eat drink astronomy

Social Distancing While Observing in Leo and Coma Berenices

Chris March 20, 2020 1 Comment

With life being dominated by this nasty virus (COVID-19), I decided an escape to dark skies and nature was much needed. Besides, what better social distancing activity is there? Brad and his 8th grade son shared the parking lot with me for a short, 2 hour session.

eat

Okay, so this set up is pretty sad, I’ll totally agree. BUT, given the circumstances, it was just perfect. Social distancing definitely changes the eating and drinking part of the trip the most. For food, I of course brought observing staples; fresh roasted peanuts and sea salt caramels!

drink

Because tonight was very cold, getting down to 25° with a light wind, the huge thermos full of hot chocolate was a welcome treat.

For tasting, I brought along the 12 year Kirk & Sweeney rum, a very fine rum and easy on the wallet. This rum is just delicious, with more than a hint of caramel! Combine this with the caramels I brought, and you’re in for caramel overload. Yum!

astronomy

After setting up my scope, I began the night in Leo with the Astronomical League Herschel II Program object NGC 3067. At high power, this galaxy was bright, clearly elongated E to W 5:1, with two areas standing out as brighter within the galaxy when using averted vision. Although this was a Herschel II object, it would end up being one of the brightest objects I looked at all night!

PGC 28791 – Very small, faint, blinks in and out with averted, almost stellar, elongated N to S, nearby NGC 3067.

PGC 28831 – Small, larger than nearby PGC 28791, very faint, can almost hold the core with direct vision, can see larger halo with extreme averted vision, elongated N to S.

Next I viewed NGC 3071, a surprisingly faint NGC, elongated N to S, small, held with direct vision, with a neat line of 4 similar-brightness, similarly-spaced stars in the FOV at 237x. This line of stars is pictured above, at the bottom left-hand side of the image.

PGC 28856 – Extremely faint, round, seen only with averted, two mag 16! stars seen while hopping from bright mag 9.5 star nearby at 237x.

I continued on with the Herschel II Program and viewed NGC 3659, still in Leo. I noted it was somewhat bright with a round outer halo, brighter core, elongated, and moderately large in size. In the same field at 146x was PGC 35103.

PGC 35103 – Small, faint, elongated NW to SE, hint of a brighter core with a dimmer halo, right next to a mag 14 star.

NGC 3655 – (Not Pictured) – Fairly bright, moderately large, clearly has bright foreground stars within, slightly elongated SSW to NNE.

Six galaxies in one field!

This next view was breathtaking! Six! galaxies in the field of view, all visible without the aid of a camera. Here’s what I saw:

NGC 3681 – Fairly bright, round, moderately large, noticeably brighter core, almost stellar.

NGC 3684 – Large, just smaller than. NGC 3686, similar brightness but higher surface brightness, slightly elongated SE to NW.

NGC 3686 – Large, irregular, dim stellar point within halo, low surface brightness, largest of a trio of galaxies.

NGC 3691 – Moderately large, very even surface brightness with no core seen, elongated SSW to NNE.

PGC 35310 – Extremely faint, small, no elongation seen, round, forms triangle with two other dim mag 15 stars.

UGC 6483 – Extremely faint, barely visible with averted, elongation seen after staring, ENE to WSW, right nearby bright mag 10 star.

Coma Berenices

To end the night, I decided to take a look at one of my favorites, the Needle galaxy in Coma Berenices. I didn’t log this object, having seen it so many times before, but I did decided to hunt down one extremely faint galaxy in the direct vicinity:

UGC 7778 – Dim mag 15 star with some fuzziness around it, very small, very faint galaxy immediately nearby the needle galaxy.

Yes, it ended up being a short night due to other life commitments, but I was really happy to get out under a dark night sky and hunt down some really faint fuzzies all while social distancing!

Observing Galaxies in the Beehive Cluster

Chris March 16, 2020 1 Comment

I couldn’t wait for an opportunity to get out, not having observed since last cycle. This weekend’s late moon set was going to be my only chance! I packed up and headed out very early to watch the moon slowly go down in the West. During that time, I continually measured the SQML as more and more stars shone by the minute. I will try to write up my specific measurements in a future post. The highlight of this trip was definitely getting to see multiple background galaxies in the Beehive cluster! Time to eat drink astronomy!

eat

Apparently feeling fancy, Bentley and I brought Brie and Gouda cheeses with some crackers to snack on throughout the night. To go with it, we also had the standard fresh roasted peanuts I cooked earlier that day. Finally, to go along with the drinks, a canister of dark chocolate sea salt caramels rounded out our selection.

drink

For tasting, we had a real treat. First, we had an entry level Johnnie Walker whisky, the Black Label, which is a nice whisky for its price tag and is aged stated at 12 years. We then made a huge jump past the Double Black, Green, Gold and 18-year straight to the Blue Label. If you’ve never had the chance to try it, I would say the Blue is a very, very nice whisky, extremely smooth, no bite! After that, we went to the Single Malt Miyagikyo made by Nikka Whisky. This was another extremely smooth whisky, at less than half the price of the Blue Label, and one you definitely want to get a taste of if you like whisky. Finally, we had brought the Ardbeg 10-Year, but didn’t get around to tasting some on this particular night.

astronomy

Now for the Astronomy Observing Report. I slewed over to Messier 44, the Beehive Cluster in Cancer, shortly after setting up and aligning. M44, easily visible to the naked eye in dark skies, is less than 600 light years from our Solar System and is spectacular in very low power or with binoculars. My research at the eyepiece revealed there are several dim background galaxies visible through larger telescopes “within” the cluster. I decided to hunt down four of them, UGC 4526, IC 2388, NGC 2625 and NGC 2624.

Two background galaxies in the Beehive cluster — Credit: wikisky.org

UGC 4526 – I noted this is a small, dim, and slightly elongated WSW to ENE galaxy that is obviously nearly edge-on at 237x. I calculated the visual magnitude to be ~14.1 and SkySafari lists it as 210 million light years distant.

IC 2388 – This was the second Beehive cluster galaxy I hunted down and I noted that it was much dimmer and appears slightly larger than UGC 4526 due to being face on, round in shape, and I could only hold it with averted vision. SkySafari has it listed at 470 million light years distant!

NGC 2625 – I noted that this galaxy was dim with a brighter core, small, and shares a field with NGC 2624, similarly bright. I calculated the visual magnitude to be ~14.8 while SkySafari listed it at 15.16 and 210 million light years distant.

NGC 2624 – I noted this galaxy was dim, larger than its pair NGC 2625, brighter at times of good seeing with a hint of a brighter core. I calculated the visual magnitude to be ~14.06 while SkySafari listed it at 14.57 and 200 million light years distant.

Since this wasn’t a planned project for the night, I went ahead and stopped at four, but I can’t wait to get back to the Beehive cluster to see more of these neat background galaxies!

Bootes Cluster

I next moved over to Bootes and observed a grouping of six galaxies within about one half of one degree!!

6 galaxies in one field in Bootes — Credit: wikisky.org

I was really excited to really dig into this “cluster” of galaxies, even though they aren’t all actually interacting. To have 6 relatively bright galaxies in one, half-degree field is always a treat. I started off with NGC 5899 then worked my way NW.

NGC 5899 – This object was on the Herschel II AL Program so a great place to start. I noted this object was large, bright, with an even brighter stellar core. It is clearly elongated NNE to SSW 2:1. As seen above, this appears to be the brightest of the 6 galaxies observed.

NGC 5900 – I noted it is fairly dim, moderate in size, clearly elongated WNW to ESE, seen with direct vision, but better viewed with averted.

NGC 5896 – This galaxy is extremely dim, only seeing tiny glimpses over 20 minutes. It forms a small pair with NGC 5895.

NGC 5895 – Very dim, seen several times, all with averted, irregular.

NGC 5893 – This galaxy is large, round, and dim with no discernible core. A fuzzy halo is visible, slightly resembling a dim comet, with two very dim NGC galaxies in the field.

PGC 54347 – Large, dim galaxy with slight SSE to NNW elongation and no discernible core.

Before packing up, we tried and failed to see NGC 5889 and two others nearby. These will hopefully be the topic of another future observing session very soon!

Observing Astronomy with Friends after First Quarter

Chris February 9, 2020 No Comments

Bentley and I have long considered doing a late-night observing session around first quarter. The problem being, the moon sets after we normally would warp up a long observing session. With very few opportunities to observe over the past two cycles, we made a game-time decision to do it. With a moon set of 1:08am CDT, I left home around 11pm, arriving in dark skies shortly after midnight. Time to eat drink astronomy!

eat

Given the late start, we didn’t have our usual spread at the bar, but that doesn’t mean we didn’t eat! After we packed up at 4:30am, I called ahead to our nearby Casey’s General Store, the only place open 24 hours for miles and miles, and ordered bacon, egg and cheese breakfast croissants. I know what you’re thinking…gas station food? But let me tell you, driving home at 5:15am is MUCH easier with a hot breakfast sandwich in hand. And if I’m being honest, I just might have stopped there earlier in the night before getting to the dark site to get two of their fresh baked cookies, monster and chocolate chip!

drink

Shortly after getting our scopes aligned and tracking, we went over to the ‘bar’ to see what we’d brought out. I had brought a bottle of the Ardbeg An Oa Islay scotch, and to my surprise, Bentley happened to bring out two other Ardbegs, the Uigeadail and the Corryvreckan. We tasted all three, with and without a splash of water to bring out the flavors, and we were most certainly not disappointed. All three of these scotches are extremely peaty, so beware of the smoke!

astronomy

Tonight I was observing with my NMT 18.5″ telescope and my set of TeleVue Ethos/Delos eyepieces; see my Equipment page for more details. I started off with an object in the Herschel II astronomy observing program, NGC 5056, which pairs nicely with dimmer NGC 5057. Viewed at 237x through my Delos 8mm eyepiece, this was a great object to start the night off on.

My observation notes were ‘Somewhat bright, clearly elongated N to S, small, bright mag 9 star 3.5′ away, some slight brightening near the core’. For NGC 5057, I noted it was small, dim, no real structure seen.

From there I looked at nearby galaxies NGC 5065 and PGC 46284, another close pair in Coma Berenices. I calculated the visual magnitude of 46284 to be ~15.16, slightly brighter than the stated VM of 15.52 in SkySafari 6 Pro. It’s the very small, dim galaxy below, left of center and down from NGC 5065.

Observing NGC 5065 — NGC 5065 (center), PGC 46284 (left center)
Credit: wikisky.org

NGC 5065 was ‘Somewhat dim, dim mag 15 field star very close-by, only slightly elongated E to W but not obvious, even surface brightness, somewhat small, smaller and dimmer PGC galaxy in the view.’ Galaxy PGC 46284 is small, very dim, no structure visible, flutters in and out with averted vision.

Canes Venatici

I moved slightly NNE into Canes Venatici and observed a pair of very faint PGC galaxies, PGC 46368 and PGC 1942784, with the latter being one of the dimmest objects I’ve ever seen visually through any telescope! Here are my notes:

PGC 46368 – Very dim, small, no detail seen, paired with a similar sized but dimmer PGC very close by. SkySafari 6 lists its magnitude as 15.1, calculated as ~14.33.

PGC 1942784 – Extremely dim, in and out using averted vision only, not seen directly. SkySafari 6 lists it as magnitude 15.81, calculated to be ~15.06, but visually appeared slightly dimmer than PGC 46284.

My next target was NGC 5074, where I wrote ‘Somewhat bright, difficult to see elongation, fuzzy center with no obvious brightening, two dim PGC galaxies visible in the field.

Observing NGC 5074 — NGC 5074 (center), PGC 46377 (right), PGC 46368 (top left), PGC 1942784 (left)
Credit: wikisky.org

NGC 5074 – Somewhat bright, difficult to see elongation, fuzzy center with no obvious brightening.

PGC 46377 – Extremely dim, very small, averted vision only, shares field with much brighter NGC 5074. Listed in SS6 as magnitude 15.67, calculated as ~15.00.

Being that I was nearby PGC 46356, I was able to grab that one too. I noted it was dim, visible with direct vision, brighter core with averted, right by bright mag 12 star. SkySafari 6 lists it as magnitude 15.28, calculated as ~14.33.

IC Trio

Lastly, I took a look at a trio of IC galaxies; 4225, 4226 and 4227. I target IC galaxies often since most were first seen photographically versus visually, giving additional satisfaction in seeing them.

Observing IC 4225 — IC 4225 (left center), IC 4226 (top center), IC 4227 (far right)
Credit: wikisky.org

IC 4225 – Somewhat dim, very elongated, somewhat edge on, small, nearby mag 13 star. Listed in SS6 as magnitude 14.97, calculated to be ~14.23.

IC 4226 – Small, fairly dim, concentrated, stellar core, round. Listed in SS6 as magnitude 15.11, calculated to be ~14.39.

IC 4227 – Dim, moderately sized, no shape or structure seen. Listed in SS6 as magnitude 15.54, calculated to be ~14.79.

Packing up on the ice covered parking lot was an added challenge. Although we usually only use red lights, even while packing up, an exception for white light was made for added caution. While this was a great, great night, it’s always sad to pack it up and see another astronomy observing session come to an end. Until next time…