Last Thursday night I got to do some of what Richard Navarrete calls
renegade astronomy, going out to a fairly remote site on a weeknight.
There were two other folks there whom I met for the first time, Jim
Molinari and Jeff Justisson. People do come to the Peak from all
over. They were at Coulter Row, where I headed for the SW lot, having
business in the northern sky.
Overt news is that I finished the Eye Candy List compiled by our own
Astro Goddess and Joe Bob, formatted by Jeff Crilly, with rooting and
minor input from me. So I've now seen the objects in the Saguaro
list, along with Alan Dyer's RASC list that gets into the Observer's
Handbook, and the Steve Caron list. Excellent objects across the set.
Most interesting object that night was NGC 3432 in Leo Minor, an easy
Telrad hop from nekked eye stars. Looked all spangly at first sight
with 3 foreground stars across the galaxy's face. On study, looked
like a long rag with a sharp disk and a tuft at the western end.
Looking at SkyAtlas Companion, it mentioned a dwarf companion. Sure
enough, Uranometria 2000 shows UGC 5983 right where I spotted the
tuft. Deepsky Field Guide gives an SB of 14, which makes it plausible
in Felix.
(Felix is a Celestron 11" f/4.5 Dobs with optics made by Discovery
Telescopes. Was using a 22 Pan, 16mm UO Koenig, 10mm and 6mm Radians.)
Had mentioned this find to Gottlieb, who was curious because NED
gives the dwarf a magnitude of around 17. I've decided to claim it,
on account of a) I spotted it without expecting it, no averted
imagination, b) UM2000 and the DSS picture put the thing right where
I saw it, and c) I can believe the DSFG numbers.
The other galaxies in the last 4 of the ECL were all long, mostly
edge-on and pretty: 4605 a bright long spindle with lots of mottling
in UMa, 3003 in LMi, and 5726 a cool long needle with bright core in
the SE corner of Virgo, over the border from M5. Jardine had
scratched his head over 3003, and I understood why. In an 11" it
didn't look like the (!) it rates in the NGC. Sure enough, NSOG
mentions how it benefits from aperture. Hafta mooch a view sometime.
Saturn and Jupiter were both lovely and remarkable. Jupiter had one
of those alignments Jan Meeus predicts, with all the Galileans on one
side and Ganymede, Io and Callisto on a tight diagonal. The GRS was
at the west edge of the disk.
Another noteworthy sight was a close set of 4 galaxies just south of
46 LMi: 3430, 3413, and 3395-6. The last two look as if they're
interacting and in fact are.
Sky was OK, with haze overhead and bands of cirrus moving thru,
limiting magnitude right at 5.0. Better than in town. Seeing was
good, 4/5. Could see the Encke discontinuity 20% of the time at 210x,
6 stars easy in the Trapezium at 126x.
Ended up staring at M5 in its wild ragged beauty. The Peak was quiet
with a light breeze in the oaks. Fairly warm and dry. Nice night.
Hope the Terrible Trio have big fun in Oz.
Clear skies,
Jamie
Received on Mon Apr 4 22:45:10 2005