Observation report 03/08/10

[astroron (Ron)]

Started of the night with Mercury ,Venus,Mars, and Saturn, then into the Arp galaxy search starting in the Libra,Virgo region,Arp's in Virgo, 240,271,
286,171,49.Libra Arp 254.
there are some more in this area but they are iether too faint or I did not have the coordinates for them.
Arp 153 aka Ngc5128 is the furthest Southern Arp galaxy.
I had to wait some time before the Aquarius, Pisces, Pegasus Arp's came up to a decent hight so filled in the time with some general observing, objects not in order observed.

Planetary Nebula's The Helix nebula, Saturn Neb,Ic4184,M57 Ring nebula,
Ngc6888,Crescent nebula,Imission Nebula from Wolf-Rayet star WR 136 in Cygnus

Nebulae,Veil Nebula,North American Nebula,(very big even in 55mm eyepiece)M16,M17

Galaxies,Ngc 6792 in Lyra,Ngc 6822 Barnards galaxy in Sagittarius,Ngc,253 in Sculptor

Second part of Arp search, Arp's15,Aquarius,50,51,Cetus,68,92, Pisces,150,182,Pegasus
Most of these Arp galaxies are very small faint magnitude objects and fairly hard to observe.

I finished the night, with a look at Jupiter and the Moon,but by this time the seeing had deteriorated making Jupiter just a big blob, with very little detail visible.
Moon was shimmering but still a brilliant sight, with Mare Orientale just visible on the limb.
All in all a good nights observing, not to cold

[Paddy (Patrick)]

Sounds like a very good haul Ron. I know what you mean about the faintness of some of the Arps, but it is such a thrill to find them.

[barx1963 (Malcolm)]

Nice report Ron. Nice to know someone is getting out under the stars!THis is what the weather has been down here for 2 months!!!

Malcolm

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by barx1963

Nice report Ron. Nice to know someone is getting out under the stars!THis is what the weather has been down here for 2 months!!!

Malcolm

Thanks Malcolm and Patrick,it looks like another top night tonight,
S0 I will be out again torturing my eyeballs with the faint fuzzies

[Liz]

Great report Ron. Dont know much about Arp galaxies, so will have to goggle those.
How was the North American Nebula? I had a very quick look one night, but seemed a lot fainter than the Veil? Will have a better look this weekend.

[Robh (Rob)]

Ron,

Sounds like a great night of viewing.
Your enthusiasm (Another great night in Paradise) is surely infectious.
Can't wait to get out and do some observing myself.

Regards, Rob

[astroron (Ron)]

Originally Posted by Robh

Ron,

Sounds like a great night of viewing.
Your enthusiasm (Another great night in Paradise) is surely infectious.
Can't wait to get out and do some observing myself.

Regards, Rob

Thanks Liz and Rob, I had another great nights observing under a Crystal Clear Sky
A break down of the objects, Planets 7
Planetary Nebula 10,Globular Clusters 6
Galaxies 43,Comets 1.
A Total of 67 objects for the night
I was surprised how many galaxies where found in Libra?
I had not considered this area as a galaxy resource as I thought it to close to the Milky way,how wrong can one be.
Twenty of the forty three galaxies observed where in Libra.
Around Midnight a mist came over and I thought that was the end of my observing,Wrong!
I decided to have a look at Jupiter through the mist as
sometimes the view is enhanced rather than detracted by it, what a view at 300x mag the Great Red Spot was clear as a bell with the shadow of Moon Io above and slightly towards the limb, over a short period I was able to see the moon Io cross the limb and be visible against the planet.
I looked for any unusual blotches, but non found there was so much detail,with ovals and different colours I spent quite a while taking in this magnificent sight
Last cab of the rank before closing up for the night was a Binocular view of the Andromeda Galaxy,M31,which was too low down for my Telescope.
Another great nights observing in Paradise

[DavidU (Dave)]

Great ob report Ron, great skill there.