[AZ-Observing] Call for Observations
- From: "AJ Crayon" <acrayon@xxxxxxx>
- To: "SAC Forum" <sac-forum@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, "AZ Observing" <AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 16 Nov 2011 09:43:25 -0700
OK, here's the list for next 2 months for the SAC newsletter. Yes, it is
frustrating with such a nice list to have the weather put its 2 cents in, but
what can we do? Easy, use observations from years gone by. The following
lists are for the December and January issues of the newsletters. Let's give
our newsletter a nice present and submit lots and lots of observations from the
following list.
The December 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.
The New Year will start out with Andromeda, which has only been done in 2004 ?
December to exact. That installation covered most of the show pieces of the
constellation, yet there are some interesting things to check out, amongst them
are a couple of open clusters and asterisms in addition to one MCG entry. So,
without farther delay, let?s get on with the list. I?ve read a few times about
a reference to the Andromeda Dipper that, actually, isn?t a dipper at all. Yet
some times it creeps up in conversations, articles or the Internet. So to help
understand this here are the stars that makeup this misnomer. It starts in
Andromeda with gamma, beta and alpha then continues in Pegasus with gamma,
alpha and beta. Don?t ask me where this naming began, hopefully this will help
from keeping it from spreading. Now, moving on to objects of more interest we
start in the western part of the constellation with NGC7640, a nearly edge-on
spiral listed as faint and large. Also in the western reaches is UGC12632, a
12th mag spiral. What kind of NGC Description would you use to describe this
galaxy? Next is the open cluster Aveni-Hunter 1 listed in the SAC database at
23h 37.8m +48° 34?. The documentation but has no reference for this catalog.
It is referenced in deepskypedia.com as an open cluster in Andromeda with no
other comments. It includes the variable star BM Andromeda. With your
observation give a star count and estimate the Trumpler description in addition
to other features that seem important to you. Next is an entry from the
Morphological Catalog of Galaxies and its number is MCG +08-01-016. You can
find its 12th mag at 23h 59.2? and +46° 53?. The MCG catalog notes indicate it
is face-on and the inner regions are completely black. Perhaps a larger scope
will reveal this feature. Moving on to the next is NGC160, an early type
spiral galaxy. Be careful as the field includes an 8th mag star that may make
this a difficult observation. Moving on towards the center part of the
constellation is another galaxy, NGC252. This galaxy has a nice double star
that precedes by about 4?. Now we get a small surprise, NGC272 an open
cluster. It?s listed as mag 8.5 but don?t expect much. As in prior open
clusters give star count, your Trumpler description along with features that
jump out at you. Going back to galaxies is the bright and small NGC529. It
precedes another galaxy of mag 13.2, can you see it in your telescope? Now
towards the eastern part of the constellation is an asterism titled the Golf
Putter found at 01h 52.5m and +37° 30? and is 95' X 25'. What end is the
putter found? NGC982 our last object for this sequence. It is a faint, small
galaxy that is supposed to be north follow if 2 galaxies. Do you see them?
AJ Crayon
Phoenix, AZ
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