December Challenge Object (GX) - NGC1365

[iceman]

Read all about this object at the December Observing Challenge (http://www.iceinspace.com.au/index.php?id=69,258,0,0,1,0) page.

Post your observation reports and sketches here.

DSO images go in the DSO imaging forum.

[dhumpie]

Looks like I will the first in again. This one is a very nice barren spiral that has a rather bright core and faint spiral arms. My C6 shows hints of the spiral arms as seen in the sketch. In my smaller scopes (Orion 80ST and 102mm f/5), it is but a featureless blob with a condensed core. Quite easy to find and can serve as a jumping off point for the Fornax cluster of at least 8-9 galaxies in small scopes. The best views I have had of this is through Andrew's (astro_south's) 12.5" where the galaxy looks like one of those japanese ninja weapons (I think they are called shurikens). Here is my sketch:

http://www.geocities.com/dhumpie/dastro/1365.jpg

Darren

[astro_south]

Nice report Darren and good oserving effort to pick out the detail you have with the 6". Here is my sketch of possibly my favourite galaxy. I think I have posted this before on the forum, and I think then I mentioned that I probably went a little heavy on the pencil. What results is all the detail I was able to tease out, however the eyepiece view was not as "bright" as the sketch indicates. I was going to redo this to get a more realistic eyepiece view but I haven't been able to get around to it yet. The details are on the sketch. If you haven't found this galaxy yet, make sure you track it down at your next dark sky observing session - especially as the rewards are there if you want to challenge yourself to visually detect some spiral arms in a galaxy.

[AstroBug]

Great sketch Andrew. I dabbled a little while ago and, as a newbie, found sketching a good way to confirm what I was viewing through my binocs. Your white on black looks much truer than my black on white attempts. Did you scan from b+w and invert the image? If so it looks like I need to get a scanner and play around with some imaging software.

Cheers

[astro_south]

Thanks Brett

Still new to astro sketching myself. I sketch with lead pencils on white sketch pad in the field When I get home I use my digital camera (with flash turned off) to take a photo of the sketch. This digital version is then inverted (negative) in Irfanview. Therefore no scanner is required (though I might scan the sketches one day when I get the opportunity - curious to know if they look better or not).

[gaa_ian]

Hi Andrew
Still have not had a look at that one yet
I will have to give it a go when the clouds go away again :prey:
We now have one 12" scope in the club, with hopefully more to follow !

[xrekcor]

Hey that's a cool idea, and better than waiting for the scanner to chug chug along.

Edit: and not to mention the usual 2-3 attempts to try and get the scanned image to look like what you have sketched.

regards,CS

[Starkler]

NGC1365 is one of my favourite galaxies to view.
In the 10 inch dob the central bar is easy to see, with the radial arms appearing after viewing for a little while and averted vision shows me about as much as Andrews sketch.

[gaa_ian]

Finally got a look at 1365 last night, my experience is much the same as Geoff's
Under good seeing conditions it would be a lot better I think
Transperancy 8, Seeing only about 6 I reckon.
Averted vision made a difference.

[astro_south]

Great to hear Ian. Its certainly a good one and relatively easy to find. Did you surf around the area and check out the nearby cluster of galaxies?

[gaa_ian]

Yes I certainly did andrew, having the use of graemes new 12" GS dob helped !
there is a feast of galaxies in the area, also had a look at NGC 1300, another big barred spiral nearby, Not as distinct as 1365, but worth going back to on a night of better seeing.
Been out for another go tonight too ;)