Observing Report with sketches 1-2 Oct 2010 Part 2

[pgc hunter]

Continued from part 1...


ABELL 151


IC 80

Cetus, GX, RA 01 08 48 , Dec -15 24 35 , Size 0.5x0.5' , Mag B = 14.4


267x - The only member of Abell 151 visible. Located 731 million light years away!! Very faint, nothing but a tiny gossamer of light.


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ABELL S 921

NGC 7012
Microscopium , GX , RA 21 06 45 , Dec -44 48 54 , Size 1.5x1.0' , Mag V= 12.8

ESO 286-IG052
Microscopium , GX , RA 21 06 51 , Dec -44 49 07 , Size 1.3x0.9' , Mag B= 13.8


267x - NGC 7012 was spotted with relative ease, although fairly faint it does have high surface brightness. It is the brightest member of this cluster. It is located 1' ENE of a mag 12.1 star. Visually it measures about 30" across, much smaller than the size quoted as alot of this is actually the very faint outer halo. ESO 286-IG052 is located 2' ESE of 7012 and appeared smaller, more diffuse with lower surface brightness than it's neighbour. A mag 15.1 star located about 30" ESE of 7012 was seen.


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ABELL S 301


IC 1860
Fornax, GX , RA 02 49 34 , Dec -31 11 20 , Size 2.3x1.7' , Mag V= 12.7

6dFGS gJ042919.4-534859
Fornax , GX , RA 02 49 45 , Dec -31 09 31 , Size - , Mag B= 15.69

IC 1859
Fornax , GX, RA 02 49 04 , Dec -31 10 21 , Size 1.5x1.0 , Mag B= 14.2


IC 1858
Fornax , GX , RA 02 49 08 , Dec -31 17 24 , Size 2.5x0.7' , Mag B= 14.1


267x - IC 1860 is the brightest and largest member of Abell S 301.Slightly elongated N-S at 267x with a condensed core. About 3' NE is 2dFGRS S467Z714, which at 381x appeared extremely faint, small and round. Approx 7' W of IC1860 is IC 1859, which at 267x was very faint, but a slight N-S elongation could be seen. Further afield about 7' S of 1859 is IC 1858, which visually appeared to be the second brightest after IC 1860 and at 267x I noted it as small, faint but it brightens towards the core.



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I also observed M42 at the end of the Saturday session and bloody hell it was AMAZING! I never seen such detail in it before, and it was just so bright. Several faint stars were seen around the central region, which last time I observed it back last year were spotted with only some difficulty, but now they were as plain as day! All 6 trap stars were clearly seen at low magnification, despite the poor seeing, and the central bright area was nothing short of spectacular, detail I don't think I've seen before. Just the vividness of the entire object was quite extraordinary.



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that's it, back to clouds now...
Cheers

[Paddy]

The PGC hunter hunts them down and how!

Great observations Sab. I have no idea how you see a mag 15.7 galaxy in light polluted skies with a 12" scope. Brilliant. And so much detail in such faint things.

And of course superb sketches.

They could probably save a fair bit of money on VLTs etc by just giving you a 22" scope in some dark skies, a pencil and piece of paper.

BTW how do you navigate/what do you use to select and find targets?

[pgc hunter]

Thanks Patrick. To see the real faint stuff I use a black hood on my head which works really well for blocking out local light pollution. Magnification helps, it increases the darkness of the background sky aiding contrast, so I find magnifications of 350-400x to be superior to 250x or so, even in poor seeing, when hunting very small very faint galaxies. This particular galaxy is a compact high surface brightness elliptical so that helps see it. YOu also need to take your time scanning the field, a short glance won't do.

I use the Millenium star atlas and I print off DSS images of the objects I'm looking for which helps pin point the locations of these faint buggers. Knowing the *exact* location is critical and concentrating your gaze there otherwise you won't see nothing.

[orestis]

Great report Sab and Awesome sketches.

Regards orestis:thumbsup:

[Paddy]

Thanks for the tips, Sab. I like the idea of printing some DSS photos, especially with the galaxy groups. I find it very helpful when the Night Sky Observer's Guide has photos of galaxy groups - makes it much easier to find what I'm looking for and to know what's what. But there are a lot that it doesn't have especially amongst the fainter ones. Last night I spent a bit of time with Abells 2870 and 2877, but was not able to really sort them out. The NSOG has some sketches of the group which I need to further play with, But DSS images would definitely help.

[pgc hunter]

Hey Patrick,

go to www.wikisky.org you can look up DSS images of any object and pan around, zoom in and out, the entire sky is covered. Excellent resource and I use it all the time.

[Paddy]

Thanks Sab, That's a great link. When I've used DSS til now it's been through the STScI web site which is very useful but can can a bit cumbersome to use. This is very easy. I will be using it heaps.

[pgc hunter]

no worries, I was ecstatic when I discovered it and now I couldn't live without it.