Wednesday 6th April 2005

Southern Sentinel Observing Report

Wednesday 6th April 2005

Date:

6th April 2005 (Local)

Time:

20:00 - 10:30 NZDT (UT +12)

Location:

Kumeu Observatory

30 Minutes from Home

Weather:

Clear Skies. Mild & Calm. Ocassional Cloud

Seeing:

Limiting Magnitude 6.0, transparency 3/5, seeing 4/5

Moon:

New Moon.

Equipment:

13.1 Inch Dobsonian, TeleVue Paracorr & Eyepieces & Lumicon Filters

Met David Moorhouse & Alan Kane, Mark and Rachel at Kumeu.

It was an excellent night. It cleared late afternoon and we thought we might get some observing done. I was going to Kumeu to pick up the Dob so I could be ready for Waharau this weekend, so the fact it was nice and clear, was a definite bonus.

Dave was at Kumeu with his new 8 Inch Binocular and these we easy to use and were user friendly. Some comparisons were to be done tonight with a Denkmeier binoviewer. Glenn Burgess bought these along for good test.

Planned to work through the April observing List tonignt and get home before it gets too late.

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
M 105	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
M 65	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
M 66	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
M 95	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
M 96	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 5128	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 5139	Globular Cluster	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 3511	Galaxy	88x	Fairly bright galaxy with an even brightness. Elogated spiral 3 times as long as wide. The nearby round NGC3513 makes a striking pair. April JOG Target List Object. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 3513	Galaxy	114x	Compact round galaxy of medium brightness. Makes a nice pair with the nearby oval NGC 3511. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 3585	Galaxy	88x	Very bright and compact oval galaxy with a bright core. April JOG Target List Object. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 3628	Galaxy	88x	Digital Setting Circles Testing. JOG Observing Group.
NGC 3717	Galaxy	88x	Faint, very elongated skinny galaxy with a 12.5 mag star embedded in core. Dave Moorhouse had this object checked by CCD during the evening, to determine nature of the star. Star is external to the object (foreground) and therefore not a supernova. April JOG Target List Object. JOG Observing Group.

Nice and steady the views of Jupiter at 150x plus were very good. Over 200x seemed to soften everything too much. Working through some of the objects on the April list, Dave, Guy and I stumbled onto NGC3717, an edge on spiral that appeared to have a star embedded into it and not listed on the star charts. Possibly a supernova, remind you couple of similar events, Brocky? Dave made call to Grant Christie who was using the Nustrini telescope, at the Stardome. Grant imaged the galaxy and confirmed nothing of special interest. At least it kept us in suspense for 40 minutes. Roll on the internet access at Kumeu, the DDS images would have confirmed the star.

I had problems powering the laptop, however I have the Palm as well and proved a worthy backup, once I replaced the batteries in the Palm. Again very pleased with the pointing. With the improvements to the observatory and removal of the old fence post, there is now more observing space. Kumeu is an excellent place to observe. Once again, thanks to Steve Calverley for access to the observatory and Dave Moorhouse who works behind the scenes, making improvement to make the Kumeu Observatory the place it is today.

Packed up the trialer in preparation for Waharau this weekend.

Paul Kemp

13.1" Reflector

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

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