[AZ-Observing] Friday Night at Vekol 9/13/02

  • From: "Jack Jones" <spicastar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: "AZ Observing List" <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sun, 15 Sep 2002 23:33:35 -0700

There was quite a mini-crowd at Vekol Friday night under a first-quarter
moon. With the moon setting at 11:30, I was able to take my time getting
ready and arrived at 10:00, set up leisurely, and get in four hours of
deepsky observing, about the same as I would get during a new moon
session in the summertime. Plus it left the whole weekend still to come.
I recommend it and my thanks go to Matt Luttinen for suggesting such
nutty behavior. He's always pushing the envelope in one way or the
other. Matter of fact he pushed it a little too far Friday night and
stripped the gears in his clock drive leaving his telescope inoperable.
Back to the shop for Matt.

Due to the recent rain, M-objects were out, namely mosquitoes and
millipedes. Chuck Akers played AJ, supplying the big can of Deep Woods
OFF, And he's not even from Louisiana. Didn't affect the dozens of
millipedes milling around, they did pretty much what they wanted, being
there first.

It's the time of year to check out the spectacular galaxies that follow
Fomalhaut in the constellations Cetus, Fornax and Sculptor. Pegasus
being high above them, it means the NGC numbers will be very low, or
very high! Most are not on any lists, prob. due to their far southerly
locations, but many showpieces and showstoppers can be hunted down in
this region. It's only the constellations that are obscure, the objects
in them are first order and a good reason for a lot of cases of deepsky
fever.

A small sampling:

NGC 24, GX in Sculptor: A very small slit, 5.5'x1.6' and 12th mag, with
a central bulb, delicate and pretty.

NGC 45, GX in Cetus: A challenge, being 10.5 mag with a low 14.5 surface
brightness face-on spiral involved with 7th and 10th mag stars within a
minute or two. Look once, look twice, make sure it's there!

NGC 55, GX in Sculptor: This should be on all lists and was a big hit
with everyone. Very large and bright, a wide swath of nebulosity that
deserves every eyepiece in the box. Two central knots and variegated
busy-ness within. The nebulosity shoots way off to the E, leaving the
nucleus well off-center. Look for supernovae.

NGC 253, GX in Sculptor: Great binocular object with globular N 288.
Large bright elongated galaxy with a dark lane on the NW and mottled
texture throughout. Always thought this was in Cetus. No spiral
structure but plenty else to look at.

NGC 288, GC in Sculptor: A large globular just 2 deg SE of N 253,
resolves into myriad faint stars when some power is put on.

NGC 300, GX in Sculptor: Another 9th mag face-on with a low 14.5 sf.
Several 11th and 12th mag stars dot it. Three brighter stars surround
the nucleus. Use the CCD Atlas to check for supernovae! Good luck.

NGC 7793, GX in Sculptor: The Dandelion Galaxy, says Jennifer Keller. A
big puffball, 9th mag, with a 5-star chain bending off to the NE.

Eqpt: f/5 14.5" Schwaar equatorial reflector, 27mm Panoptic, 9mm Nagler

Jack Jones
Saguaro Astronomy Club
Lunar List Awards and
Messier Marathon Co-coordinator
Phoenix AZ
spicastar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx



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