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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!
You wrote:
"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.
You wrote:
"NGC 3521 - galaxy in Leo. I read about this in O'Meara's Hidden Treasures a few weeks ago. Buried deep below Leo's hind leg near Sextans. Easy to bag near 69 Leonis, which was naked eye. Wow, beautiful galaxy. Bright, sitting in the middle of a chain of 5 magnitude 6-8 stars. Elongated core, and I fancy I could pull detail out of it. How did Messier miss this?"
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.
"NGC 3115 - galaxy in Sextans. Great! Beautiful elongated galaxy, bright extended core. Fainter extensions to the N/S. Very good at 49x and 77x."
Excellent -- NGC 3115 is a far too often overlooked galaxy. I think from memory it is up there in the top few in surface-brightness magnitudes in the whole sky (has a S.B magnitude of 10.8/sq arc-sec). For comparison, M104, ordinarily considered a very high S.B galaxy is 11.6. 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).
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!
You wrote:
"M83 - galaxy in Hydra. This object blew me away."
Me too and on a regular basis in virtually all sizes of telescopes under a dark sky, it is a pearler. Good to see you picked up the "flattened side" to the halo. I remember someone wrote (O'Meara again possibly??) that the overall shape was a bit like a gibbous moon. A very apt description.
Best,
Les D
Contributing Editor
AS&T
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