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Observing Report 3/12/10
Well finally made it out on a half decent night, the last few months have been frustrating to say the least, not many obs, spent a bit of time visiting old favs, managed to get E and F stars in the Trapezium, saw the Running Man, etc before knocking of a few new targets as detailed below.
Observing Report 3/12/10
All observations made using Dobsonion mounted 305mm Newtonian reflector at f/5. Eyepieces use are 34mm Meade 4000(44x) 24mm Panoptic (67x) 13mm Nagler T6 (115x) or 13mm Nagler with Barlow (230x)
Charts - Uranometria 2000 (2nd ed.) Data derived from Uranometria (2nd ed) Deep Sky Field Guide.
Observations 3/12. Seeing good, transparency fair, skies clear but some minor smoke haze due to DSE burnoffs.
NGC 936 Galaxy in Cetus
RA 02 27 37.0 Dec -01 09 19 Mag(V) 10.1 Dim’ 4.7x4.1 SB 13.2 Class SB(rs)0+
Locate Delta Ceti by naked eye. M77 lies about 1deg of this star. Moved about 2deg to Sp to 75 Ceti (mag 5) then a mag 7 star lies about 1.25deg slight N of p. Gx is detectable as a diffuse glow 30’ o S. Obvious core with a faint outer envelope. In low power EP there is a group of 4 stars which lie to N of the galaxy that appear to form a question mark shape with the galaxy as the ‘dot’.
NGC 1662 Open Cluster in Orion
RA 04 48 29.0 Dec +10 56 00 Mag 6.4 Diam’ 12 No. of Stars 59 Mag Brightest Star 9.0 Type cl Open Cluster
About 1deg 45’ to Np of mag 4 star 7 Orionis. Only about 12 stars directly observable but many more suggested by averted vision. Appears in 2 groups larger group on p side of cluster forms a “circlet”. Only 2 bright stars in f group. 1 star in larger group has a hint of red colour.
NGC 1535 Planetary Nebula in Eridanus (Ghost of Neptune)
RA 04 14 15.8 Dec -12 44 21 Mag(V) 9.6 Diam” 51 Mag Cent Star 12.1
From Gamma Eridani a line of 3 mag 6 stars 2.5deg long aligned EW lies about 1deg to N. Target lies about 2.5deg to f of f star of this line. Fairly large and discernable at 44x as a disc. Little obvious structure or colour. Very round, edge appeared slightly fuzzy at high power.
NGC 1647 Open Cluster in Taurus
RA 04 45 42.2 Dec +19 07 00 Mag 6.4 Diam ‘ 40 No. of Stars 200 Mag Brightest Star 9.0 Type cl Open Cluster
Very large estimate 100+ members, fills field at 67x. Nice pretty open cluster with no abvious concentration of stars
NGC 1746 Open Cluster in Taurus
RA 05 03 36.0 Dec +23 49 00 Mag 6.1 Diam ‘ 40 No. of Stars 20 Mag Brightest Star 8.0 Type cl Open Cluster
Estimate 40+ stars from visual. Very loose cluster, needed only 44x to see entire cluster. At high power just didn’t appear to be a cluster
Malcolm
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