FreeLists / az-observing / [AZ-Observing] Corona Borealis Galaxy Cluster on 7/3/05 from Vekol Road.

[Joe Larkin <joeclarkin@xxxxxxxxx>]

The comet wasn't the only thing I observed on the night of the
impact. It was a fine warm night. Good transparency and darkness with
fair seeing.

I observed an item off my "holy grail" list. My main observing
program is DSOs from Burnham's handbook. Except for spring galaxies,
I am very far along on this project. There are a handful of objects
that were far beyond the range of my previous main scope, a 10" dob.
My "new" 16" dob brings out more objects but there are still a few
nearly impossible ones.

One of these is the Corona Borealis Galaxy Cluster, Abell 2065. Many
observing guides consider this impossible with even large amateur
scopes. For example the Webb book makes it seem that a 16" scope
could show nothing.

I did find this web page that made my quest seem less pointless:
http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/agc2065.htm

This page mentions that the brightest member of the cluster is away
from the main concentration. This galaxy was a very dim small spot
less than an arcminute in size. But it was clearly visible in a 14 mm
Meade UWA eyepice giving 145x. It was a little easier in a 9 mm
Nagler at 225x. 

This galaxy was a good warmup for the central area. The central part
of the cluster is in a nice asterism of three stars that are almost
in a line. 

With the 9 mm Nagler, my first impression was of a greying in the
center of the field. This was a very subtle brightning. Further
observation helped me pick out a brighter clump of 2 galaxies (2 and
3 from the web page) that occassionally appeared as seperate
entities. I also spotted a slightly brighter spots at the position of
galaxies 1 and 6 from the web page. Another spot appeared near the
dim and bright pair of the asterism.

All of this was very subtle and difficult. I didn't memorize the
field beforehand, though I did see pictures. I asked Frank Kraljic to
help me confirm my observations. I showed him the brightest galaxy,
which was easy in comparison to the dimmer members. Then I centered
the asterism and asked him to describe what he saw. His description
matched mine quite closely even though I didn't tell him what to look
for. 

We also confirmed that our observations made sense by examining
charts and pictures after observing. We may have seen more after
looking at the charts. However, the galaxies are so faint and subtle
that I would discount such observations had we not confirmed
sightings of other galaxies without using such aides.

This is a spectacular photographic object for large telescopes.
It is one of the richest galaxy clusters, though very far away. That
is certainly why Burnham included it. Seeing any of it is rewarding
as a challenge and for a glimpse of something mind boggling. 

Overall, it was very difficult to see, but in a way, much easier than
I expected. I think several factors of sky, telescope, and observer
came together to make this observation.

Joe Larkin





                
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