adarshajoisa
February 5th, 2019, 02:51 PM
This is my 2nd observing report here, after a 2 year break. I had been spending most of my time revisiting objects I had observed earlier, and letting others observe with my 16 inch. The last weekend, me and a friend decided to try out a new site and observe for 2 nights over the weekend. The first night was mostly cloudy and hazy, so I spent the night showing the brighter objects to people at the location (M42, etc), and revisiting a few of the brighter DSOs. The second night was relatively clear, and I decided to look at some objects I hadn't seen before. There were a few other guests who had come to the guest house, and looked interested in the telescope and what we were doing, so I spent a while talking to them and showing them a few Messiers with the 16". The later part of the night, I observed a few new objects, and revisited a few old ones with my friend. Below are my observing notes of the objects new to me. I used my 16" Lightbridge, and an 18mm Delite eyepiece (with a few objects also observed with a 7mm Delite). I've only logged the objects new to me here. The sky condition was variable, with the NELM around the 5.5 mark, with some moving high clouds. This ended up with some bright objects being quite dim, while others looked spectacular over the course of the night.
NGC 4656 - (Hockey stick) - (This is one of the galaxies I've been meaning to observe for a few years, but I've always missed out) - Bright galaxy, starts abruptly with a bright knot and slowly fades until a notch turned upward at the end. Bright and big.
NGC 4631 - (Whale) - (This is another one of the galaxies I've always wanted to observe, but never ended up observing) - 4361 is a large, spectacular galaxy, edge on, extremely bright, with structure visible. There's a bright star touching it, and NGC 4627 quite obvious nearby, like a mid sized smudge. On a second look, I think I noticed a flapper kind of structure at the front end of the "whale", but this is unconfirmed.
NGC 4244 - (Silver Needle) - Extremely large, bright, silver galaxy. Almost equal thickness throughout. Spectacular!
NGC 4618 - 4618 is a large barred spiral, with a large and prominent bar, one tight spiral arm, and one loosely flung out arm. NGC 4625 is a small faint blob, appears spread out in one direction away from NGC 4618 (I later saw that in the DSS image, it appears to be spread out towards NGC 4618)
NGC 4490 - (Cocoon) - Large, bright galaxy with a bright core, elongated. One edge curves towards NGC 4485. NGC 4485 is small, much dimmer, and slightly elongated perpendicular to NGC 4490.
NGC 2672 - Very faint. At 7mm, resolves into 2 close by nuclei. The brighter galaxy, 2672, has a halo around it. Smaller galaxy, NGC 2673 is fuzzy and stellar.
NGC 3158 - Very faint smudge. No shape discernable. NGC 3163 in the field.
PGC 28764 - Edge of visibility, elongated. Popped in and out of view a few times. A fainter galaxy popped into view once, also elongated. Unconfirmed (I could only see these galaxies when my telescope shook. They were otherwise invisible, so I've kept these 2 as unconfirmed. I need to revisit them under better conditions)
NGC 3666 - Relatively faint, edge-on galaxyj
NGC 2976 - Small, moderately bright galaxy near the Bodes. Elongated.
NGC 2903 - Moderately large, bright galaxy. Spiral structure clear. One arm appears to split in two, looks like 3 arms.
NGC 2283 - Relatively large blob of faint light. Has a double star on it, spanning the expanse of the galaxy. Irregular in shape (The DSS image shows this to be a spiral, but I couldn't discern the shape).
NGC 2477 - Very beautiful OC, looks like a globular. Large group of faint stars, very well resolved. (This was something my friend found by accident. He was looking at the region with a 10x50 binoculars, and he noticed a faint patch of light. After debating what it might be, we pointed the 16 inch at it and found it to be and open cluster :) )
In addition to the above logged objects, I revisited a few objects I'd observed earlier. Leo I was almost invisible when I observed it, probably because of slight haze at the time. I could barely make it out, and others with me couldn't see it - it remained unconfirmed. I looked at M51 much later in the night, and had my best view so far. The spiral arms were very obvious, with the gap between the arms and the core very dark. Even the companion galaxy showed a smear which is visible in photographs. I was very satisfied with this session because I finally ended up observing the galaxies I always wanted to (Whale and hockey stick, and they are spectacular!). I'm hoping to go on another session this weekend, and if I do, I'll be sure to post an observing report here. I've already prepared another list for me next session :)
NGC 4656 - (Hockey stick) - (This is one of the galaxies I've been meaning to observe for a few years, but I've always missed out) - Bright galaxy, starts abruptly with a bright knot and slowly fades until a notch turned upward at the end. Bright and big.
NGC 4631 - (Whale) - (This is another one of the galaxies I've always wanted to observe, but never ended up observing) - 4361 is a large, spectacular galaxy, edge on, extremely bright, with structure visible. There's a bright star touching it, and NGC 4627 quite obvious nearby, like a mid sized smudge. On a second look, I think I noticed a flapper kind of structure at the front end of the "whale", but this is unconfirmed.
NGC 4244 - (Silver Needle) - Extremely large, bright, silver galaxy. Almost equal thickness throughout. Spectacular!
NGC 4618 - 4618 is a large barred spiral, with a large and prominent bar, one tight spiral arm, and one loosely flung out arm. NGC 4625 is a small faint blob, appears spread out in one direction away from NGC 4618 (I later saw that in the DSS image, it appears to be spread out towards NGC 4618)
NGC 4490 - (Cocoon) - Large, bright galaxy with a bright core, elongated. One edge curves towards NGC 4485. NGC 4485 is small, much dimmer, and slightly elongated perpendicular to NGC 4490.
NGC 2672 - Very faint. At 7mm, resolves into 2 close by nuclei. The brighter galaxy, 2672, has a halo around it. Smaller galaxy, NGC 2673 is fuzzy and stellar.
NGC 3158 - Very faint smudge. No shape discernable. NGC 3163 in the field.
PGC 28764 - Edge of visibility, elongated. Popped in and out of view a few times. A fainter galaxy popped into view once, also elongated. Unconfirmed (I could only see these galaxies when my telescope shook. They were otherwise invisible, so I've kept these 2 as unconfirmed. I need to revisit them under better conditions)
NGC 3666 - Relatively faint, edge-on galaxyj
NGC 2976 - Small, moderately bright galaxy near the Bodes. Elongated.
NGC 2903 - Moderately large, bright galaxy. Spiral structure clear. One arm appears to split in two, looks like 3 arms.
NGC 2283 - Relatively large blob of faint light. Has a double star on it, spanning the expanse of the galaxy. Irregular in shape (The DSS image shows this to be a spiral, but I couldn't discern the shape).
NGC 2477 - Very beautiful OC, looks like a globular. Large group of faint stars, very well resolved. (This was something my friend found by accident. He was looking at the region with a 10x50 binoculars, and he noticed a faint patch of light. After debating what it might be, we pointed the 16 inch at it and found it to be and open cluster :) )
In addition to the above logged objects, I revisited a few objects I'd observed earlier. Leo I was almost invisible when I observed it, probably because of slight haze at the time. I could barely make it out, and others with me couldn't see it - it remained unconfirmed. I looked at M51 much later in the night, and had my best view so far. The spiral arms were very obvious, with the gap between the arms and the core very dark. Even the companion galaxy showed a smear which is visible in photographs. I was very satisfied with this session because I finally ended up observing the galaxies I always wanted to (Whale and hockey stick, and they are spectacular!). I'm hoping to go on another session this weekend, and if I do, I'll be sure to post an observing report here. I've already prepared another list for me next session :)