[AZ-Observing] saturday night outside of Superior
- From: "Chris Adamson" <adamsonfamily@xxxxxxxx>
- To: <AZ-Observing@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sun, 17 Jun 2001 23:45:07 -0700
To get away from the 100 degree plus weather, five of us went to a small
observing site just a few miles past Superior, Az. Besides some dark skies,
this place is also a good bit cooler than my normal observing site (Vekol).
Anytime I can wear a sweater or jacket in June, I am happy. We only
observed for about 3.5 hours, as I had a pretty strong cold, and the seeing
started going downhill. Sounds like AJ, Tom and others got some great
seeing at Cherry Road; unfortunately they must have taken our share of the
good seeing along with them!
I took the time mainly to grab a few galaxies in Virgo for probably the last
time this season, before turning my attention to a few summer objects.
DATE/TIME (UT) : 3:30 to 07:00, June 17
LOCATION: Location: Outside Superior AZ, about 4000 feet, somewhere around
Lat: 33.30, Lon: -111.07
SEEING: Early 6/10, later 4/10. I did not really test any close doubles to
get more specific here.
TRANSPARENCY: Generally 7 out of 10 (please note this is a relative scale
for places reasonably close to Phoenix). Estimate limiting mag 6.5. Did
not really search
out the limit telescopically, though 14th magnitude field stars were easily
seen.
WEATHER: 60's later in the night
EQUIPMENT: 16" StarMaster, Also, Kerry brought his 14.5" Starmaster, Fred
his 10"
Starmaster EL, Mike brought his 8.2" Ceravolo Mak-Newt and Tom brought his
14.5" Schwarr. I also brought a TV Pronto.
Exact object stats listed at the end of each of the viewing notes below
(mag, surface brightness and size) are from the Sky and/or The Night Sky
Observers Guide (SB is surface brightness).
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mars - seeing just was not good enough tonight to justify too much time on
Mars, especially after a good Mars viewing night last night (do not get me
wrong, we all tried, but details were hard to come by). Will try Mars again
a few nights this week.
Before I write about the objects viewed through the main scopes, a quick
plug for the Pronto. Some of the best views of the night came from the
Pronto, along with the 31 Nagler. This wide field allows some incredible
views of the Milky Way. We all spent some time scanning with this,
especially the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud, which is awesome in this scope.
In addition, with an O-III we are easily able to get the entire Veil Nebula
in one great view. Also fitting within a single field was probably one of
the best views of the entire North American Nebula that I have seen (also
with the O-III). Scanning just a bit over was the Pelican Nebula. Both
were in their full glory and made for a spectacular view. With all the
great scopes around, when the North American Nebula was in the Pronto, we
were all standing there waiting for a view. Of course, to temper this
enthusiasm, it is 70mm, and I would not bother with it on the following:
(!)
NGC5846 galaxy in Virgo. NGC5846A, a companion galaxy, is directly to the
south. ESE is NGC5850. West is NGC5845 and NGC5839. All in a slightly
curved east/west line, showing in a graceful slight arch. NGC5846 has a
semi strong moderate core, with a bright, large halo around it, the
companion almost on the southern edge of the halo (with a strong, almost
stellar point). They both lie within (on the west side) a Christmas tree or
ring looking asterism of 6 stars. NGC5850 has a strong core, with a
squashed oval shape. NGC5845 and NGC5839 are just more than stellar, with
slight, small diffuse glows around them. A very nice field, check this one
out. 91x, 118 and 168x. NGC5846 is mag 10v, SB12.3, 3'x3', RA15h06.4m, Dec
+01d36'. NGC5846A is mag 12.8v, SB10.6, .5'x.3'. NGC5845 is mag 12.5v,
SB10.8, .6'x.4'. NGC5839 is mag12.7v, SB12.9, 1.2'x1.2'. NGC5850 is mag
10.8v, SB13.8, 4.6'x4.1'.
NGC5576 galaxy in Virgo, along with NGC5574 and NGC5577. NGC5577 is faint,
elongated smudge, no sign of a core. In and out of vision is a field star
just west/center of the galaxy. At 168x, this and two others show right on
the edge of the halo. Just to the SW and NE is a nice 'ladle' asterism of
six stars. NGC5576 is to the south of NGC5577, with a strong. larger than
stellar core and a moderate circular halo. Just to the west is a field star
, which lines up almost west/east with it. To the south and west of it is
NGC5574, with a stellar core and a little "fuzz" around it. NGC5576 and
NGC5574 actually look reasonably similar (though averted vision shows
NGC5576 to be larger) and form a triangle with a star west of NGC5576. 91x,
118 and 168x. NGC5576 is mag 11.0v, SB 13, 3'x2.4', RA 14h21.2m, Dec
+03d16'. NGC5574 is mag 12.4v, SB12.1, 1.1'x.8'. NGC5577 is mag12.2v,
SB13, 2.9'x.8'.
NGC5566 galaxy in Virgo, along with NGC5560 and NGC5569. NGC5560 is NW of
NGC5566. NGC5560 is a faint thin smudge, with a star off the NW and NE tip.
NGC5566 has a bright core, with averted vision you can see a strong "shell"
around it. Right off the core, to the west and east, are two dim stars.
NGC5569 is very dim and slightly elongated. 91x, 118 and 168x. NGC5566 is
mag 10.6v, SB13.1, 5.7'x2.1', RA 14h20.3m, Dec +03d56'. NGC5569 is mag
13.2v, SB14.1, 1.8'x1.5'. NGC5560 is mag 12.4v, SB13.4, 3.7'x.8'.
NGC5364 and NGC5363 in Virgo. NGC5364 is faint, with two very dim stars to
the west. With averted vision, I do see some concentration in the center.
NGC5360 is west, very faint, no stellar aspect. Just ghost-ish. It is half
way in between NGC5364 and a brighter star. NGC5363 is bright, with a
strong core. Diffuse, flat, circular halo. A field star right off to the
east. A few very faint stars on the east and west sides are hard to hold.
91x, 118 and 168x. NGC5364 is mag 10.5v, SB14.2, 6.6'x5.1', RA 13h56.2m,
Dec +05d01m. NGC 5363 is mag 10.1v, SB 12.9, 5'x3.2'.
NGC5054 in Virgo is somewhat faint, a halo around it contains a very faint
star (15th mag?). Small and maybe a stellar core. 168x. Mag 10.9v,
SB13.6, 4.8'x2.8', RA 13h17.0m, Dec -16d38'.
NGC5866 galaxy (M102, the missing Messier) in Draco has two stars on the
western edge, another one (dim) just south. Strong, extended core,
elongated NE/SW. Averted vision brightens and extends it beyond the two
western stars mentioned. 168x. Very nice. Mag 9.9v, SB 13.1, 6.6'x3.2',
RA 15h06.5m, Dec +55d46m.
NGC6118 galaxy in Serpens, dim smudge, somewhat elongated, not much of a
core (what there is is large and blends into the halo). A handful of field
stars right around it, some seemingly in the halo. 168x. Mag 11.7v, SB
13.9, 4.6'x1.9', RA 16h21.8m, Dec -02d17'.
NGC6171 in Ophiuchus (M107), very nice globular, extremely rich. I have
written on this object before, so will spare you. When looked at with a
wide field, surrounded by a cross of stars that looks like a mini-Cygnus,
with M107 as Gamma Cyg. 91x and 121x. Mag 8.1v, 10', RA16h32.5m,
Dec -13d03'.
NGC6451 in Open Cluster in Scorpius is in an extremely rich star field,
really quite awesome. The cluster itself stands out because the outer
members are slightly brighter than the field stars. The shape of the
cluster, believe it or not, looks like an upside down heart asterism. There
is a pretty orange star just to the north of the cluster. Mag 8.2p, BR12p,
7', RA 17h50.7m, Dec -30d13'.
B90 in Sagittarius is a very distinct 'black cloud' within an extremely rich
star field. It is shaped somewhat like a musical note (that or my cold
medicine was kicking in). 3', opacity 5, RA 18h10.2m, Dec -28d19'. (while
in the area, we went to B86, the Inkblot, which continues to be one of my
favorites sights).
NGC6563 Planetary Nebula in Sagittarius is very blue, small and bright.
With the O-III at 224x, there are hints of annularity and one side (NW)
seems brighter than the other. Mag 11.0v, 48", CS 15.38v. RA 18h12.0m,
Dec-33d.52'
NGC6723 Globular Cluster in Sagittarius looks to be a very impressive
globular. But, I am to close to the horizon and seeing has gone down the
tubes. I will check this one out during my next outing. Mag 7.2v, 11',
RA18h59.6m, Dec -36d38'.
Chris
---
This message is from the AZ-Observing mailing list. If you wish to be
removed from this list, send E-mail to: AZ-Observing-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx,
with the subject: unsubscribe.
The list's archive is at: //www.freelists.org/archives/az-observing
This is a discussion list. Please send personal inquiries directly to
the message author. In other words, do not use "reply" for personal
messages. Thanks.
Other related posts:
- » [AZ-Observing] saturday night outside of Superior
