Last chance to get some deep sky before the moon takes over residence
Got up at 3. Started at 4am which left only an hour until morning twilight. Seeing was shocking, as has been the story across SE Australia over the last few days and the transparency wasn't much better.
Scope: 10" GSO dob
Time: 4am-6am
Seeing: 2/10
Transparency: 2/5
The plan was to hunt a few galaxies in VIrgo, followed by a quick squizz at Eta Carinae and finish off with Jupiter.
My target was a tight group of galaxies called "NGC5077 Group" near Spica.
NGC5072
A small, faint largely circular haze located between a pair of mag 7 and mag 8 stars. At mag 13.5 / SFC brightness 13.2, it was a struggle to coax it from the background sky in the rather poor conditions.
NGC 5077
Situated about 10' SE of 5072 this is the largest and brightest (mag 11.3, SFC brightness 12.4) member of the group. At 192x my 10" showed a condensed core surrounded by a circular haze. A mag 13 star was seen about 1' E of the galaxy.
NGC 5079
Located a mere 3' SE of 5077. Basically a faint ghost and northing more. Mag is given as 12.0 but certainly seemed fainter than that.
NGC 5076
Located 3' SW of 5079. This galaxy appeared smaller than both 5077 and 5079 and was quite faint. Mag is 13.1 and SFC brightness 12.9.
NGC 5088
One of the largest objects in this small group. I thought i could detect its elongated form but couldnt be sure. Basically a mag 12.6 smudge, with SFC brightness a feeble 13.3.
NGC 5097
IMO this small galaxy was one of the easiest of the lot to see. But its magnitude is listed a 14.6
however SFC brightness is 12.6. Steve Gottlieb's notes mention that the V mag of this is 15.7
It's tiny, at 0.5' by 0.3' but I think the 14.6 mag is a bit suss and the 15.7 is just plain outragous!
NGC 5111
This elliptical galaxy is a bit further afield, about a degree from the main group. At 192x I could see a brightish condensed core surrounded by fainter haze. The mag/SFC is given as 13.3 and 14.7 which I have a hard time believing. Steve Gottliebs notes say 11.7/12.8 which IMO much better represents what I saw.
Homunculus Nebula
Seeing was horrible, but at 73x I could clearly see both lobes. At 192x, I got spectacular structure, very jagged edges and the lobes appear to be more of a looping structure.
Trumpler 14
One of the Eta Carina Nebula clusters. It's 4 brightest stars are arranged in the shape of a 3-bladed propeller with the brightest star at the "hub". This asterism was complemented by about 15-20 fainter stars in the 73x eyepiece. I must say its quite a pretty sight.
Jupiter
The horrid seeing manifested itself well. That being said, the planet's disk was quite sharp at 146x and I could make out a rift in the SEB as well as some detail within the NEB region. But seeing was too poor (like usual) to make much of it.