Observations 18th,24th & 25th Feb 2012

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Telescope 400mm f4.9 tri-dob reflector
Eyepieces 28mm UWAN, 17,13,9 mm Naglers, Paracorr
Navigation: Uranometria, Night Sky Observer’s Guide, My charts of LMC available at cloudsofmagellan.net.au,

18/2/12 2230

Seeing good, transparency poor.

NGC 1999 Reflection nebula in Orion

250x 2’ soft glow around illuminating star. A dark lane just visible to the west of the star appears to run NW-SE.

NGC 2440 PN in Puppis

440x 2’x1’ soft-edged glow SW-NE, bluish with bright 1’ dia. centre. Central brightening appears to have bright knots at SE and NW edges and a dark bite taken out of the SW edge. Another less distinct darkening at the NE rim of central brightening. UHC filter increases the central brightness and accentuates the edge of the SW dark bite.

24/2/12 2300

Seeing good, transparency fair.

Shapley/Lindsay 117 OC in LMC

175x 25’ NW of NGC 1745, this is a 2.5’ dia. soft-edged smooth glow, faintish but distinct with a couple of stars over the disc. No core. It is at the E end of a delicate meandering line of 8 stars and there is a bright star 8’ to the east.

Shapley/Lindsay 75 OC in LMC

175x 25’ W of SL 117, beyond the western end of the wavy line of stars, this is a quite faint 1.5’ soft-edged smooth disc.

10’ N of SL 117 is a pair of bright stars 6’ apart. Near the western one is

Shapley/Lindsay 116 OC in LMC

175x A 1’ dia. round glow with distinct core and perhaps 1-2 resolved stars.


Marking the N point of an equilateral triangle with the 2 stars is Henize N92

Henize N92 Emission nebula in LMC

175x A soft 4’x2’ WSW-ENE oval with two 1’ bright knots at each pole. The WSW one is significantly brighter and has several bright patches. The ENE is smooth. UHC filter increases brightness of both knots and the nebula looks much larger with a faint southerly extension of 6’.

NGC 1732 + 1734 OC in LMC

175x these 2 form the ends of the base of an isosceles triangle with N92 as its apex. 1734 is a 2’ faint glow with slight central concentration. By contrast, 10’ to the NW, 1732 is a very concentrated and quite bright 1’x30” NW-SE luminosity with a marked core and quite grainy.

Shapley/Lindsay 105 OC in LMC

175x A bright soft-edged 1.5’ glow, smooth with no core.

NGC 2695/2697/2698/2699/2708 GX in Hydra

175x 2695 is a 3’x2’ E-W oval glow with a stellar core and a foreground star at the W end and a fainter one at the E end. The GX makes a triangle with a foreground stars 20’ to the E and NGC 2697 to the N. 2697 is a faint round 2’ glow with a nucleus just visible with averted vision. To the E of the foreground star is a pair of galaxies 2698 & 2699. 2698 is the SW of the tow, a bright round 1’ glow with a distinct nucleus. Only a shade fainter 2699is 7’ to the E, also round with bright core and similar size to 2698. 2708 is 14’ Se of 2698 and is a 3’x2’ bright oval with distinct elongated nucleus.

25/2/12 2215

Seeing fair, transparency fair

NGC 1466 GC in Hydrus

175x One of the thirteen official LMC globulars, this distinct 2’ dia round glow lies 5’ W of CT Hydri. The GC has a central brightening and no resolved stars. A faint foreground star sits on the SW edge of the halo.

NGC 1515 GX in Dorado

175x With fairly poor transparency only a fool would look at galaxies. This one is a 6’x2’ edge-on spiral with bright extended nucleus in very soft halo. A very faint glow 4’ SW of the nucleus is 1515A

NGC 1566 GX in Dorado

175x Even in these abysmal conditions this is a stunner. A 6’ face-on spiral with bright nucleus and 3 obvious spiral arms – 2 to the NE and 1 to the SW. The NE arms appear to end at 2 foreground stars which form the base of a triangular asterism to the east of the galaxy.

NGC 1549 GX in Dorado

175x 2.5’ bright round halo with very bright stellar core.

NGC 1546 GX in Dorado

175x 3’x1.5’ N-S oval glow with large nucleus. A line of 3 foreground stars to the west.

[Rob_K]

Nice work Patrick. Interesting to compare your Doradus galaxy views with mine in a 4.5" scope! This one cracked me up:

Your view:
NGC 1566 - "Even in these abysmal conditions this is a stunner. A 6’ face-on spiral with bright nucleus and 3 obvious spiral arms – 2 to the NE and 1 to the SW."

My view:
NGC 1566 - "was quite a large dull glow, not quite circular."

Can't for the life of me work out why there should be such a difference. Maybe you got the wrong galaxy!

More here:
http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/s...=galaxy+dorado

Cheers -

[pgc hunter]

Very nice Paddy. You do very well with those galaxies from your dark skies When obserrving NGC2440, I get the impression of an alien face staring back at me!

[glenc (Glen)]

Thanks Paddy for an interesting write up.
Attached is a wikisky.org image of NGC 2695/2697/2698/2699/2708. It is 30.8' from 2695 to 2708.
I also noticed the dark area in NGC 1999 the other night.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Thanks guys. Sab, I'll have to revisit NGC 2440 and look for an alien. Thanks for the picture Glen. Ain't wikisky grand?

[pgc hunter]

Originally Posted by Paddy

Thanks guys. Sab, I'll have to revisit NGC 2440 and look for an alien. Thanks for the picture Glen. Ain't wikisky grand?

Give it a bit of magnification, and with the two brigh knots superimosed on an oval haze and what appears to be dark rift separating a patch of nebulosity from the main complex... it looks like a creepy face staring back at you!

yes, Wikisky is sweet as and use it to plan my sessions and write up my reports.

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Originally Posted by pgc hunter

Give it a bit of magnification, and with the two brigh knots superimosed on an oval haze and what appears to be dark rift separating a patch of nebulosity from the main complex... it looks like a creepy face staring back at you!

will do!

[astrospotter (Mark)]

Thanks for bringing back the memories Paddy.

My views of 1566 showed that wonderful galaxy as the 'best of the batch' where I went around in the area bracketed by Ngc1617, 1574, 1533, 1515 and then 1566 as the charmer of the area.

Wonderful OR in this thread and glad you had a chance to get several nights out even if some of them were 'abysmal'

An abysmal night under the stars in Australia is better than a rainy night under the clouds by any of our standards.

Mark

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Thanks Mark

[Jen]

NGC 1515 GX in Dorado

175x With fairly poor transparency only a fool would look at galaxies.

mmm im glad im not the only fool then

Nice report Paddy good to see your still hard at it with that scope

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Thanks Jen. You'll never be alone!