Observing Report

[astroron]

Set up the 16" at 17:00 (07:00 ut) left to cool down .
Started observing at 19:00 (09:00 UT) temp 20deg C
trans 6-10, 10 best, seeing 7-10 slight haze but quite reasonable.
First object Saturn very crisp Cassini div very plain cloud bands quite pronounced, four moons seen 13 mm nagler mag x140, 7mm orthoscopic magx261 very nice, seeing steady.
M65-66 and ngc3628 stars down to mag 14.5 easily seen, all just fit in the field of view of the 30mm plossl.
Turned my attention to the Southern sky with a visit to Volans and the ring galaxy ESO 34-G11 even though getting a little low the two close by galaxies and the ring were observed with the 9mm plossl and the 13mm nagler, then onto the Meat Hook galaxy Ngc 2442 with its companions ESO 59-G11 and Ngc2434 all in the field of the 13mm nagler with stars down to about 14 mag seen.
Orion was next on the list, tried for the Horse head but to no avail seeing was to bad there as it was only about 25degs above my horizon, but was able to see 6 stars in the Trapezium in moments of reasonable seeing.
Over to Canis Major and Ngc2207 and Ic2163 which are merging galaxies and have ben showen to there best by the Hubble Space Telescope, Ngc2207 is the brightest of the pair at about 10.5mag but Ic 2163 has a low surface brightness and is much more difficult to see, there is a 13.5 mag star close by Ic2163 and has been mistaken for a Supernova in the past.
Onto Centaurus and galaxies Ngc 4954 and Ngc 5128 (CentA) both very prominent in the 13mm nagler, also Ngc 5102 a bright SO galaxy which is made harder to see by being in the same field as Iota Centauri.
No visit to Centaurus would be complete without observing Omega Centaurus (Ngc 5139) stunning as usual.
Next stop Ngc 5236 (M83) spiral arms quite pronounced and stars to 14.5.mag easily seen.
By this time Jupiter was getting a little higher in the sky and even though there was no red spot to look at was very crisp in the 7mm Ortho with a blue filter.
At around 21:30 was able to get a view of Comet 73p Schwassmann-Wachmann, but only the C componant as it was getting light and some cloud was appearing on the N/E
horizen.
Back to Jupiter to watch the shadow and transit of Io, using the 7mm ortho and blue filter it was so clear with both the shadow and Io plainly seen against the planet.
Clouds came across and with the Moon rising called it a night at 22:15(12:15 ut).
A very enjoyable few hours observing:thumbsup: :astron: :stargaze:

[Rodstar]

Sounds like the ideal observing session, Ron. Do you star hop, or do you have Argo Navis etc?

[astro_south]

Nice report Ron

I am curious how bright the ring galaxy (ESO 34-G11) is through the eyepiece of your 16" scope and can you describe what detail you can see?

[ving]

sounds like a good session! :)
thanks for the writeup :)

[astroron]

Andrew the ring looks like a very thin elipse on it's side whith a small starlike point on the left inside (north),with a slightly brighter galaxy north west about 30 arc seconds away, of about the same size as the ring galaxy nucleus,there is another galaxy south east of the ring which is supposed to be the galaxy that whent through the ring galaxy and coursed the star formation which is why the ring is so bright(relitivly speaking).
This galaxy has a given magnetude of 12.5 but needs a fairly good sky to see any detail.
I would be interested to see if you could observe it in your 12.1/2".
Check the article by David Frew in the March edition of AS/T
As Volans is getting low down I sugest that you should make this one of your first objects to observe
I have just found the article by David Frew and I can see all the galaxies he mentions, and he said did not see the norhtern galaxy, but then he was only using a 25cm (10") scope as apposed to a 40cm (16") scope
Cheers Ron:thumbsup: :astron:

[Volans]

Sir, I must protest in the most vehment manner!! I will have you know that I am not getting low down but on the contrary... after a few :drink: I get rather high!! :lol:

Great observing report Ron, it was a pleasure to read.

Peter.

[astroron]

I missed your question Rod, I gave up star hopping about 4 years ago when I got the ARGO NAVIS, Robert Evans I aint and as I need to see as many galaxies in a night as possible a DSC is the way for me.
Andrew at nearly 13th mag this is not abright object, but on a good night is very pronounced in the 9mmPlossl 203xmag
and is easily seen as a ring in the 13mmNagler at 140xmag:thumbsup:

[jjjnettie]

Thanks for the report Ron.
Very informative as usual.

[astroron]

Peter I thought of you when I was typing my report, and expected an amusing reply. cheers Ron:lol: :lol: :thumbsup:

[astroron]

I have just come in from a great nights observing, observed two elements of comet 73p, will do a report later on today:thumbsup: :astron:

[Vermin]

Around 01:00 this morning it finally cleared up, after weeks and weeks and weeks of cloud.

Worst seeing ever.

The cratered Moon looked like it was reflected in a fast moving river.

Jove could only be made out as a bright white/pale, pale pinkish wobbly disc-ish sorta blobby bit of light.

Mirror temp was 7°C, ambient was around 5°C, may have had a bit to do with it.

The only brightish star I could see Southish was Miaplacidus (hello Brian). Which for some reason is not considered bright enough to be an alignment star in the ArgoNavis. Not that it would have helped as I could see no other star of even equivalent brightness squeezed between the house and front fence. So hand tracking was the go for the first time -

Pfft, yeah right. ;)

Even unaligned (no Agonavis support) the ServoCAT was a pleasure to slew and jog with. I just need to tone down the mid speed a smidgion and it'll be tuned to the Telrad for hopping.



Still nice to have a chance to get out under it all though.

Brrrrrr it's got colder, I'm off to bed now.

[Rodstar]

Good move, Ron! There is so much to see, so little time....