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Old 14-03-2010, 08:01 PM
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Observing Report 13/3/10

Took advantage of a very rare clear night on Sat with a few hours of observing. Was quite mild, infact comfortable in a t-shirt. Seeing was crud, but improved a bit later on, although still pretty ordinary. While the 12" dob is away busy becoming awesome, the 10" was the weapon of choice.

Time: 9:15pm-12:30am
Scope: 10" F/5 GSO dob
Seeing: 4/10
Transparency: 3/5
Temp: 20ºC
Dew: no

Started off with Mars, but it was the usual blurry fuzzball. Later on however, I was able to see the polar cap but little else. Had a look at a few galaxies and PNe's I've been meaning to check out for a while now.

NGC 3195
PNe, Chameleon, Size=42x37", Mag V= 10.0, SFC brightness= 8.8

Have been wanting to check this one out for a while. A moderately faint round grey orb at 156x. At 250x however, I could detect annularity, with the ring only slightly brighter than the interior. Adding the OIII filter enhanced the annularity, which was now quite obvious and the E and W edges of the nebula appeared brighter than the N and S ends.

NGC 2362
OC, Canis Major, Size= 8', Mag V= 4.1

I've always enjoyed this cluster since I first saw it in a 60mm refractor several years ago. At 96x about 30 stars could be seen packed around Tau Canis Majoris, including a pair almost touching Tau at the east of the star. A very nice rich starfield surrounds the cluster, and would probably look even better at slightly lower magnification. See attached sketch.

NGC 2997
GX, Antlia, Size= 8.1x6.5', Mag V= 9.41, SFC brightness= 13.5

This spiral was very underwhelming at both 96x and 156x (thanks light pollution. All I could see was a ghost of a core, only slightly condensed, and perhaps a very, very faint oval surrounding it and elongated E-W. I've seen many ESO galaxies that are much more impressive from my location! These face on spirals certainly are hopeless at the first hint of light pollution. I was gonna go after nearby IC 2531, which is a nice edge on spiral a la NGC 891, but silly me forgot!

NGC 2903
GX, Leo, Size= 13x6.6', Mag V= 8.9, SFC brightness= 13.5

A much lauded object, but being in the most light polluted section of my sky I didn't see much here. At 156x, it showed a large condensed core, perhaps slightly elongated N-S, surrounded by a strongly elongated low sfc brightness haze, with diffuse spindle like protrusions jutting out either side of the core. Bigger and brighter than 2997, while being much lower and in worse light pollution, I'd imagine this would be a fantastic sight from a dark sky!

NGC 2867
PNe, Carina, Size= 27", Mag V= 9.7

This is an exceptional planetary and is easily found just to the north of the eastern star of the false cross. At 156x, it appeared as a very high surface brightness orb, pale blue in colour. I increased mag to 357x (bit much for the seeing), and it appeared slightly oval in a N-S direction, with annularity showing. The interior was only slightly fainter than the ring, making the annulus challenging to spot.

---------

Here is the sketch of NGC 2362:
Attached Thumbnails
Click for full-size image (ngc2362.jpg)
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  #2  
Old 14-03-2010, 08:15 PM
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Paddy (Patrick)
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A particular thanks for the sketch, Sab. I've been keen to see some of your sketching and it certainly lives up to its fine reputation. And I do love NGC 2362. Will have to track down the PN in Carina. I have developed a bit of a taste for these, especially after reading the reports on this forum.
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Old 14-03-2010, 11:50 PM
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Hi PGC,

A good report as usual and I particularly enjoyed the sketch -- a very good rendering.

NGC 2362 isn't a huge cluster but really benefits from a low power to put a big, big "frame" around it. Looks pretty ordinary in a 16" f/10 S/C at x140 with a 24 arcminute field, but much, much better in my 18" at x83 with a full one degree field. My old (old) 8" at x45 was extremely nice too.

There is said to be a very, very faint ill-defined nebula surrounding the cluster illuminated by Tau Canis Majoris. Never seen it myself (not even suspected) but one or two amateurs have reported a positive on it.

IC 2531 is a seasonal favourite of mine -- simply gorgeous but really needs a proper dark sky in 10". It was very faint up at Mudgee in the 10", somewhat better in 12" but simply stunning in the 18".

Good description of NGC 3195.

Thanks for taking the time to post your observations!


Best,

Les D
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Old 15-03-2010, 03:02 PM
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Hi PGC

Also was out on Saturday night and noted that it was somewhat hazy but seeing was 3.5/5 and improved.

Tried to spot NGC 2867 but was thwarted due to a lack of detailed charts. Based on your report I will give it another ago with more detailed charts of the area.
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Old 16-03-2010, 03:03 PM
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Ngc 2867

Hi PGC & All,

For what it's worth, here is my observation of NGC 2867 back in 1996 with 25cm at x138 and x181 with a Lumicon UHC. Suburban location, seeing = 6/10:

Mag 9.8 Size 18". Small but intensely bright planetary. Quite blue/green without the UHC filter. Appears about 10-15" diameter, round, as a solid looking, hard-edged disc that is evenly illuminated. Rich field with many scattered *s mag 10 - threshold. No central * visible. Suspect a thin outer halo of very LSB outside the hard edge surrounding the disc.


Best,

Les D
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Old 16-03-2010, 03:50 PM
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Thanks Paddy Les and Parkwood. there was a significant amount of brownish haze at the horizon at sunset (DSE induced no doubt), but didn't seem to interfere with viewing.


Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles View Post
Hi PGC,

A good report as usual and I particularly enjoyed the sketch -- a very good rendering.

NGC 2362 isn't a huge cluster but really benefits from a low power to put a big, big "frame" around it. Looks pretty ordinary in a 16" f/10 S/C at x140 with a 24 arcminute field, but much, much better in my 18" at x83 with a full one degree field. My old (old) 8" at x45 was extremely nice too.

There is said to be a very, very faint ill-defined nebula surrounding the cluster illuminated by Tau Canis Majoris. Never seen it myself (not even suspected) but one or two amateurs have reported a positive on it.

IC 2531 is a seasonal favourite of mine -- simply gorgeous but really needs a proper dark sky in 10". It was very faint up at Mudgee in the 10", somewhat better in 12" but simply stunning in the 18".

Good description of NGC 3195.

Thanks for taking the time to post your observations!


Best,

Les D
G'day Les, I suspect those two amatuers were seeing light scatter or glare from the stars themselves, rather than any actual nebula. At a resonable amount of magnification, even the simple effect of seeing smearing stars into less-than-sharp blobs can make the background of a populated starfield look "nebulous".

PS thanks for posting your own report of 2867. I'll have to try for that halo sometime, and hopefully catch seeing good enough to magnify the bejeeezus out of it

cheers
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Old 16-03-2010, 07:16 PM
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Overvation reports

Les,

You obviously have a good system for storing and retrieving your observation reports.

Care to share? Or is it a trade secret.

Michael
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Old 16-03-2010, 11:00 PM
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Trade secret ?? Nah !

Hi Michael & All,

Nope, no trade secret. I keep my log within a piece of astro-database software called Deep Sky --

http://www.deepsky2000.net/

I've been using it for about seven years (mind you it was quite a bit dearer back then). Before that, my log was all hard-copy manual (it took a long time to type it in and scan where appropriate). The software is a (huge) astro database also from which I make most of my "to-do" lists.

It works reasonably well but I am considering (not yet certain) changing over to another system. The new version of Skytools is a lot less ummm ... "clunky" and there are others.

My log is fairly "sizable" and obviously very, very valuable to me. The 'scope and the eyepieces etc are much more replaceable than the log ! It is backed up in two other places at home, and a copy at a friends home.


Best,

Les D
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Old 18-03-2010, 03:46 PM
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nice report Sab,

I love the sketch.

Happy observing
Orestis
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Old 18-03-2010, 04:06 PM
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Hi Les

A quick question. I know you use Megastar at the telescope but do you use any form of printed chart to aid identification as well?

Cheers
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Old 20-03-2010, 12:08 PM
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NGC 2867 etc

Hi PGC & Parkwood,

Re printed charts -- Nope, not nowadays only take the lappy & Megastar. With the DSS overlays from Realsky, I can't imagine a more detailed (portable) printed chart could exist.

Re NGC 2867, I took a good look at this last night out at Bargo and it is an impressive object with a strong cyan tint comparable to the Blue Planetary (NGC 3819) in Centaurus & a few others. Good conditions allowed me to apply a fair bit of magnification (with UHC & OIII x317, x371 & x464 -- though the latter was a bit soft looking) The inner disc seems about 12" diameter and round with a very hard edge to it. It dims weakly to centre but at centre (or nearly so) I suspect there is a very, very tiny (<1" dia) much darker hole or dot -- looking like a pin-hole. Surrounding the inner-disc is a thin very LSB outer halo only 10-15% larger than the inner halo -- say almost 15" diameter that is very tenuous. Beautiful field.

There is an HST image here:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo.../NGC_2867.html


Best,

Les D
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Old 22-03-2010, 07:30 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ngcles View Post
Hi PGC & Parkwood,

Re printed charts -- Nope, not nowadays only take the lappy & Megastar. With the DSS overlays from Realsky, I can't imagine a more detailed (portable) printed chart could exist.

Re NGC 2867, I took a good look at this last night out at Bargo and it is an impressive object with a strong cyan tint comparable to the Blue Planetary (NGC 3819) in Centaurus & a few others. Good conditions allowed me to apply a fair bit of magnification (with UHC & OIII x317, x371 & x464 -- though the latter was a bit soft looking) The inner disc seems about 12" diameter and round with a very hard edge to it. It dims weakly to centre but at centre (or nearly so) I suspect there is a very, very tiny (<1" dia) much darker hole or dot -- looking like a pin-hole. Surrounding the inner-disc is a thin very LSB outer halo only 10-15% larger than the inner halo -- say almost 15" diameter that is very tenuous. Beautiful field.

There is an HST image here:

http://www.daviddarling.info/encyclo.../NGC_2867.html


Best,

Les D
Cheers Les thanks for posting your own observations of this object. This outer halo...is it best seen with or without an OIII filter?
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