Observing Report -- Montebello -- 21 Jan 2004
It was the first really clear Wednesday night in some time. New moon.
Cold, but not terrible. A little dew, but ditto. Usual MB light
domes. Nice large group of TACOs. I arrived a little late, but I
compensated by being the last one out.
I observed with TOBY, 10" f/6.
NGC 488 & 524 -- two galaxies in Psc. Similar in size and magnitude;
488 shows about 2:1 elongation, but 524 seems circular. Both a little
brighter in the center.
NGC 520 -- was a no-show. Must try again from a darker site.
Otto Struve 111 -- Peter McKone referred me to this one. Nice tight
double just North of Lambda Ori. Quite difficult, as the companion is
both close and dim. I could see the companion about 50% of the time.
Adhara (dbl -- back paw of CMa). Not quite as hard as OE 111, but
another close, dim companion. I remember having real trouble splitting
this in earlier years, but it was no real problem tonight. The seeing
was very good.
Asteroid 6 Hebe. Another asteroid with a recent opposition. Viewed in
10X50 binocs.
It was around 11:00 now, and my main targets were up -- H400 OCs in
Puppis.
NGC 2421 -- 2-3 doz stars, similar mag, rough triangle shape, no color
seen (but then, I'm somewhat color blind).
NGC 2482 -- 2 doz stars, roughly equal mag, also roughly triangular,
but with a dark space in interior; again, no color.
NGC 2489 -- dimmer, smaller, richer, more compact than 2482 and 2421;
lots of very dim stars, roughly circular; just a ghostly glow at low
power, starts to resolve around 90X.
I took a break by viewing NGCs 2477 and 2451 -- wonderful as always.
And there's enough color in 2451 that even I can see it.
Hind's Crimson Star (R Lep) -- dim, but another star with enough color
for me.
It was now after midnight, and I considered going home, since I had
work the next morning. But the night was just too nice. I decided to
wrap up the night with a couple of H400 objects in Pyxis, which was now
up nice and high.
NGC 2627 -- a small dim OC, roughly triangular, long and narrow;
brightest star at the apex, several brighter stars along the major
axis, otherwise mostly very dim stars, 2 dozen or more.
NGC 2613 -- galaxy in Pyxis, easy location east of Rho. Not too small,
but dim and low surface brightness. Barely seen in 17mm eyepiece, but
better in 9mm; need AV to see the extent. Elongated roughly E/W. A
little, but not much brighter in the center.
I finally packed up around 1:00. Everyone else had left earlier. I
was dreading leaving a little bit, because it would mean fiddling the
lock in the cold and dark, and there had been rumors that all three
locks had been left in the locked position. But someone had kindly
unlocked the TAC lock, so all I had to do was close the gate and snap
the lock shut. Thanks to my anonymous benefactor.
It was a very nice change from all of the clouds recently -- 6 solid
hours of clear skies, and good seeing if not super darkness.
Bob J.
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