Spring Galaxies

28 March 2019, 22:00 – 23:30

The priority for the evening was testing the new autoguiding system – which (despite a few early glitches) went better than expected. I even got an hour’s worth of data (90-second subframes) on M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy.

Conditions: hazy, heavy condensation, and my eyes were never fully dark-adapted (because I had to keep checking the laptop), so quick observations only.

I began with a sweep of the Virgo Cluster and quickly became lost in a sea of galaxies. The paucity of naked-eye stars in that region makes it difficult to navigate using the red-dot finder, but I definitely saw the brighter galaxies in Markarian’s Chain – M84, M86 etc., plus plenty of fainter ones nearby. I think the best strategy for future sessions might be to galaxy-hop rather than star-hop, using the 24mm Panoptic as a finder. The challenge then will be to find a recognisable starting point.

M64, Black Eye Galaxy in Coma Berenices
Quite large, “black-eye” seen with averted vision.

While sweeping through Coma Berenices I found a bright, tight double star – either 24 or 2 Com, looking at the chart.

NGC 4490/4485, interacting galaxies in Canes Venatici
Two elliptical blurs forming a rough right-angle, one galaxy larger and brighter than the other.

NGC 4449, irregular galaxy in Canes Venatici
Bright and boxy, hint of structure. Definitely coming back to this one.

M106, galaxy in Canes Venatici
One bright spiral arm.

Rounded off the evening with quick looks at M51 and M13. (Nothing new to add to previous notes.)

Nature note: the frogspawn is no more and the pond is now full of tadpoles. Also heard lots of distant squeaks and whistles – presumably from migrating birds.