” at 306 and 383x – Very faint, thin ghostly arc.  Even surface brightness.  The arc goes from east to west and pointed to the south.  This is an interesting object.

NGC 6745  (19 01 41.5  +40 44 40   mag 13.3   size 1.4x0.6’)  Triple Galaxy system

22” at 306 and 383x – Bright glow with a separated beak.  The separated galaxy has a slightly brighter surface brightness than the head.  The head has two slightly brighter cores of the two galaxies

This is one of my favorite objects after Jimi showed it to me in his 48” reflector.  He calls it the “Bird’s Head Galaxy”.

Image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.

NGC 3172  (11 47 14.4  +89 05 34   mag 14.8   size 1.2x1.1)  Polarissima Borealis

22” at 306x – Considerably faint round glow with a brighter center and diffuse edges.  0.6’ across.  Nearby galaxy, MCG+15-1-10, is very faint round glow with diffuse edges.  0.2’ across and lies 1.8’ west of NGC 3172

Holmberg II  (08 19 12.3  +70 43 15   mag 10.7   size 8.5x6.0’)  Dwarf galaxy, member of M-81 group

22” at 230x – Very faint, even surface brightness glow.  Diffuse edges.  Irregular shape.  1.8x across.  A pair of bright mag 13 and 14^th mag stars lies just east.  Did not see any of the knots.

Holmberg III  (09 14 48.3  +74 13 56   mag 12.4   size 2.8x2.1’)  possible member of the IC 342/ Maffei group

22” at 230x – Faint round glow with very diffuse edges.  No central brightness.  0.8’ across.