Session Name: 200425
Observer: Sam
Site: 29 Quedo (Obs)
Started: Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 8:27 PM
Finished: Saturday, April 25, 2020 at 10:23 PM
Seeing: 2. F – Brighter planets obviously twinkling
Transparency: 2 – Can only see Polaris
Session Notes:
Goal: Herschels
Forecasts all over the map, even at 6 PM. Actual conditions poor:
* Transparency: lots of high cirrus
* Seeing: 8mm out of reach for all but Venus; 13mm barely useful early on. By 10 PM stars twinkling through focus in 26mm.
Fans on at 8:35.
Polaris/Procyon in 8mm w/Alignment error -0.432
Lots of high clouds, especially in NW – SE. Possibly also in E: sky is dark and stars are dim.
Quit at 10:00 PM: transparency too poor, seeing too poor, seeing too unstable
SQM-L @ 10:12
Z – 21.11
E – 21.26
S – 20.97
W – 21.01
N – 20.95
ID: Venus
Type: Planet
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 20:42; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 8mm: Large, beautiful ~ 1/8 crescent with full disk outlined. Splendid sight.
ID: Moon
Type: Moon
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 20:44; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 8mm: ~3 day crescent. Lots of image boil. Partial aperture loss to west wall.
ID: NGC4654
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: II-126; Mag: 10.5
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:15; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. elliptical. gently bright to center, but mostly uniform. AV suggests some structure, but can’t pull it out. Shares fov with fainter gal NGC4639.
ID: NGC4639
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: SAC9860; Mag: 11.5
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:17; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. brighter toward center. Involves star in halo. Isolated from brighter stars. Shares fov with brighter gal NGC4654.
ID: NGC4689
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Com
Name: II-128; Mag: 10.9
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:23; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. faint, fuzzy, round. No evident brightening toward center. AV suggestion of structure. Believe some high cirrus.
13mm: Very gently brighter toward center. Round. <1/20 fov. Nothing else in fov.
ID: NGC4654
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: II-126; Mag: 10.5
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:27; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 13mm: Impression of being irregular. Focus hard, image dim.
ID: NGC4660
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: II-71; Mag: 10.9
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:31; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. small. very suddenly brighter toward center. elliptical (just). ~1/2 fov from M60.
13mm: very suddenly brighter toward center. When centered M60 out of fov.
ID: NGC2403
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Cam
Name: V-44; Mag: 8.4
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:31; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. Faint, fat, elliptical. Impression large, but DV under 1/20 fov. Looks to involve a dim *, pegged between two brighter field stars. Takes up nearly full distance between field stars.
13mm: not quite round. no brightening toward center: uniform brightness. Very ethereal appearance.
ID: NGC4535
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: II-500; Mag: 10
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:40; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. Largish (~1/20 fov). round. Gauzy. Gently brighter toward center or an involved star and no brightening toward center.
13mm: large, gauzy/nebulous. At least 3 involved stars. no evident brightening toward center.
ID: NGC4754
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: II-74; Mag: 10.5
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:44; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. not quite round to elliptical suddenly brighter toward center. center a disk. Oriented NNE/SSW. Shares fov with NGC4762 ~1/6 fov.
ID: NGC4762
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: SAC9914; Mag: 10.3
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:44; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 26mm Nagler Type 5; Magnification: 82x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. flat. spindle/needle. Bulge toward center, but this might just be brightening of nucleus. Suddenly brighter toward center.
ID: NGC4526
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Vir
Name: I-31; Mag: 9.6
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:50; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 13 mm: gal. Strongly elliptical. Very suddenly brighter toward disc-like nucleus. Very poor seeing: very hard to get a focus (what focus can get is not stable). Midway between two bright field stars about 1/2 fov apart. Inclined ~30 deg relative to line between field stars. Orientation E/W: probably close to NNE/SSE. ~1/10 – 1/15 fov in long dim
ID: NGC2787
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: UMa
Name: I-216; Mag: 10.8
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:55; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 13mm: gal. elliptical. suddenly brighter toward center. small. on baseline of isoceles tri, formed of three mid-brightness field stars, close to one of the vertices. [tri stars are UCAC4-797-019082, UCAC4-797-019629, UCAC4-797-019107 @ 11.8m, 11.8m, 12.3m]
ID: NGC3147
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: Dra
Name: I-79; Mag: 10.7
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:58; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 13mm: gal. round. suddenly brighter toward center. center/nucleus is disk-like: 1/8 gal. No features. Sky is bright. Focus is hard.
ID: NGC2985
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: UMa
Name: I-78; Mag: 10.6
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 21:00; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 13mm: gal. elliptical. suddenly brighter toward center. center elongated with gal. Orientation: NS
ID: M81
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: UMa
Name: SAC8956; Mag: 6.9
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 22:05; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 13mm: gal. Elliptical. Large: ~1/6 fov in long dimension. Bright core, also extended.
26mm: bright. large. ~1/10 fov.
ID: M82
Type: Galaxy; Constellation: UMa
Name: SAC8958; Mag: 8.4
Date: 2020-04-25 @ 22:08; Telescope: Dob; Eyepiece: 13mm Ethos; Magnification: 163x.
Observations: 26mm: gal. Elliptical. Long: ~1/10 – 1/12 fov. Some evidence of structure. With AV can get sense of lane cutting across short dimension. ~3/4 fov from M81
Focus is very rough even in 26mm.