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Old 03-10-2007, 04:22 PM
Jarrod
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2/10: my first galaxy's!!!

hi all,

this is my first attempt at an observation report, so go easy on the ‘constructive criticism’. I wrote it because last night was my first time observing galaxies, so I thought it would be the perfect excuse to try writing one up. I don’t mention anything like seeing or transparency, because I really don’t yet understand how to accurately judge such things. This is more about the things I saw and the nights events. Enjoy.

2nd October, 2007.

After reading an article by Les Dalrymple in the Nov/Dec 2003 edition of SKY & SPACE magazine, I decided to take advantage of last nights clear skies by trying to find my first galaxy. I’ve never tried to find galaxies (the LMC and SMC don't count!), I always thought it would be too difficult with only a 5" telescope and moderate light pollution. but the article said that a few galaxies in Dorado are visible in scopes as small as 100mm, so I thought id give it a go.

I sat my scope outside at about 6:30pm, and I left it to cool until first going outside at about 7:30pm.
My scope was not well collimated, but I wanted to see Centaurus A (NGC 5128) before it got too low in the sky, so I skipped collimation. Sitting my red torch on my star atlas as a paperweight (last night was very windy!) I starhopped around to where Centaurus A should have been sitting, but it was so low in the sky that terrestrial objects like telephone poles made the hunt too difficult. Oh well, looks like Centaurus A was not destined to be my first galaxy. I moved up to Omega Centauri (but too low in the sky, so just a haze), so then over too 47 Tucanae. 47 Tucanae always looks nice. with averted vision I could see that it was a cloud of stars, but directly it was still an impressive blob.

As Dorado appeared in the east, I moved my telescope over to Alpha Doradus. Alpha Doradus, being the closest bright star to a small group of galaxies, would be my ‘base camp’ for most of the night. I scanned the area within a few degrees of the star, just to see if any galaxies jumped out at me. Ofcaurse they didn’t. I moved back to Alpha Doradus to collimate my telescope. Just as I started collimating, I was blinded when Dad switched on our outside lights. He had come out to work on the spa’s wooden decking. he apologised for turning the light on. Once I was happy that the collimation was good enough, I went inside and waited for Dorado to move higher in the sky, and the lights to be turned off.

Once the sound of sawing and hammering outside to stopped, I went back outside to find Dorado high in the sky. By now it was about 9:30pm. Using the star map I carefully guided my telescope around the area where the galaxies should be. as I moved my telescope a saw a blur race across through the field of view, I moved back to find a small smudge! I stood back and took a few deep breaths. My first galaxy. I looked at it for a few minutes. I was very proud of my self. My next challenge was to identify it. I looked over too the star chart, and then looked at an image of NGC1566. I thought that this galaxy may be NGC1566, but I noted that no bright stars sat near my galaxy, so it could not be 1566.

As I examined the chart, the whole page lit up blue. For a second I thought there was a helicopter shining a spotlight down on me, then I had a strange vision of a man on a tall ladder shining a torch at me. But when I turned around and looked up, I saw a magnificent meteor moving across the sky!!! It fizzled out and left a glowing aqua tail in its wake. All over. I went back to my galaxy. I decided to draw a picture of what I could see through the eyepiece, and then compare the drawing to some sky mapping software. I went inside (with an eye patch on my observing eye) to grab a book to sketch my galaxy in. on the way I also informed my brother of the meteor, as he is a keen meteor observer.

After finding a note book to draw in, I went back outside to find my bother lying on his back outside. Waiting for another meteor. After giving him the details of the meteor (colour, brightness, direction, etc) I went back to the scope and started sketching the galaxy. I started with the smudge galaxy, then started dotting in the brightest stars surrounding it. although one star was more of a dim smudge then a point of light, another galaxy in the same field of view!!! Now I’m really excited!!! It was so small and dim that I would not have noticed it if I had not tried to draw it. happy that I now had too galaxies to identify, I went inside to consult my computer’s sky software. I soon identified the two galaxies as NGC1553 and NGC1549. I went back outside to have another look, but the clouds were coming, so I didn’t have time to find any more.

I waited until 2:00am for the clouds to clear, but as dorado had moved so much in those several hours I had trouble getting me bearings. I eventually found NGC1553 and he’s little friend 1549, I had a quick look, but the wind and clouds were getting a bit unbearable, so I began packing up.

Well, that was probably more of a short story then an observation report. But its my first time. The image I’ve included is my sketch of the two galaxies. I inverted the colours in paint, to make it more realistic.

Jarrod
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  #2  
Old 03-10-2007, 07:48 PM
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erick (Eric)
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Looking good Jarrod!

I think you should count LMC, SMC (and the Milky Way!).

How is your northern horizon? Try for M31 (easy) and M33 (bit harder) around midnight to 1pm.

Also the Sculptor galaxy NGC 253. I've seen it once so far (I think, I was just surfing, found it and couldn't work out where I was!). I've searched since, but too much moonlight. Should be high enough after about 7:30pm.
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Old 03-10-2007, 08:02 PM
CoombellKid
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Quote:
Originally Posted by erick View Post
How is your northern horizon? Try for M31 (easy) and M33 (bit harder) around midnight to 1pm.
You can see M31 through to 1pm, man where did you get those nocies??

Good observation report Jarrod enjoyed the read

regards,CS
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Old 03-10-2007, 08:33 PM
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erick (Eric)
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Quote:
Originally Posted by CoombellKid View Post
...man where did you get those nocies??
Aperture fever - binocular style!
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Old 03-10-2007, 09:56 PM
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ngcles
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Hi Jarrod,

Let me tell you I was just as excited reading your report as you were in seeing those tiny faint fuzzys! Well done and congratulations. It is really good to know that the stuff I pen is occasionally read and more importantly used to observe!

I've had a look at some old notes and a sketch I made a long time ago with my 25cm and also at Realsky/Megastar and there is _no doubt_ that your drawing shows NGCs 1553 & 1549

I think you will find many of the objects in my column in the up-coming Nov/Dec issue of AS&T will be right up your alley given the 'scope you are using. It will be out pretty soon.

Again, well done mate -- you're well on the way!!
If you are interested in NGC 253 as noted above by Eric, first locate Achernar and Beta Ceti (2nd magnitude orange star). Nearly 1/3rd of the way from Beta Ceti to Achernar is the 4th magnitude star Alpha Sculptoris.
Now, centre Alpha Sculptoris and looking through the finder scan back toward to Beta Ceti. Pretty soon you should come across a couple of small, distinctive triangles of faint stars. NGC 253, a big relatively bright galaxy and quite nearby to the triangles a degree or so to the east. In a good sky you can see it in the finder as an elongated blur.


Best,

Les Dalrymple
Contributing Editor
AS&T
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Old 03-10-2007, 10:40 PM
Jarrod
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thanks guys, I'm glad you liked it.

thanks Les, not just for your kind words, but also thank you for introducing to those first two galaxies. if not for your article, i would have never even considered searching for those galaxies, and with such a wonderful guide, I'm confident about finding NGC 253. I'll also be sure to grab a copy of AS&T when it comes out.

Quote:
Originally Posted by erick View Post
Looking good Jarrod!

How is your northern horizon? Try for M31 (easy) and M33 (bit harder) around midnight to 1pm.
i have thought about looking for Andromeda, but i think the light pollution would wash it out. i live on the southern side of Geelong, so between me and the the northern sky is a 25 km array of city lights, and a cloud of orange haze.

I'll have look for them all next time we travel to our farm in central Victoria (light pollution is a myth up there! ).

thanks, jarrod
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Old 04-10-2007, 07:50 AM
§AB
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Hey Jarrod
Great report mate, enjoyed reading it. Keep it up!

Next stop for me - Dorado and Fornax, should the skes clear in the very distant future.
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Old 04-10-2007, 08:02 AM
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erick (Eric)
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"What’s Up 2007 - 365 Days of Skywatching"

Jarrod

I caught up on my reading of the above downloadable book:-

http://www.astrowhatsup.com/download-the-book/ (warning 410 pages, 24MByte!)

The pages for Oct 2, 3 & 4 direct us to galaxies in Pegasus (yep, I know north is no good for you from Geelong, but when you go up country ). I've noted them down and printed the relevant star maps to see which of these I can spot next time I'm under dark skies.

Looks like Stephen's Quintet will be a challenge in our little scopes

I'm looking forward to the return of Leo to the midnight sky to chase the triplet again.

Eric
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Old 04-10-2007, 11:38 AM
Jarrod
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thanks §AB,

Thanks Eric, I certainly will be downloading that book, although at 24mb I'll wait until my next late night before downloading it (from 12am -7am, we got no download limit ).

jarrod.
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