Northwest Georgia Astronomical Society

Galaxy Group and Unique Planetary

2007-12-07T17:07:00.000-06:00

I set up the scope at Earth N Sky farm on November 30, 2007. The sky was quite nice. The transparency was very good and the seeing was average. Several objects were viewed but the two most notable were NGC 246, & NGC 7331.

NGC 7331 anchors an entire galaxy group. In the .65° field of view was 7331 as well as Stephan's Quintet, and 3 more galaxies to the other side of 7331. 7331 is bright and well defined. The other galaxies are faint and fuzzy - but that's what we go out for isn't it!

If you like planetaries, NGC 246 is most unique. Very large, I estimate its diameter to be 10-15 minutes. Several stars within the planetary serve to define it. I had to study it for quite a while before I could make out the details. Use of a b/w sketch helped too. Photographs from NOAO.edu.

Clear Skies!
Eric Smith

Observing Report for NWGAA November Observing

2007-11-11T13:24:00.000-06:00

It was a fairly good night for observing with the Northwest Georgia
Astronomical Association even though the transparency was not so great
and the occasional wispy band of cloud drifted out of the West. On this
night I was using the Oberwerk 20x80 binoculars.

I observed 8 more objects on the Astroleague's Binocular Messier Club
list, admired the Pleiades and the Perseus Double Cluster, casually
swept the star fields of the Milky Way and got my first look at Comet
17p Holmes.

The Comet was a pretty impressive sight in the binoculars. It was
visible to the naked eye as a large fuzzy just below the star Mirfak in
Perseus. It filled about 25% of the FOV of the binoculars and had a
fairly clear brighter core a bit off-center. I could make out a bit of
elongation, but nothing like a tail.

On the Messier List I got a look at these objects:

* M29 - A small cluster, but sharp and clear. Looked a bit like a
little butterfly or moth
* M56 - Small and very diffuse, I could not resolve the stars at
the center of the cluster
* M27 Dumbbell Nebula - Not hard to locate, but hard to really see.
No trace of the dumbbell shape with the binocs.
* M71 - Another small globular cluster, but the core resolved
reasonably well.
* M31 Andromeda Galaxy - Very large, of course, but not so clear
due to light pollution in the East. More or less a long oval light patch
with a brighter core.
* M32 & M110 Satellite Galaxies to M31 - Visible in the same FOV
with Andromeda, but very faint.
* M33 Triangulum Galaxy - Fairly large but faint. No real detail
apparent in the arms.

And, of course, I greatly enjoyed the companionship of my fellow amateur
astronomers.

--
Craig Jones
www.webjones.net

November Observing from EarthNSky

2007-11-11T12:41:00.001-06:00

We had a good turn out last night for NWGAA monthly observing. The seeing conditions were not very good though. Thin blankets of moisture periodically formed hindering the transparency and the seeing was terrible - worst at EarthNSky I have ever seen. I thought that as the night aged the conditions would improve. The transparency did improve some and wasn't too bad. But the seeing, if anything, got worse. I left the field about 11:15pm. The highlight of the night was comet 17P Holmes. This thing has just gotten huge. It completely fills the field of view provided by my 35mm 2" eyepiece in my LX200GPS 10". Its annular quality is giving way to that which we would consider a more normal comet look. Attached is a sketch I made just before I packed up.

Eric

17P Holmes & More

2007-11-07T17:03:00.000-06:00

My wife and I headed over to the park in Fairy Valley along Hwy 411 in Murray County to catch a glimpse of the "new" comet. After setup and letting the scope cool for a bit (and the lights on the ball field finally being shut down), the stars were out nice and steady.

The scope reported a nippy 48 degF. and off we went to find the comet. At 136X with a Plossl eyepiece, the tail of the comet filled the entire FOV. The nucleus could be seen off center within the plume and was irregular but very bright. The color was a yellowish green through my scope with no filters.

We gazed at several other objects through the unusually steady air. The Ring Nebula, a favorite, was quite impressive at 258X - at 395X which sometimes brings out the central star with my 14" scope (with averted vision), the view was not so good. M13 was impressive even though it was a bit low in the sky. Another favorite is Albireo and it was equally impressive splitting into vivid blue and gold stars.

Almost an hour had past since looking at the comet so we pointed the scope back that way. It was a bit higher in the sky, but the color had not changed. I did not have my wide field eyepiece to get a look at just how big of a plume of debris was trailing, but a view that was good enough for me just the same - a view that I have never seen quite like it!

Hank Blackwood

Moon & Jupiter

2007-03-11T13:32:00.000-05:00

Name: Isaiah Short
Observing Site: Backyard
Observing Date: 3/11/2007
Observing Time: 5:55 am to 6:45 am
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 8
Equipment: Meade Computer aided Telescope, and Binoculars

This morning I went outside to see the Moon near Jupiter. It was a pretty sight. I also saw other things like some moons of jupiter, craters on the moon, and the big dipper. I could not see much because clouds started rolling in. Anyway if you want
to see the pictures that I took go to my web site . . . xanga.com/astronomyrocs

Isaiah Short A student at Rome Middle School

Lunar Eclipse Photos by Isaiah Short

2007-03-04T08:29:00.000-06:00

March 3, 2007 Lunar Eclipse. Photos taken by NWGAA member Isaiah Short by placing digital camera into eyepiece receptacle.

NWGAA Cherokee, First Sidewalk Astronomy Event

2007-03-04T08:02:00.000-06:00

Name: Ed (Ookii Mamoru)
Observing Site: Wal-Mart Canton Parking Lot
Observing Date: 3/3/2007
Observing Time: 6::20 pm to 8:00 pm
Seeing: 4
Transparency: 3
Equipment: 80mm Refractor, 5 In Reflector, 10x50 bio

Interest:

30 odd looks by drivers by, gave up counting after dark

Number of Inquires "What are you looking at?" by drivers buy - 10

1 Smart Donkey question. Do you see it yet?

Number of guest to look through a scope - 7.

2 wanted contact information, one wanted a business card.

Equipment, One Meade 80mm refractor, One Celestron 5 In Reflector. Both using a 25mm eye piece. One pair of 10x50 Binoculars.

Skies were moderate to heavy overcast, and the wind chill was bitter.

6:35 PM The equipment has been set up for about twenty minutes. The Sky does not look promising.

7:02 PM Greg and I were both about ready to give up, there had to have been something. The clouds most be too dense. Two guest arrived. I was explaining that Greg and I were waiting form the Moon to come over the Horizon, and that we had yet to see it. We were going to wait a few more minutes before packing the equipment away. One guest exclaimed while pointing "Is that it?", and sure enough it was. Obscured by clouds, a razor thin crescent moon. With no other features visible to the naked eye. I quickly got both scopes set aimed and pointed. Very little detail could be made out. Iâ€™m uncertain m but I think I was looking at some Mt. Ranges, could have been the optics. I could barely make out any of the moon.

The Moon was darker, way darker than I was expectation. For about the first 20% the moon was a dirty brown. Not the red I was wanting to see. At this point the disk final became prominent. No real deatil was available until after 30% of the Moon was out of eclipses.

Had a lot of fun teaching Greg how to point the Meade. I could not get the finder scope to work properly.

8:00 PM The reflective light of the moon was getting to be too much, and the ambient light pollution was to much to even try using the laser pointer to look at any other object.

Goals for the future, need a larger sign for sidewalk astronomy with Public Viewing promptly displayed. I think such a sign would have gotten more cars to stop. Business Cards for the group.

Ed

Saturn w/ New 8" F7 Planetary Newtonian

2007-02-26T17:50:00.000-06:00

Name: Curt Diggs
Observing Site: Home (near Dallas, GA)
Observing Date: 2/18/07
Observing Time: 9:00 pm to 10:30 pm
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 8
Equipment: Home built 8" F7 Planetary Newtonian on GEM mount

Seeing was good to excellent with slight to moderate atmospheric turbulence. The transparency was excellent.

I spent about an hour observing Saturn at various powers to get an idea of this new scope's limits and capabilities as a planetary-type scope. The mounting is inadequate (an older GEM from an 8" SCT on a home-built pedestal base) and previous attempts had been frustrated by wind-caused vibration. This evening was relatively still so I was able to get long periods of
observation with a steady image.

Saturn's rings were easily resolved at even the lowest powers (55x) and the Cassini division became resolvable at around 100x. The highest power I can get currently with my eyepieces and Barlow combination is 300x. This proved to be too much magnification and turbulence seriously disturbed the image (turbulence is magnified right along with the image under observation). The ideal power turned out to be 200x which was achieved by using the 14mm ED and a 2x Barlow.

I set my observing stool up and was able to spend long minutes at the eyepiece in a relatively relaxed and unstrained position. I believe this contributes significantly to the ability to pull the finer details out.

Although Cassini's division was almost always resolved and clear, finer planetary details would go in and out as the atmospheric turbulence came and went. Over the course of about an hour, I got several 5 to 10 second periods when the turbulence almost completely stopped. The views of Saturn during those brief periods made the long waits between them totally worthwhile.

I hate to use the (overused) term "Hubblesque" to describe the images but that thought passed through my head as the image cleared and much of the subtle detail seen in Hubble photographs of Saturn popped out. The crepe ring began very obvious which I had seen before but had never seen the color (reddish brown) and the fine demarcation lines in the set of rings just outward from the crepe ring. These were only visible for a few seconds but were unmistakeable.

All in all, I'm very pleased with the operation of the new scope except for the mounting. The old GEM is just not up to the long F7 tube so a new, sturdier mount is under construction.

A Night at Camp Sydney Dew

2007-02-12T16:06:00.000-06:00

Observing Site: Camp Sidney Dew (AKA Boy Scout Camp)
Observing Date: 2/10/2007
Observing Time: 6:00 pm to 9:00 pm
Seeing: 10 (the best)
Transparency: 10 (the best)
Equipment: Binoculars, and a Monoscope

This Saturday was a very great night for viewing. I saw things like Orion, Orion nebula, M45, Venus, Saturn, Meteors, and satellites. These objects were very clear in the sky. It was a little cold outside. But it was worth it. Also I had some of my friends come out there as well they were also amazed at what they saw. Most of them were looking at Saturn. Why? Because this was the night that Saturn was at its opposition. This means that even with a small scope you should be able to see Saturn's rings. Overall this was a great night of viewing.

Isaiah Short
A Student at Rome Middle School

Where's the Horsehead?

2007-02-11T14:57:00.000-06:00

Date: 2/10/07

Time: 10:00PM - 12:00AM

Place: Earth 'n' Sky Farm, Calhoun, GA

Seeing: 8

Transparency: 8

Equipment: LX200 Classic 10" & LX200GPS 10"

Last night, Ron Niklasson and I were under some awesome skies. Transparency couldn't have been better, and the seeing was incredible. Even Sirius was perfectly steady. With Orion high in the sky, we decided to see if we could find the horsehead nebula. With this object only being 6' x 4', we really were not sure where to look. So, we broke out the maps, compared the views in our eyepieces, and after about 20 minutes, we now think we know where it is. If you are using a goto scope, and if your alignment and pointing accuracy are pretty good, the following should direct you right to the horsehead nebula. But, beware, this is a tough one to see. With our 10" scopes, we could not bag this one.

For us, the belt of Orion was really close to horizontal. Keep that in mind if you use our notes for locating the horsehead. After doing a goto, you should see three faint stars in a diagonal line. (Note: these three stars are not the belt of Orion) In our Meade LX200's that is a reversed field so the stars were lined up from upper right to lower left. The upper most and lowest of these three were just on the opposing edges of a 1/2° field of view. Using the middle and lowest stars, imagine a line that connects the two stars to make a right triangle. The right angle of this triangle will be below the second star and right of the third star. The location of this right angle is the general location of the horsehead nebula.

Keep in mind that you're looking for a 6' x 4' object. In a 1/2° FOV the longer part of the horsehead will be just shy of 1/4 of your FOV. We were able to make out a very faint bit of nebulosity, but were unable to detect the horsehead. Maybe another night. If you can further refine these notes, please submit a note to the observation page of our website.

Eric Smith

Summer Messiers

2006-09-18T15:39:00.000-05:00

Date: 9/16/06

Time: 9:00PM - 12:00AM

Place: Earth 'n' Sky Farm, Calhoun, GA

Seeing: 4

Transparency: 7

Equipment: 12.5" F5.3 Dob on Tracking Mount

The transparency, darkness, and steadiness of the atmosphere was the best I've seen all summer. Toward the end of the session atmospheric turbulence seemed to increase for some reason but was not a problem.

We did the summer Messiers tour up the Milky Way starting in Sagittarius and moving north. We stayed mostly with the glob clusters and nebulae with some observing of nearby open clusters.

We started with two most famous summer Messiers M8 and M20, the Lagoon Nebula and Trifid Nebula. My new UHC filter made a noticeable difference, making the dust lanes in both more prominent. You can linger for some time in this area due to the number of fainter objects from the NGC catalog.

We then glanced at a couple of the open clusters in the area, namely M21and M23 before sliding over to view M28, a nice glob cluster just to the west of Kaus Borealis, the tip of the lid of the "teapot".

Moving northward we glanced at M18, M24 and M25 before zeroing in on the Swan or Omega nebula, M17. It was quite spectacular in the 12.5, getting oohs and ahhs from Kathy when it was her turn to view (me, too).

Just a short slide north and slightly west brought us to M16 after we took a quick glance at M18, an open cluster just below M17. M16 is a small open cluster with a faint nebula sometimes called the "Star Queen". In long exposure photos one can see the globules of new stars being formed.

After that we slid over into Ophiuchus and found M14, a nice bright globular cluster. Not far to the south and west we found M10, another glob cluster. Closeby we found M12, the third glob in Oph.

We changed directions after that and I slid the scope around to M57, the Ring Nebula in Lyra that is so spectacular. I never tire of observing it.

By now M31 was above the big tree in the front pasture where we set up and was even just visible to the naked eye against the Calhoun sky glow. It was nice and bright in my 26mm eyepiece and I could get M32 in the same field. After a bit of searching I finally spied M31's faint companion galaxy, M110. That's the first time I had observed it.

Next I slid around to Cassieopiea and found the double cluster NGC884 & NGC869 which is a lovely view in a low power, wide field eyepiece.

To finish the evening, I lined the scope up on M13 in Hercules which one could just make out naked eye and was easily visible in binocs. In the scope at my lowest power (26mm or about 63x currently) it's quite spectacular. I liken it to a pile of tiny diamonds on black velvet.

Curt Diggs
09/18/06

First Observations w/ new Scope

2006-05-28T19:06:00.000-05:00

Name: Curt Diggs
Observing Site: Earth'n'Sky Farm (Calhoun, GA)
Observing Date: 05/27/2006
Observing Time: 09:00 pm to 11:00 pm
Seeing: 3
Transparency: 6
Equipment: 12.5" F5.3 Dobsonian

M13 - many individual stars visible. Contrast was fairly poor due to some haze and thin clouds. Used 22mm ED Orion eyepiece.

M101 - Difficult to find at first. Very dim with little or detail visible even with averted vision.
22mm ED ep. 26mm Ploessl no better.

M65 & M66 - Easy to find about 3 deg southeast of theta Leo. Both stood out nicely in the 22mm with a star or two visible in M66. Low oblique view of both spirals shows little structure.

NGC3628 - Just one eyepiece field to the NW of M65 and M66. This is a relatively large spiral seen somewhat obliquely. Not as bright as M65 & 66 but larger. 22mm EP used.

Mars - very small now and little surface detail visible. 9.5mm ED eyepiece (175 power).

Saturn - Poor seeing made it difficult to discern much detail in rings or on surface. I could just make out the Cassini division but little else. 9.5 mm EP.

Jupiter - Extremely bright (maybe mag -2.5?). Early viewing yielded very poor views due to bad seeing. Later the seeing improved and some surface detail became visible including the Great Red Spot.

General - Defocused bright star images showed atmosphere was "churning" at altitude, probably due to earlier storms.

A Night of Galaxies

2006-05-24T18:09:00.000-05:00

Name: Eric Smith
Observing Site: Calhoun, GA (Earth N' Sky Farm)
Observing Date: 05/23/06
Observing Time: 9:45 pm to 1:15 am
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 6
Equipment: Meade LX 200 10"

Although conditions were not as good as I expected, it was an incredible night of viewing galaxies. 19mm Panoptic eyepiece used on most objects.

- C32, a very nice view in a 2" eyepiece w/ 1 degree FOV. Edge on with slight tilt, fills most of eyepiece.

-NGC 4656 Crow Bar Galaxy, View through 19m Panoptic, 130x, bright nucleus to one side and the other side shows irregular shape/curve.

-M99 PinWheel Galaxy, Face on showing only haze, possibly some spiral structure with averted vision

-M88, edge on galaxy, obvious but no particular outstanding characteristics

-M64 Blackeye Galaxy, with averted vision by looking to lower right the dark lanes under the nucleus are evident, and the "blackeye" does appear. Very nice site.

-M66, M65, NGC3628, This was one of the highlights of the night. Two galaxies in the same 1/2 degree FOV. I viewed these for at least 20 minutes. W. averted vision some dark lanes seem to be present. After viewing M65 & 66, slewing to the right about one field of view I found NGC3628. Wow! Closing my eyes for a while and then viewing this, it is astonishing, consuming the width of the FOV. W/ 24mm panoptic, all three are in one FOV.

-NGC 3605, 3607, 3608 all in one FOV w/ 24mm panoptic. Not hard to see and surprising upon first look. NGC 3599 should be in view also, but I didn't see it.

-C36 Nucleus is obvious w/ hazy surrounding. W/ averted vision some structure slightly evident. Nucleus seems to be off to one side. Three mag 10-11 stars in right edge.

-M51 Whirlpool galaxy was a good indicator of the lack of transparency. The arm linking the two galaxies was not evident.

-C6 Cat's Eye Nebula, looks very much like the Blue Snowball nebula, basic planetary but a bit larger and blue.

-M13 Hercules Globular, Outstanding. best in 19mm, some resolution even in the center. However, seeing not good enough to use higher magnification.

-NGC 6210, "Tonight's Sky" notes labeled this as the Turtle Nebula. However, upon slewing to it, I find that it is M12, a globular cluster. I could see how this could be mistaken as a turtle shaped nebula though. Smaller than M13, and not as resolved.

-M57 Ring Nebula, this is always a good one to check the seeing. Star on side not visible and center star certainly not visible. Definition of edges fuzzy.

-NGC 4438, "Eyes", Now this is cool. Two galaxies in one field of view that do resemble two eyes. Bright core with fuzzy halos.

- M86, NGC 4402 Two nice galaxies, one eliptical and the other edge on. NGC 4402 is below and not as large. These two are inside of the Markarian Chain of galaxies. The time was getting late and I didn't have time to explore the chain.

-Jupiter, bands evident and Great Red Spot just barely visible if perfectly focused. Two of the
moons appear very close to the planet. Best with green filter.

A great night of viewing!

Peek a Boo With Jupiter

2006-05-12T18:32:00.000-05:00

Observing Site: Canton, GA
Observing Date: 05/11/2006
Observing Time: 8:30 pm to 10:00 pm
Seeing: 1 (the worst)
Transparency: 1 (the worst)
Equipment: 5\" Celestron f10

Given the cloudy conditions, unstable atmosphere, and almost full moon. Tonight was a bad night for observing. Most of the stars were washed out by the moon, or hidden by the clouds. Why bother? Well, being this has been the closest night I've had in almost two weeks, I had to try.

With new poster board - dew shield in hand (modify the solar filter instruction for Sidewalk Astronomy, San Francisco. Found in the how to section of our web page.) I headed out to the night sky.

The Waxing Gibbous (http://www.earthsky.org/skywatching/tips_moonphases/waxinggibbous.php) moon was interesting. It was different to see wisp of clouds move between me and the scope. Every once and while the moon would be completely blotted out by the clouds. There were several craters to be seen at the terminator , but no sign of any mountain ranges. The extra detail would fade in
and out.

I spent more time looking at clouds than at Jupiter. When the Solar System's largest planet final appeared from behind the trees I quickly set my sights on it. Three of Jupiter's any moons were out: Io, Callisto, and Ganymede. I even managed to separate the Northern and outhern band which really surprised me. Most of the time it was just one band.

I turned my scope to Mizar and Alcor (optical double) the middle star(s) in the handle of the Big Dipper. The two stars quickly became four. Given the light I was getting from the moon I was surprised at separating Mizar A and Mizar B. A binary star system. The fourth star Sidus Ludoviciana has a very interesting history. It seems a German astronomer mistook it for a planet.

Saturn was the last part of my tour. Saturn's moons had been washed out by Earth's moon. I separated the rings easily enough, but could not get any detail

As for the poster board dew shield. It did its job. No dew on the corrector plate. Which surprised me, given the heavy amount of due on the round.

OokoiiMamoru (Ed)