Last night was my last chance to log a few objects before the possible storms move in this weekend and take away my good skies. It wasn’t the best conditions but I’ll take it. The transparency and seeing both varied between 2-3/5. There was some mild fog but the wind picked up later in the night that kept the dew from falling but it pushed some passing clouds over. For a second I thought a thunderstorm was coming because there were some really bright flashes on the western horizon. I still don’t know what that was. Only thing I can make sense out of it is if someone was shooting off fireworks at a graduation party somewhere. Anyway, it wasn’t a thunderstorm since the radar was clean. After an hour and a half of observing time I logged 16 new objects to the logbook. I might have a small window tonight to wheel the scope out again. We’ll see!
NGC 3958: Small, elongated, bright. Surface brightness is high, about a magnitude or so brighter. It’s brigher than NGC3963 and it’s magnitude is 12.6!
NGC 3963: Faint, medium size, round. Low surface brightness. I can see some irregularity. Slight brightning in the center but no defined core. The 14th magnitude star that’s involved is stellar.
NGC 5229: Very faint, small edge on. Difficult to hold steady. I can see that it’s thin and that the surface could be slightly brigher in the middle. But as far as detail, that’s all I can see. Perhaps if it was farther away from the 7th and 9th magnitude stars in the FOV.
NGC 5308: Small but very bright and pretty edge on. Very thin. Bright core with a prominent buldge in the middle. I think I can see a dustlane underneath the core. Sits with in a bright circle asterism of stars.
NGC 5376: Very bright, elongated, small. Stellar core. Squeezes in the same FOV as NGC5379 and NGC5389.
NGC 5379: Small, faint. Hold to hold steady. I can see some elongation but cannot hold it without strain to see fine detail.
NGC 5389: Large, very bright, elongated. Bright star-like core. High surface but no detail seen. Sits about 4 arc minutes from NGC5379.
NGC 5422: Small edge on. Bright and thin. Slight buldge in the center with a bright core. Surface is close to the core with direct vision but you can see the “needle” fully with averted.
NGC 5485: Bright, medium-small, elongated. High surface. Bright “fat” core. No surface detail.
NGC 5486: Very faint and small. Hard to hold steady. Seems to have a slight brightning in the middle with slight elongation. Sits right next to brighter galaxy NGC5485.
MCG 9-23-39: Very small, faint, but easier to see than I thought. High surface brightness for it’s magnitude. Easy to hold steady. Appears round.
NGC 5963: Very bright and medium sized. High surface brightness. Galaxy is very bright in the middle. Looks like a snowball. It’s too bright to resolve a core. Sits next to NGC5965.
NGC 5965: Large, very bright. Bright core. Surface is much brigher in the center then quickly fades to the edges. The entire surface is seen with averted vision. Makes a pretty pair with NGC5963.
NGC 5969: Very small, faint but surprisenly easy to hold steady. Faintest galaxy in the FOV of 3 other galaxies.
NGC 5971: Very small, faint. Slight elongation.
NGC 5981: Wow! This edge on is insanely thin. The person who named NGC4244 the “Silver Needle” evidently never saw this galaxy yet. It’s faint but after looking at it for a moment while shielding my eyes I can see it’s entire surface without problem. Makes a wonderful triplet with brighter and larger galaxies NGC5982 and NGC5985. I logged the brighter pair 3 years ago in 2007 but didn’t notice this galaxy.
