[sac-forum] Re: Call for Observations
- From: David Hofland <hofland@xxxxxxx>
- To: sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Fri, 6 Aug 2010 10:24:56 -0500 (CDT)
Here in Alabama its been pretty humid and mucky for the past month but we're
expecting some "clear" skies perhaps as early as Sunday night and hopefully
through Tuesday or even Wednesday night, nice timing since the moon will be
new. Of course even eastern Virgo is getting a bit west for me after midnight
when the glare of neighboring porch lights goes away. If the transparency
really does turn out to be good and I can get some new observations I'll send
them of course, if not I'll dust off some old ones. When do you need them by
to make the publication?
David Hofland
Director, Student Services - BSN
hofland@xxxxxxx
256-782-5276
----- Original Message -----
From: "AJ Crayon" <acrayon@xxxxxxx>
To: "SAC Forum" <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Friday, August 6, 2010 12:50:40 AM GMT -06:00 US/Canada Central
Subject: [sac-forum] Call for Observations
Here's the list for this and next month. Hopefully we can get some new
observations for the next column but, if not, then use some from days gone by.
It is rather surprising to me that Virgo has only been done once in this series
of observing sessions. This means, naturally, time for a second pass.
Because of the rather late time of year for this constellation, our selections
will remain in the easterly region. We begin in the east or northeast part of
the constellation with NGC5566 a barred galaxy with ring. The dimensions
indicate an elongated galaxy, but the NGC description doesn’t follow up on
this. What do you see here? Note there are two other galaxies in the field,
but they are fainter than 12 th mag. Going a little further east and about
one-degree south is the elliptical galaxy NGC5576. Its E2 class would
indicate very little elongation. In addition to this note there are two other
galaxies in the field, but like out last object, there are fainter than 12 th
mag. Our next object will be somewhat of a surprise. Our slew takes us on a
more southerly route to NGC5634 a globular cluster! What sort of resolution
do you see? Moving more to the northeast is barred galaxy NGC5746. It is
located just 20’ west of northwest from 109 Virginis. Although it is
elongated can you detect central condensation or brightening. Also in the
field of view is NGC5740, another galaxy listed as mag 11.9. Inching more
eastward, near the Serpens Caput border, is NGC5846. This is another
elliptical galaxy that should appear round to you eye. Is it? Beware here,
our last object NGC5850 is in the same field of view and it is up to you to
identify which is which. Making this a more challenging project is the fact
that there are other galaxies in the same field and near-by. You will not
find a count of the galaxies here, it is up to you to determine the count and
what you see in your telescope. Report your observations giving angle and
distance of all from either of the two last ones on this list. Another note
about which the reader and observer should be aware. All but the last are on
the Herschel 400 list. Even if you have already observed these, go out and do
so again and don’t compare notes until after you have re-observed. What do
you find of interest?
After completing these observations, take a few minutes and look towards the
east. What do you see?
Now for the following month we have a new comer – Serpens also called Serpens
Cauda, which I sometimes call Serpens to the east as in east of Ophiuchus.
After that brief introduction we will look for numerous stellar collections and
will start with Ru 135 located at 17 58.0 -11 39. It doesn’t have a magnitude
but is listed as 11’ with 20 stars of similar brightness. Second is NGC6535 a
class XI globular cluster and its 9.3 mag and 1.3’ should be easy to spot.
Swinging much farther south is 6 th mag NGC6605 with stars from 10 th to 12 th
mag. Did you find it? Now we move on to the choice of choices objects for
this month – M16 ! Need more be said about this? Yes, describe the stars
and nebulosity in your field of view and try some filters to see the results.
Now we will try a dark nebula - LDN 564 . While dark nebula don’t have
magnitudes its size is listed as 45’X15’. Have a look and see what you think.
Coming down to the final two is IC4756 an open cluster. It has about 80
stars from mag 8.7 on down in 39’. Our final one, another open cluster, comes
from our good friend in Flagstaff - Archinal 1 , located at 18 54.7 +05 33.
It is about 4° west of IC4756, is 1.5’ and has 24 stars from mag 13.4. It
won’t be very easy to spot. Can’t you just see Brent grinning from ear to ear?
AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ
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