[sac-forum] Call for Observation - correction
- From: "AJ Crayon" <acrayon@xxxxxxx>
- To: "SAC Forum" <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 18:39:20 -0700
The e-mail for CFO dated 9/21/2011 has a gigantic error and this message does
the fix. I hope. Unfortunately the November constellation was listed as
Pegasus. Turns out those observations were submitted for publication in
October 2010 and were never published. I don't want to start collecting these
observations over again and will try to hold them for another time.
Meanwhile, instead of scheduling Pegasus for November it has been changed to
Cetus. We haven't done this constellation before. At least as far as I can
remember.
So, once again, here's the list of constellations and their respective objects.
It includes the prior objects from Cepheus and Pisces, unchanged, followed by
Cetus.
Cepheus stars for a box with a triangle on top and in Greek mythology are named
after Cepheus King of Aethiopia. We visit this constellation after a hiatus of
many years. We’ll start with NGC2276 and its companion NGC2300, both about
11th magnitude and about 4° east of Polaris. First NGC2276, which is a late
barred spiral with a ring. It is pretty large and has a little brighter
middle. Our next one is 6’ to the southeast is the elliptical galaxy NGC2300.
It to is pretty large, a little elongated and has a brighter middle. Moving
well to the other side of the constellation we continue with open clusters.
First here is NGC7235, aka NGC7234, and is listed as small, poor and a little
compressed. Naturally both are circumpolar. Next is NGC7261 and is listed as
large, pretty rich and a little compressed. Does this agree with Trumpler’s
description of III 1 p? Now on to the large, pretty rich circumpolar open
cluster NGC7261. Again Trumpler’s description is III 1 p, and do you agree or
not? Keeping in the same general area of the constellation is another
circumpolar cluster NGC7380. It is pretty large, pretty rich and involved in
some nebulosity but you will more likely than not need a UHC or OIII filter to
pull it in. This cluster is on the Herschel 400 list, part of the Cepheus OB1
association. Finally Trumpler’s description is III 3 p n. Going to the
northeast is King 19 and NGC7510, within 20’ of each other. Yet they are easy
to distinguish. First check out NGC7510, another cluster on the Herschel 400
list. It is fan shaped and has some pretty bright stars. Trumpler gives it an
II 2 m n. Look for the region of faint nebulosity to the southeast. After
this is should be easy to locate King 19, with a Trumpler code of II 2 m. Its
brightest star is listed as 12th mag. Good luck with this one.
For October the constellation for us is Pisces particular the southern part.
You will need your galaxy observing eyes for this as that’s all in here for us,
save one asterism for variety. And we start with the asterism called the
Circlet of Pisces, which is about 5deg and is large for an eyepiece field of
view. So try your finder or binoculars. What about stellar color? It is
listed as 3rd magnitude, can you detect if naked eye? It is located at R.A. 23
11.0 Dec +03 40. The first galaxy is NGC7541 a barred galaxy with magnitude of
11.7. How much detail can you detect? What about the 14th mag galaxy 3’ to
the southwest? Moving east of 0h find NGC467. It is almost 12th mag and
small. What other interesting items do you see in a 30’ field? Turns out two
of them are out next objects. About 10.5’ northeast is NGC470 a spiral galaxy
with a ring and a gradually brighter middle. The third in the same field is
NGC474 and should be slightly brighter and larger. Is it? Why or why not?
Comparing the size descriptions of these 3 galaxies has the first two as large
and the latter as small, yet the size field indicates just the opposite. The
reader is left to their own decisions about this fact. Next is a Herschel 400
object NGC524, a bright and large Sa galaxy. Continuing to the east is NGC676,
another spiral galaxy. It is listed as very faint but has a magnitude of 10.5.
Getting towards the end of this month’s selection is NGC718 another barred
spiral that is supposed to have smooth arms. What about irregular features and
brighter middle? Finally we come to NGC741, an elliptical galaxy considered
faint and small. There’s NGC742 involved, at mag 14.3 and is out of reach of
many telescopes. That’s all for now, get out observer, take notes and send
them in for inclusion into this column.
As indicated earlier the constellation for November has been changed to Cetus.
It hasn’t been done before. Here is the list of objects.
The November selection is Cetus the Whale, which so far we haven’t done. Not
so sure why this situation exists, perhaps the lure of summer constellations?
This is where we will find mostly galaxies with almost 20 in SAC observing
lists, yet not all of the following seven selections are on one of the lists.
Starting from the western end look for magnitude 10.6 MCG -03-01-015 located at
RA 00 01.9 Dec -15 27 about 10° west of northwest from Deneb Katos (beta Ceti)
and near the border with Aquarius. It has a low surface brightness due to its
11’X4’ size. Are there any other details visible in your telescope? Second is
the SBbc galaxy NGC 157 and is found about 10° north of northwest from Deneb
Katos. Estimate its brightness, size and elongation before checking your
resources and also estimate magnitudes of the 2 stars to the north and south of
this Herschel 400 galaxy. Moving more to the north and a little east find IC
1613 an irregular galaxy that is extremely large but with a magnitude of 9.2.
Our fourth selection is from a catalog we haven’t seen in this column, it is
the galaxy New 1 and is located at RA 01 05.1 Dec -06 13. Supply some
information about this catalog designation. Its magnitude is 11.8 and size is
4.5’X3.5’. What is your description for brightness, size, elongation and other
details? Moving on to another Herschel 400 galaxy is NGC1055, nearly edge-on
with an equatorial dust lane. What design do you see amongst the galaxy and
field stars? If you haven’t figured it out by now the next is about 30’ to the
southeast. It is the Seyfert galaxy M 77! I’ll let you to your own observing
recordings for this one. The last is the SBc galaxy NGC1087 that has a Ring.
Don’t look for the ring as you probably won’t see it. It is about one degree
southeast from M 77. Be careful not to confuse with other galaxies in the
field. That’s it for this pass, there are enough goodies left for another pass
or two, or three.
Hope this doesn't cause any confusion.
AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ
Other related posts:
- » [sac-forum] Call for Observation - correction - AJ Crayon
