Saturday 23rd May 2009

Date:

Saturday 23rd May 2009 (Local +12 UT)

Time:

19:12:00 - 20:50:00

Location:

Kumeu Observatory, West Auckland

30 Minutes from Home

Weather:

Cool, Clear and Calm

Conditions

Limiting Magnitude: 5.5, Transparency: Mostly clear, Seeing: II. Mostly stable

Sunset / Twilight

Sunset at 17:15:48, Astronomically Dark from 18:47:54

Moon:

New, 0.7% Illuminated

Equipment:

13.1" f5 Dobsonian

TeleVue Paracorr, Argo Navis


First time out for a while. Was going to go to Hamilton and observe with Dave Brock, however the cloud rolled in the late afternoon, so I decided to head North to Kumeu. Arrived at about 6:20pm and set-up. Alan Kane arrived not long after. Dave Moorhouse was already there doing some maintance on his observatory. Started observing at about 7pm. Plan to catch up with objects in the N.

Observations as follows;

Object	Type	Magnification	Notes
M105	Galaxy	113X	Bright Messier elliptical making a galactic pair with NGC"384.
NGC3367	Galaxy	113X	Fairly faint galaxy with a small core. Makes an equilateral triangle with two 9th mag stars.
NGC3377	Galaxy	113X	Compact elliptical galaxy with a strong core, just on the edge of the field of the previous object NGC3367. Slightly more oval than round.
NGC3412	Galaxy	113X	Small compact 3:1 oval galaxy which has a strong condensed core, probably elliptical. Runs N-S.
NGC3189	Galaxy	113X	Small bright oval galaxy in a group of galaxies. Missed the nearby NGC3187 but observed the bright round NGC3193.
NGC3193	Galaxy	113X	Small group of galaxies in Leo. Small round and compact close by a 10th mag star.
NGC3489	Galaxy	113X	Small compact galaxy with a condensed core. Slightly more oval than round.
NGC3593	Galaxy	113X	Small oval elliptical galaxy, with a moderate core. Sparse field.
NGC3705	Galaxy	113X	Fairly bright oval galaxy with a strong core. Two 8th mag stars in the FOV. Nicest FOV observed tonight with a moderate starry field.
NGC3607	Galaxy	113X	Nice galactic pair with NGC3608. Large round elliptical with a strong core.
NGC3608	Galaxy	113X	Nice galactic pair with NGC3607. Small round elliptical with a strong core, fainter than the nearby NGC3607.
NGC3626	Galaxy	113X	Small galaxy with a strong core, but no other detail of note.
M65 Leo Triplet	Galaxy	113X
M66 Leo Triplet	Galaxy	113X
NGC3628 Leo Triplet	Galaxy	113X
M96	Galaxy	113X	M96, bright barred spiral galaxy.
NGC4064	Galaxy	113X	Faint diffuse galaxy, low down in the North. No detail noted.
NGC4251	Galaxy	113X	Small faint galaxy. 7th Mag star E in the FOV. No detail noted.
NGC4274	Galaxy	113X	Faintish galaxy, oval. Not to difficult despite low contrast in the N.
NGC4314	Galaxy	113X	Small faint galaxy with no detail of note. Poor contrast.
NGC4450	Galaxy	113X	Fairly bright and large galaxy. Round with a strong core, but not stellar.
NGC4448	Galaxy	113X	Galaxy low down in the N. No detail noted but visible.
NGC4494	Galaxy	113X	Fairly bright, round galaxy with the appearance of a small comapct unresolved globular.
NGC4414	Galaxy	113X	Small bright oval galaxy with a strong core. Fairly conspicious despite low contrast.
NGC4559	Galaxy	113X	Large diffuse, low surface brightness galaxy with no detail. Not easy to spot with the contrast poor in the N.
NGC4725	Galaxy	113X	Large diffuse galaxy with a strong stellar core. The halo is very faint but is noticable with close examination. Probably a spiral.
NGC4710	Galaxy	113X	Fairly bright 5:1 oval galaxy. Easy with a moderate core and a hint of irregularity. Nice.
NGC4689	Galaxy	113X	Very faint galaxy with no real detail. Has a bright 6th mag star in the FOV making the galaxy harder to see than normal.
NGC5053	Globular Cluster	113X	Large faint globular cluster. Very diffuse and loose. Probably type X.
NGC4565	Galaxy	113X	A large edge-on galaxy, with a dark lane. Contrast making this object less spectactular than normal.
M64 Black Eye Galaxy	Galaxy	113X	Bright Messier galaxy with a dark patch. Nice.
M94	Galaxy	113X	Bright Messier galaxy with a strong core. Contrast poor due to being very low down in the N.
NGC4224	Galaxy	113X	Small bright galaxy, 3:1 oval, with a 9th mag star in the FOV.
NGC4754	Galaxy	113X	Compact round galaxy in a fine field near the beautiful edge on NGC4762.
NGC4762	Galaxy	113X	Beautiful edge on galaxy 7:1. Bright conspicious and makes an attractive pair with NGC4754.
NGC4866	Galaxy	113X	Faint diffuse galaxy, with no real core of note.
NGC4845	Galaxy	113X	Evenly bright skinny 6:1 galaxy with a 8th mag star in the FOV.
NGC4753 Cross Roads Galaxy	Galaxy	113X	Bright galaxy with a strong core. Diffuse halo.
NGC4697	Galaxy	113X	Bright large conspicious galaxy in a fairly starry field. Elliptical.
NGC4699	Galaxy	113X	Small galactic spot. No detail noted.
NGC4958	Galaxy	113X	Small bright edge-on galaxy with a strong core. Perhaps an elliptical.
NGC4856	Galaxy	113X	Bright oval and contrasty galaxy. Conspicious.
NGC5566	Galaxy	113X	Small compact galaxy. Fairly bright with no real detail.
NGC5247	Galaxy	113X	Large faint diffuse face-on spiral galaxy. Small faint core. Faintest object of the night.
NGC5634	Globular Cluster	113X	Fairly bright globular cluster, actually logged as a galaxy, as the globular was not resolved. Tight close into an 8th mag star. Nice object.
NGC5813	Galaxy	113X	Moderately bright galaxy even in brightness.
NGC5838	Galaxy	113X	Small oval galaxy, compact with a strong core.
M63	Galaxy	113X	Large spiral galaxy, diffuse and low contrast due to being low in the N.
M3	Globular Cluster	113X
NGC5248	Galaxy	113X	Slightly more oval than round galaxy with a moderate core. Not difficult.
IC4499	Globular Cluster	113X	Faint diffuse globular cluster, partially resolved. Easy missed on scanning.
NGC4833 Faint Comet Nebula	Globular Cluster	113X	Bright well resolved globular in Musca.
NGC3766	Open Cluster	113X	Beautiful rich open cluster.
NGC3603 Miniature Tarantula	Emission Nebula	113X	Nebulous region that needs further study.
NGC3496 Sher 1	Open Cluster	113X	Large diffuse region of stars, hardly an open cluster. Starry field regardless.
NGC3521	Galaxy	113X	Large bright 2:1 oval spiral galaxy with a strong condensed core.
NGC3384	Galaxy	113X	Bright galaxy making a galactic pair with M105. Both galaxies similar in brightness, probably both elliptical.

Short observing session in the end as I was in too much pain to continue. This is definately the first observing session I have ever had listening to a vacuum cleaner. Dave was cleaning his observatory.

Nice views of some Northern objects despite a reduction in contrast in this region, due to sky glow.

Just good to get out.

Paul Kemp

13.1" f5 Reflector with Argo Navis

Auckland, New Zealand

36° 55' 09 " South, 174° 43' 30" East

-- The Southern Sentinel --