...and Eridanus & Dorado!
Obs Report:
Place: My backyard, Bright, Vic
Time: 10:15pm – 12:15am (UT+11)
Seeing: Poor
Transparency: good, slight haze
Equipment: 4.5” f8 Tasco reflector, 21mm X-Cel eyepiece
As a sighter, I first went to
galaxy NGC 253, a large, bright cigar-shaped glow in Sculptor. In averted vision, the galaxy extended over half the FOV but I’ve seen it better in brilliant skies. Zipped over to
globular cluster NGC 288 in Sculptor – a fairly even dim glow, not centrally-condensed, and I imagined I could see a few very faint stars flickering in and out with the seeing. Then visited
NGC 246, a planetary nebula in Cetus. This is quite a large pn (compared to most), and showed as a fairly even glow behind 3 faint field stars.
Galaxy cluster, Fornax/Eridanus: So much to see, and so many galaxies within a couple of fields of view!
NGC 1365 (mag 10.3) was not as good as I’ve seen it, but quite a large dim glow nonetheless, with fainter extensions in averted vision.
NGC 1399 (mag 10.4) and
NGC 1404 (mag 11.0) were a bright little pair and ideal to use as ‘markers’ to work out from.
NGC 1389 (mag 12.4) was quite dim, and only held in averted vision. Close by,
NGC 1386 (mag 12.1) was surprisingly bright, a nice little edge-on! The arc of
NGCs 1387 (mag 11.8 ),
1379 (mag 11.7) and
1374 (mag 12.0) were unspectacular – just small dim glows with faint star-like central cores, and averted vision helped greatly on 1374. Inside the arc,
NGC 1381 (mag 12.5) was a tiny brighter gash.
Starry Night let me down again, because I had immediately seen two galaxies not on the chart I prepared. Must remember to turn on the “Principal galaxies” layer as well as the NGC layer! The easily-visible galaxies were
NGC 1380 (mag 11.0), a dull glow, and
NGC 1427 (mag 11.8 ), a smaller dull glow. I looked for NGC 1436 (mag 11.8 ), but can’t honestly say I saw it – must be low SB.
Great viewing here – I could just fit nine galaxies in the FOV!!!
Galaxy cluster, Dorado/Reticulum: A few nice galaxies on the border of Dorado & Reticulum –
NGC 1566 (mag 10.2) was quite a large dull glow, not quite circular. Less than a field away,
NGCs 1549 (mag 10.6) and
1533 (mag 10.0) were bright little ovals, again useful as ‘markers’ to work out from. These are actually interacting galaxies. Not far away was
NGC 1546 (mag 11.9), quite hard to pick up. Very small and faint, just held in averted vision. But
NGC 1533 (mag 11.7) was easy to see as a dull glow behind a few faint stars.
NGC 1617 (mag 11.4) was quite a healthy oval glow, about half a field away from the bright mag 3.3 star Alpha Dorado. I found 1617 easier to see with the star out of the field. In Reticulum,
NGC 1574 (mag 11.3) was a bright little glow beside a field star. Tried to find NGC 1543 (mag 11.3), but got lost on the way, LOL!
Moonlight was starting to intrude on viewing, so packed up my gear. Nice to get some time in at the eyepiece!
Cheers -