[AZ-Observing] March 16/17, 2010 Observing Report from Hovatter Norte
- From: L Knauth <Knauth@xxxxxxx>
- To: <az-observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Fri, 19 Mar 2010 09:53:30 -0700
This time of year, the winter Milky Way sets before midnight, and that
great window into the most distant universe rolls into view during the
primo deepest-night observing hours. Time to observe galaxies! So, with
the 25" slewing to objects with deadly accuracy, I take a tour of these
island universes as fast as I can scamper up and down the big ladder.
Tuesday night was excellent after midnight (SQM= 21.72); Wednesday night
was great from the get-go (max 21.79)
Tonight, I am still stunned by all I saw in this great two-night galaxy
marathon. It is all hard to digest because of the great variety. Most
of the brighter face-ons reveal their spiral structure with direct
vision. Averted vision reveals the pattern in a surprising number of
even the fainter ones. The "faint wisp" category is even interesting
because the wisps in the 25" typically have discrete edges and don't
just fade off. The edge-ons have their dark equatorial lanes and
occasional oblique rifts. In that regard, bright, blazing M82 is not
just a wall-to-wall view across the Nagler eyepiece field at 353X; it is
a confrontation with something overwhelming. The visual view in the 25"
is more emotional than any photo encounter could possibly be. Then,
there are the irregulars with all their unpredictable star clouds, dark
clouds, and serrated edges. The pageant is endless and amazing. But it
leaves me bewildered. Aside from the ellipticals, why don't any 2
galaxies look alike? Did they form differently, or is it the
evolutionary product of mergers, close encounters, and/or different
starting conditions? Where is all this "order" in the universe? I
wonder with every view. No point in looking in the books because that
keeps changing (you wouldn't believe what was in the texts I read in the
1960's). I can never know, but that is OK. I can at least experience
the mind-boggling richness and splendor of it all with my own two eyes.
Toward morning twilight, I stand off the ladder and look to the east.
Gulp. After an exhausting, magnificent night of coaxing out every
little rift, mottle, and star cloud in these wonderful eyepiece objects,
the summer Milky Way has cleared the top of the big ridge to the east.
There, across the whole sky is this enormous edge-on galaxy with
billowing star clouds, dark clouds, rifts, and infinitely detailed
structure on a grand, overwhelming, naked eye scale! The shock is
tremendous. After the chills subside, a strange feeling of coming home
to my own galaxy sets in. I guess I had been on a journey. And-- I get
an appreciation of seeing our own edge-on galaxy laid out before me
without the neck gyrations you go through to see the same in the summer
sky! Amazing experience altogether.
Three objects of note:
NGC 3718: My field guide, Wray's Color Atlas of Galaxies, shows an
unusual, narrow, hour-glass shaped obscuring cloud cutting across the
galaxy at a very high angle. I could see this and found it fascinating.
More recent photos I see on the web tonight show the fainter outer arms
really blazing, but you only see the innermost parts with the hourglass
visually.
NGC 5112: On first look, you think it is an edge-on. Then you notice
that it doesn't taper away on each side; the ends are pretty much
"blocked off". Crazy, I thought. Tonight, I see in photos on the web
that it is the bar of a barred spiral and the arms were just too faint
to see. Whatever, it is a peculiar and unusual sight as galaxies go.
NGC 2818A During this run on galaxies, I made a truant visit to this
planetary in (or in front of) a star cluster in Pyxis. It looks like
two little, fat, somewhat squashed crescents facing each other (OIII
filter, 244X). Never saw a planetary like this. Tonight I see the
spectacular Hubble photo which shows all the outer parts as well (in the
usual assigned gaudy colors). Visually, you see just those bright
"yellow" parts facing each other. It's low, so catch it on the
meridian.
Videmus Stellae!!
Paul Knauth
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