Thursday
I arrived Thursday evening after work. Just in time to set the trailer up, roll the scope out, and snag an amazing pulled pork and coleslaw sandwich from Mrs. Dee(she’s the BEST). The skies looked great as the sun set and remained very transparent throughout the night. Seeing wasn’t at it’s best but it was observable at low power. There were periods throughout the night when the seeing improved temporarily. I began the night observing planetary nebulae then turned the scope over to Pisces for some galaxies. Comet Hartley and Tempel 1 looked great on this night. I was in bed shortly after 2am to return to work Friday. Due to the number of log entries, here are some of the highlights and accomplishments from that night.

PM 1-333: This is a fantastic object and most certainly bright and large enough to be an NGC. I first observed this in Roy’s 18″ scope down the field. In his scope the PN was egg-shaped with a possible inner filament detail similar to NGC3242. In my scope I can see an elongation in the surface but no filament. Great response to an OIII filter. Sits in the same FOV as the famous red Herschell’s Garnet Star.

He 2-441: Very pretty! Visible as a tiny blue disk at 92x. Very bright. Looked the same but larger at 330x, kept it’s color. 884x was a total wash out from the seeing conditions. Responds very well with an OIII.

M1-5: Faint and stellar unfiltered. Good response to blinking a filter but not great. Difficult to pinpoint at first. Rich starfield.

M2-55: Small but large for a Minkowski planetary nebula. Faint but detectable as a grey disk at 123x unfiltered on top of 2 bright stars. Responds great with an OIII filter. Bright and easy filtered. It looked annular at 123x filtered. At 201x it appeared dumbell shaped and mottled but no annularity. 330x was too much power.

M 1-58: Tiny, stellar at low power. Literally invisible without a filter. Very bright while blinking an OIII. Bright non-stellar grey disk at 330x. Responds exceptionally well with an OIII filter. Mildly with an Ultrablock. A neat “mouth” of stars sits above it, looks like it’s hungry.

Sp 4-1: I did not expect this to be so easy. Very bright, tiny, almost stellar at 92x. Blinked very well with an OIII filter. Appears star-like and steady at 330x. Sits right above a bright 10th magnitude star.

Ba 1: Quite small, round, and very faint. Requires averted vision and a nebula filter to see it. Appears as a ghostly diffused disk. Responds the same with an OIII and Ultrablock. I prefer the OIII. Invisible without a filter.

NGC 151: Large, elongated, and very bright. Oval shaped. High surface brightness. Hints of spiral structure and a bar at the core. Possible HII region embedded.

NGC 7332: Gorgeous pair of edge on galaxies. Very pretty against the rich starfield. This galaxy is the brightest. It’s very bright, large, and thin with a bright core region. Surface brightness is like 10th magnitude. Very high surface brightness! Sits next to a bright star.
Friday
I pulled back in the field sometime after 6 when I was off work. Dee had just finished cooking tilapia, scalloped potatos, and stewed tomatos. She knows how to feed hungry stargazers! Friday night was probably the best of the event overall. The transparency and the seeing were both great early on. The seeing degraded unfortunately later in the night. Sometime around 1:30am my battery died on my telescope and my optics dewed up. I swapped the battery but couldn’t revive my secondary mirror so I had to call it a night early. I did manage to see some pretty neat objects. I mainly focused on nebulae on the beginning of the night. Here are some of the highlights.

IC 1318: Huge and faint nebulae unfiltered that’s involved in a bright rectangle of stars. Weak response to an OIII but strong response with an H-beta. Bright with a filter. There is a large bright chunk of nebulosity inside the rectangle with a bright knot. On the left of the bottom 2 bright stars there’s another piece of nebulosity that’s not as bright but near the same in size. Confirmed by Kent Blackwell. Later observed in Roy’s 18″.

Sh 2-101: Large, faint, diffused nebula. Visible unfiltered as a slight background brightness difference. With an OIII the brightness difference turns into very faint nebulosity. Under 2 bright stars there’s a somewhat bright chunk of nebulosity. I have to position the bright stars in the edge of the FOV in order to see it better. I don’t see any significant response with an H-beta.

Sh 2-104: Very faint. On the edge of averted vision. Visible as a round dim glow surrounding a couple faint stars. Perfectly round.

WR 134: Very large and bright. It makes a “swoop” shape. It stars off narrow on the bottom of the FOV and by the time it gets to the top it broadens and fans out. Some motting visible with a filament on the left edge. Great object. Responds very well to an OIII. No response to an H-beta.

M 1-1: Faint and stellar at 123x. Blinks mildly to a filter but it confirms it’s existence. Visible as a faint grey disk at 330x with a slight brightning in the middle.
Saturday
Saturday was a day for me to chill out and sleep in late. Dee cooked us up a western omelette with bacon and ham…boy was I full. I left the field to visit my girlfriend and make a withdraw at the bank. Why would I mention the bank? Well I purchased an LXD-75 from the morning “Swap Meet”! It’s a fine mount and holds my 5″ F/8 refractor with no sweat. I’ve been wanting to buy a new mount for it for a long time. It’s about time I did! Saturday was a wet, dewy night. The transparency was excellent but the seeing was mostly poor. The fog rolled in early and took out most of the telescopes in the field, including mine since my battery died again(realized it was no good anymore). Kent suggested a great idea that brought my secondary mirror  heater closer to the mirror and it worked great. After several minutes my optics cleared right up! I spent most of the night looking at galaxies and learning my new mount. It was pretty accurate with the rough polar allignment and goto’d objects almost center of the FOV at 150x. I was pretty happy with it. As soon as I mounted my camera on the back for a quick exposure, the optics dewed up literally instantly. DARN IT! Well, here are some highlights(if you didn’t get that by now!)

M 1-80: Tiny, faint grey disk unfiltered. Requires averted vision to be non-stellar. Responds very well to blinking an OIII filter. At 330x it remained as a grey disk with no characteristic detail. It sits only arc seconds away from a bright 10th magnitude star.

MCG 12-3-1: Quite big, elongated, faint. Diffused and ghostly. Low surface brightness. Slight brightening in the center. Rich starfield.

NGC 1032: Small-medium sized galaxy. Tight bright core. Surface is bright around the core then quickly fades. The surface grows with averted vision. Surface seems somewhat brighter to the left of the core.

NGC 1337: Large and long edge on galaxy. Bright, the surface is brighter on the bottom than it is on the top. Surface brightness is low for it’s magnitude. Hints of mottling detected.

Tonight I strictly logged galaxies. It’s been a while since I focused on them. I spent most of my night between Capricornus and Equuleus. I was able to log all NGC galaxies in Equuleus tonight but that’s not necessarily an accomplishment since there’s only 3! I looked at a lot of galaxies with faint magnitudes but they turned out to be pretty bright. The dark black background was most definitely a help! I ended the night after midnight with an excellent view of Jupiter and taking a few photos with my point and shoot camera. Below are my logs from tonight accompanied with DSS photos of each object, for something a little different.

MCG -2-51-4: Very small, very faint, requires averted vision and positioning the 7th magnitude star outside the FOV to see. Elongated with low surface brightness.
 

NGC 6898: Tiny, faint, round. Brighter in the center. Sits rougly an arc minute from a 12th magnitude star. Could not see 14.6 magnitude galaxy NGC6897 in the same FOV.

NGC 6903: Bright medium sized galaxy with a bright star involved. Surface is high and perfectly round. Significantly brighter in the center.

NGC 6907: Large, beautiful, somewhat irregular galaxy with a faint core. Very bright with strong spiral structure. Surface is oval and brightness variates throughout the galaxy. I’m seeing a bright elongated patch that looks disconnection from the galaxy on the bottom right. ST3 doesn’t list any other galaxy in sight. There is another very faint elongation on the top left of the galaxy that’s only visible with averted vision. I’m seeing a couple bright knots in the galaxy’s spirals that could be HII regions. It’s definitely an odd ball but an eye jewel at the same time!
After reviewing the DSS photo I realized the patches I described were a part of it’s very unusual spiral arm. My view was flipped compared to this image due to the image shift of a reflector telescope and rotation in the sky

IC 1319: Very small but fairly bright considering it’s magnitude. High surface brightness. Seems slightly elongated. Detectable with direct vision. Sits several arc minutes from a 8th magnitude star. While I was observing this galaxy a tumbling satellite whizzed by the FOV.

NGC 6912: Very small, faint. Requires averted vision. Surface brightness is about a magnitude fainter than it is. The nearby 15th magnitude galaxy IC1319 is brighter!

NGC 7015: Quite small, bright, round. Surface is high and slightly brighter in the center. With averted vision I think I see a stellar core. There’s a faint star just off the edge.

NGC 7040: Real small but bright. Elongated, I’m surprised since it’s almost 15th magnitude. It’s surface brightness is about 13-13.5. There seems to be a stellar star involved off center.

IC 1364: Very small, elongated, quite bright. It’s held steady with direct vision…even inside a group of stars between 7th and 9th magnitude.

IC 1365: This galaxy is a small very faint elongated glow underneath an asterism that resembles a keystone. Low surface brightness.

NGC 7046: Small, fairly bright, round. This galaxy has a diffused glow to it. Slightly brighter in the center.

LEDA 162304: Tiny, faint, but held steady 80% of the time surprisenly. Did not expect to see this galaxy at all. I was initially shooting for nearby spiral galaxy PGC 64548, which would of been neat to see since it has a 9th magnitude double star involved. I’m thrilled to log my first LEDA galaxy nonetheless.

-CJ
http://www.avertedvision.net

I knew tonight was going to be a good one. Usually after a coastal storm is when I get the most transparent nights of the year. Tonight was one of those scenarios. It’s been very windy all day but it slowed to a hault at sundown. Leaving no wind or dew for me tonight. All I had was a beautiful transparent night with so-so seeing. Today I created an observing list of some large nebulae of interest. I was able to see a few tonight. A couple were possible observations but need further confirmation before logging. I logged a little bit of everything. Diffuse nebulae, dark nabuel, planetary nebulae, galaxies, and open clusters. The highlight tonight was the PN Minkowski 3-34. Below are my logs from tonight with my 14.5″

MCG 1-46-3: Low ghostly surface but the galaxy is visible with direct vision. There’s a faint star involved that makes the galaxy look like it’s shooting off from it, which is pretty cool.

NGC 6962: Pretty small and bright. Surface brightness is par to it’s magnitude. Surface is oval and brighter in the center. Bright core.

NGC 6963: Tiny, very faint, requires averted vision to hold steady. Sits in the NGC6962 galaxy group

NGC 6964: Small, faint, elongated. Surface is brighter in the center. Sits about an arc minute away from NGC6862.

NGC 6967: Tiny, bright, slightly elongated. Surface brightness is high for it’s magnitude. Slightly brighter brighter in the center. Sits several arc seconds away from a 14th magnitude star.

M 3-34: Wow! This PN is great! It’s tiny but very bright with a slight blue/green hue. Visible as a smooth disk at 123x. Mild response to an Ultrablock filter but strong response to an OIII. At 330x it remained as a round smooth disk. 884x reveiled surface brightness irregularity and bi-polar-like characteristics. It’s not a perfect round disk. I swear I was seeing it’s central star too at this power but ST3 says it’s 16.3 magnitude. I don’t want to second guess myself, I was definitely seeing something.

PN G030.6+06.2: Very faint nebulous patch that sits just under center of 2 bright stars. Invisible unfiltered. An irregular diffused nebulous thumb print is visible with an OIII. Not certain how bright the central star is but unfiltered I can detect a couple fairly bright stars near center.

IC 4685: Huge patch of nebulosity divided by 2 sections. Detectable unfiltered, bright with. Responds both to an OIII and H-Beta. The nebulosity seems easier with the H-Beta but larger with the OIII. With the OIII I can see a dark nebula on the direct left hand side of the main 7th magnitude star. I can’t see this with the H-Beta. Neat and bright line of stars to the right of the 7th magnitude star.

Black Hole Nebula(B92?): Large, very dense and dark. Triangular shaped. I stumbled upon this looking for a Sharpless object. Fascinating dark nebula.

Collinder 469: Small faint patch of stars. Even though it’s small, over-looked, and faint, it’s quite rich with resolved faint stars. Sits in the same FOV as the Black Hole nebula.

-CJ
http://www.avertedvision.net

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.

It wasn’t supposed to be clear tonight but things turned out for the better. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky. Since there were no moisture the transparency was killer. The seeing was good too. I wish I could of stayed out longer but I’m up with only a few hours of sleep. I had a long day so my bed is calling. I had a good refreshing hour long session. Within the hour I logged 11 new galaxies.

NGC 3790: Tiny but surprisenly bright. Surface brightness is about a magnitude or so brighter. Elongated.

NGC 3801: Bright elongated oval. Surface is high with no detail. Has an elliptical appeal. Sits in a small cluster of galaxies in Leo. I can see NGC3790 and NGC3802. I cannot see NGC3806. NGC3801 is the brightest of the cluster.

NGC 3802: Tiny, faint but I can hold it with averted vision. Elongated. Sits right underneat NGC3801. This galaxy is the faintest of the 3 galaxies I can see in this Leo cluster.

NGC 3884: Small, faint with some elongation in the surface. The galaxy is difficult to see with the very bright 7th magnitude star right next to it.

NGC 3883: Bright with a high surface brightness. Bright core. I can see some surface irregularity. The 9th magnitude star SAO81980 looks pink to me.

NGC 3937: Bright and medium sized. Has a very bright over powering core. It’s hard to see much of the surface because of the core. Requires averted vision to see it entirely. I can pick up some slight elongation but that’s it.

NGC 3940: Small, bright, and round. Bright core. High surface.

NGC 3943: Small, perfectly round, faint. Sits right next to a 7th magnitude star.

NGC 3947: Very small, faint. Surface brightness is about par. Some elongation. Slightly brighter in the center.

NGC 3954: Very small, bright, appears round. Bright core.

MCG 4-28-93: Tiny, very faint, hard to hold steady with averted vision. Near stellar.

Hopefully tomorrow will turn out to be good. I could use another night out.

-CJ

Thursday

I arrived late thursday evening after getting off work and packing up the trailer. I setup camp and had a delicious pulled pork dinner with my dear Back Bay Astro friends Kent, Roy & Dee, Ted, Ray, and Bruce. Skies were beautiful, clear, and dry. At sunset we were treated by a pretty sight with a very young moon with Venus not too far from it.

It was clear the entire night without a cloud in sight. The transparency was so-so. Sky looked good at zenith but the sky near the horizon was very thick. Seeing varied between poor and fair through the night. As Kent sarcasticly said earlier “Short plane contrails, that’s a good sign” . The night was surprisenly dry, which is very rare for this spot as the humidity is always in the 90s at night. I was in bed just after 2am as I still had to go to work on Friday, which they were kind enough to give me a few hours in the morning for me to come in late. I found myself socializing a lot that night to catch up with old friends down the field. I did manage to log 22 new objects, all being galaxies. Because of the amount of objects, I’ll only post my favorites of the night.

NGC 3692: Quite small and thin edge on. Bright with high surface brightness. No core but there is a slight central buldge. Some variation in the surface.

IC 2853: Very small, bright. Sits just arcseconds away from a bright 10th magnitude star. Also sits in a small galaxy group with several other IC galaxies.

IC 696: Very small, faint. One of the faintest but largest from the small IC galaxy group in Leo.

IC 698: Small and bright. Brightest of the small IC galaxy group by NGC 3705. High surface for it’s magnitude. Slightly elongated.

IC 699: Very small, vaguely bright, and elongated. I’d say this one is the 2nd brightest from the small IC group.

NGC 3799: Very small, fairly bright. Easy to hold steady with averted vision. At first glimpse it looks like it’s attached to near by galaxy NGC3800 but then separates after a minute. Only thing that makes it hard to see it is because of the 12th magnitude star and 13th magnitude galaxy that it’s squeezed between.

NGC 3800: Small, bright, elongated. Edge on-like. Surface seems right on the dot for it’s magnitude. Easy to see the whole surface. No core but a slight brightening in the middle. I can also see NGC3799 about an arc minute away. 

NGC 3816: Small, bright, elongated. Bright core. High surface brightness. Brightness varies. I’m definately seeing strong mottling in the galaxy. The detail is more prominent at 330x. I had first thought it was spiral structure but ST3 lists it as a lenticular galaxy. I’ll have to pull up a DSS image when I’m home to confirm what exactly I’m looking at. 

NGC 5899: Great galaxy, did not mean to find it but I’m glad I did! Very bright and elongated with high surface brightness. There is mottling in the surface. Surprised how bright it is even with a 6th magnitude star in the FOV.

NGC 6070: Quite large, bright oval glow. Low surface brightness. Hints of spiral structure detected. Spirals were easier at lower power than with high. Resembles a small version of M33. 6.7 magnitude star in the FOV.

Friday

After I got back to the field from work I noticed the sky was pretty overcast and the wind was vicious. The rain conveniently started as soon as we started eating dinner. Tilapia steaks, scallop potatos, peas, and cornbread. The food was so good, the weather didn’t dampen our spirts a bit…but it did dampen our shirts. It remained rainy and very windy the whole night. It was definitely a social night and a free night’s sleep. We did enjoy a pretty sun ray sunset just before dinner.

Saturday

Saturday was a new day. The sun came out, the rain left, but the wind stuck around. The temperature was much cooler. Instead of shorts and t-shirts like the day before, we were bundled up in coats and hats. All the large dobs turned into anemonetors for the day as they swung around to show us the wind direction. Thankfully no dobs toppled over this time. I went out for a several mile walk through Tuckahoe’s long and pretty trails then took a much needed nap when I got back to camp. There was a lot of passing cumulus clouds in the afternoon but they all dissipated after dinner at sun down. Skies were very transparent but the seeing was poor. There were a few periods of “ok” seeing late in the night when the wind died down. The moon was up until around 11pm-12am. I setup in front of a semi-truck trailer, which conveniently blocked the moonlight from me and some wind.

I started off with bright galaxies I’ve yet to see in Virgo because of the moonlight and worked my way down to fainter galaxies. Before calling it a night just after 4am I was able to log 42 new objects. Below are just the hightlights.

C/2009 K5 (McNaught):Large, very bright comet. Bright halo with a very wide fanned tail pointing approx. 10 o’clock.

81P/Wild: Real bright but not quite as bright as comet McNaught and about half the size. Bright dominant core. Comet sits in the same FOV as the bright galaxy NGC5493.

C/2007 Q3 (Siding Spring): Small, faint comet. Seems evenly lit. Looks similar to a 14th magnitude galaxy. No discernable tail. Comet was hard to hold at 123x but looked a lot better at 201x. 2 bright stars point almost directly at it. Comet sits right next to the bright 12th magnitude star. Kent, Ray, and Roy all enjoyed the view.

NGC 5873: Very small, bright, non-stellar PN. No color. Low power it appears as a small grey snowball. High power there’s a slight brightening in the middle and fading somewhat to the edge. No central star. Responds exceptionally well to filters. Best with an OIII.

NGC 4535: Big, very bright, magnificant face on spiral galaxy. Faint but fat core with 2 stars involved in the surface close to it. Strong spirals detected with a couple faint knots.

NGC 3003: Very large cigar-like galaxy. Very bright with a surface magnitude of about 10. There’s a brightening in the middle with a few bright knots in the surface. With the moon out and 30mph wind gusts, it’s difficult to concentrate on this at zenith for detail.

NGC 3662: Great galaxy. Bright, medium sized, oval, and elongated. Real bright core. Surface is high with brightness irregularity. A few knots is suspected. Kent and Roy enjoyed the view.

NGC 4183: Large and bright edge on galaxy. Surface is high and I can see it entirely with averted vision. Quite thin with a buldge in the center. Star involved.

NGC 4216: Absolutely incredible. Extremely bright galaxy with a core so bright I first thought it was a bright star involved. Galaxy is very large in size, elongated, and appears nearly edge on. There’s 2 bright knots the same distance on opposite sides of the core. Approx 2 arc minutes away on each size. The surface seems to cut off on top of the core. Either it’s a dust lane on the edge or because of the tilt of the galaxy. Another edge on is in the fov, NGC4206.

NGC 4298: Medium-large, bright. Surface is high. No spirals detected. Makes a beautiful pair with NGC4302.

NGC 4762: Absolutely breathtaking galaxy. Very bright, fully edge on with a super high surface brightness. Needle thin, looks like a shish-ka-bob with a bight small buldge around the core. Rich star field.

I had a great time! Can’t wait until September!

-CJ
http://www.avertedvision.net

PGC 20235: Tiny but a lot easier to see than I expected. Bright for it’s magnitude. Visible as a tiny fuzzy ball.

MCG 12-7-28: Very faint and small edge on galaxy. I cannot hold it steady with averted vision. Surface brightness is low and diffused. Surface seems slighty brighter in the middle. Sits between 2 bright stars. I can see 2 other galaxies in the FOV PGC 20235 and MCG 12-7-32.

MCG 12-7-32: Small and very bright. Almost perfectly round. Near stellar bright core. Surface brightness is high and some hints of variation is suspected. Almost outshines the 6th magnitude star that sits next to it!

NGC 2357: Small, very thin edge on. Very faint with low surface brightness. Difficult but possible to hold steady. Rich starfield.

NGC 3872: Very bright, oval, with high surface brightness. Medium sized. Very bright core. Could not see the nearby 14th magnitude galaxy MCG 2-30-36.

NGC 4293: Very large, extremely bright, just spectacular galaxy. Surface is long and elongated. Lots of detail and mottling in the surface. Small distinct core near center. I think I can see the surface bend, like if it’s not completely straight. I’ll have to look at a DSS image later to confirm that.

NGC 4357: Vaguely bright, medium sized galaxy with a stellar core. Surface is pretty low and diffused. Slight brightening in the middle.

NGC 4395: For being almost 11th magnitude, I expected more. Galaxy is large but very faint and ghostly. Visible as an elongated glow on the edge of averted vision to hold.

M 3-4: Small, faint, round disk. Stellar at low power because of it’s low surface brightness. Mild response to filters. Blinks better with the Orion Ultrablock filter better than the OIII. Nebula is a non-stellar gray disk at 330x, easier to see without the filter. I can hold it steady with aveted vision but it’s tough. There’s a tight pair of faint stars next to the nebula. Without proper finding charts you could easily mistaken the glow for the PN.

NGC 4401: With an Orion Ultrablock filter in I can see an HII region from NGC4395. I’m certain it’s this one judging by it’s placement. Quite bright with a filter but tiny in size.

   I’ve been getting excited from all the good weather we’ve had for the local star party hosted at Tuckahoe State Park, that’s coming up in a few weeks. A cold front with storms is conveniently predicted to blow through the weekend before. That same week a high pressure will follow the stormy low resulting in clear skies. I’m hoping that will stick for the weekend or push later in the week. We haven’t had a completely clear star party since the spring of 2006, which was spectacular but the worst dew and frost I have ever experienced. All I can do is hope, pray, and wait.

-CJ Wood
http://www.avertedvision.net

Below are the new open clusters I logged tonight and a photo I took of the moon with my DSLR.

NGC 1778: Somewhat small, sparse, and quite bright with the moon out. I can’t see any of it’s fainter members. I’m sure it’s more impressive on a dark night with no high clouds.

NGC 1893: Faint, sparse OC. I can only see it’s several of it’s brightest members with the moon out. They form an asteric shape that looks like the Adobe Acrobat logo.

Collinder 97: Large, bright, sparse with about a dozen stars. The OC is boxed in by 4 bright stars. One of them being a pretty blue double.

Collinder 106: Very large and pretty OC. Bright, sparse, and rich. I can see around 2 dozen stars stars. There’s a string of stars that flows away from the OC.

Collinder 107: Large, very bright with about a dozen prominent stars. Reminds me of M44 with the triangular shapes of the stars that’s involved.

Bochum 1: Large, bright, and sparse. Rich starfield. It’s hard to tell what stars are apart of the OC and which arn’t.

Friday was another good night. Transparency was excellent but the seeing wasn’t as great as the previous nights. Though it was still acceptable and was able to pull 330x just fine. Since the moon was up until just after 11pm, I stayed in to watch a movie until about a quarter til’ 11. The moon was low but still emitted too much glow to bag some faint ones. I started the night off knocking out the remaining Herschell 400 open clusters in Puppis and surrounding areas, bringing me to 362 of the 400 objects logged.

Once the moon set I turned my scope towards some galaxies around Leo. I bagged a few before my body said “Enough!”. There were a few great highlights of the night like NGC 3044 and NGC 3814. Below are my newly logged objects.

NGC 3044: Gorgeous edge on galaxy. As thin and sharp as Reese Witherspoon’s chin. Very bright and big. Surface is high and near even the whole way through with mottling. No prominent dust lane. I used 123x, 201x, 276x, and 330x. Looked best at low power.

NGC 3813: Wow! Very bright galaxy with a high surface brightness. Surface is elongated with heavy mottling. I’m not sure if I can see defined spirals or not, there is a good deal of strong detail nonetheless. Stellar core.

NGC 3941: Dang! I first thought this galaxy was a star it’s so bright! The core is extremely bright and star-like. Galaxy is also very bright with a super high surface brightness. No detail seen in the surface but it does appear brighter 7 o’clock from the core. Surface is oval.

MCG 9-22-96: Tiny and bright. Slightly elongated. Surface is brightest in the middle. Sits in the same FOV as NGC5278 and NGC5279.

NGC 5278: Small, bright, round. Surface brightness is about par to it’s magnitude and even. No sign of a core. Makes a pretty tight pair with NGC5279.

NGC 5279: Very small, faint. Requires averted vision to see steady. Surface is very high compared to it’s magnitude, it’s surprisenly easy to see. Surface is also even with no distinct brightening. Appears more oval and elongated than NGC5278.

NGC 2489: Pretty small for an OC. Bright and sparse. There’s an odd and large formation that looks like Gumby, the OC in involved in the asterism.

NGC 2527: Pretty, large, and bright OC of 20+ stars. There’s a neat tight bunch of about 8 stars in there. Very rich starfield.

NGC 2567: A very pretty, rich, and tight OC. Bright with over 2 dozen stars resolved. Faint background glow behind the main stars. There’s a prominent “M” or “3″ shape in this OC.

NGC 2571: Small, bright tight bunch of about a dozen bright stars. Not very impressive.

NGC 2627: Small, somewhat faint, but pretty cluster. Tight and rich. Faint patch of resolved background stars behind the several brighter main stars.

-Cj

http://www.avertedvision.net