Faint Fuzzies obs report 9/1/10

[orestis]

Telescope-130mmx900mm
Atmosphere-4/5
Transperency-4/5
moon-none

It was a beautifull night so i thought i must see the Fornax galaxy cluster and so i did it was most rewarding.

Fornax Galaxy cluster- star hopping off the triangle i came to a bright blob it was quite amazing i think it was maybe ngc 1399 there were also to other prominent hazes to the east of ngc 1399 but couldn't identify them, while i was studying the area i noticed some of the stars having some haze around them but not being sure that they were galaxies.It was most exciting to view this galaxy cluster:D.I studied the cluster for about 1 and a half hours and tried to make asketch but failed as my drawing cicle was too big and i misinterpreted distances.oh well next time.

I viewed some of the old favourites and then went off to bed.i had a great night.

clear skies
orestis;)
ps- i'd like to thank rob_k for posting his report as it inspired me to observe these galaxies:thanx::thumbsup::thumbsup: :thumbsup:.

[Rob_K]

Glad you had a good night Orestis! :thumbsup: Yeah, the little hazes are what you are looking for! Sometimes the cores are almost stellar, so they can look like a faint star with haze around them too. You're on the way now, getting your eye in on these difficult objects!!

I had a quick look at the group again last night - funny, I could see all the ones from the previous report OK, except for the mag 12.1 edge-on NGC 1386, which looked so good the other night! Shows how observing conditions can affect your viewing from night to night, especially when you're struggling for aperture.

Keep it up! :)

Cheers -

[ngcles]

Hi Orestis,

Normally I try and avoid making references (well repeated references) to the Deep Sky Delights articles I write for Australian Sky & Telescope but you might be well served by taking a look at my "Frolic in Fornax" in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue that might be of some help for you to navigate (galaxy-hop) this cluster.

Unfortunately, (according to the website) back issues older than 12 months are no longer available from AS&T so try your local library or maybe someone here might have a copy they can lend you for a look?


Best,

Les D

[Paddy]

Glad you found them, Orestis. I know what you mean about having trouble identifying exactly which is which - its quite an overwhelming array of vast objects at great distance.