Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles
Hi Doug,
Again, a very interesting report -- you certainly saw a heck of a lot and seem to have had a ball. Bushwalking? A worthy pursuit, but in the circumstances I would have spent that time at a star-party looking at the back of my eye-lids!
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Cheers Les. Sleep would have been good, but it's a trade off. I like to keep the other half happy and entertained during the daylight hours.
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"NGC 3628 - galaxy in Leo. Very close to M65/M66. Large, dimmer galaxy, almost rectangular in shape, long and not very tall. Orientation at right angles to other two galaxies. Very easy to see."
Very impressed you picked this up with relative ease in the 4" -- Bravo! I think it is one of the best edge-on galaxies in the sky and has one of the most interesting dark lanes.
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I couldn't make out the lane, but the object itself was very easy to see. Pat, pat... good scope.
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You wrote:
"NGC 3521 - galaxy in Leo...."
How did it elude Messier & Co? I can only conclude that no Comet Messier observed passed it (and took him there) during Messier's active observing career. That is how nearby M65 and 66 were discovered. But how does this account for his collaborators also overlooking it? We wonders, aye we wonders.
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I noted at the time the naked eye view of that area of the sky is fairly dull - a few stars around mag. 5. Not a lot of reason to sweep a scope through there, I guess. Great galaxy for a small scope, though.
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"NGC 3115 - galaxy in Sextans...
NGC 3115 is one of four galaxies you can see with certainty from the Sydney CBD (Sydney Observatory) in an 8" 'scope. The others are M77, M104 and NGC 7213 -- which is very close to the 2nd magnitude star Al Nair (Alpha Gruis).
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I thought NGC 253 would be on that list...
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You wrote:
"Pencil Nebula - nebula remnant in Vela. O'Meara threw down the challenge ... ... Stare intently for 10 minutes before giving up. No Pencil Nebula for me."
I'm not surprised for one -- personally I'd have thought about 15-20cm of aperture to be the absolute minimum so don't be despondent at all. Steven O'Meara must have "Superman's eyes" me thinks!
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Not despondant ... I only have to look at O'Meara's drawings to realise just what I'm up against
