Spring Galaxies

22 – 23 April 2020, 21:45 – 01:30

Conditions: Breezy, cool. Light condensation (mostly on the star-charts)

Seeing: Initially good, but deteriorated considerably after midnight
Transparency: Average

The previous night/morning I went out sans telescopes to observe the Lyrid meteor shower. After about an hour all I had for my trouble were cold feet and a stiff neck. But hey, that’s meteors for you.

Tonight I returned to deep-sky observing, but before I went out I watched live on YouTube as SpaceX launched another sixty Starlink satellites into orbit, raising the total to 420 (of a planned 12,000!).

I began with some galaxies in northern region of Ursa Major. All observations carried out at 133x (Nagler 9mm) unless otherwise stated.


NGC 4036, galaxy, Ursa Major
Oval galaxy with a bright core – possibly bar-shaped. Mottled outer envelope.

NGC 4041, galaxy, Ursa Major
In same fov as 4036, albeit a little larger and fainter. Brighter towards the centre.

NGC 3945, galaxy, Ursa Major
Small, round and condensed. Stellar nucleus with averted vision. Field star to south.

NGC 4125, galaxy, Draco
Bright, elongated galaxy with bright field star to east. Very bright extended core.

I then pushed further north to look for NGC 4236 (Caldwell 3), but after initially thinking I’d seen something, it stubbornly remained invisible. This galaxy is notoriously faint apparently, so my failure to spot it didn’t come as a complete surprise. (I’ll try again with the Ethos on a better night.) Next stop: Virgo.

NGC 4753, galaxy, Virgo
Large oval haze, east of Porrima. Fairly dim overall but brighter towards the centre. Mottled outer envelope with a suggestion of a dark cut-off on the NW side.

NGC 4699, galaxy, Virgo
Round haze, very bright star-like nucleus with averted vision. Mottled envelope. Near Psi Virginis.

NGC 4293, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Faint elongated ellipse, quite large. Two field stars at either end of the long axis and two more on the northeast side, but no detail other than a vague mottling. North of 11 Com and not far from M85.

NGC 5746, galaxy, Virgo
Edge-on “needle” galaxy hidden away in eastern Virgo. Looked quite impressive with averted vision (especially considering it’s 95 million light years away), but dimmed as soon as 4th magnitude 109 Virginis crept into the field from the east. Brighter towards centre; maybe a dark lane slightly offset from core on eastern side.

NGC 5363, galaxy, Virgo
Round galaxy south of bright star. Bright core and stellar nucleus with averted vision. Couldn’t see nearby NGC 5364.

NGC 5653, galaxy, Bootes
Very faint round galaxy near Rho Boo (plotted in Sky Atlas 2000, not PSA). Brighter towards centre with averted vision. Possible barred core.

NGC 5466, globular cluster, Bootes
Follow-up observation at 133x. Seemed fainter tonight. Large, low surface brightness. This object requires patience: after a while some stars gradually popped out with averted vision.

At this point I had a quick break to eat a banana (well, if it works for tennis players…). When I returned outside I found a snail crawling across my sky atlas (just as well it’s laminated). I intercepted it before it reached M101 and picked up the session with an old favourite:

NGC 4565, Needle Galaxy, Coma Berenices
Bright and beautiful. Still the best edge-on galaxy. Twice the apparent size of NGC 5746.

NGC 4559, galaxy, Coma Berenices
As previous observation last year. Seemed a little faint tonight.

NGC 4414, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Elliptical shape, brighter towards centre. Stellar nucleus with averted vision. Hint of dark cut-off on western side.

NGC 4631 (“Whale”) & 4656 (“Hockey Stick”), interacting galaxies, Canes Venatici
Already past the meridian and starting to descend into the murky part of the sky when I caught up with them, so neither galaxy at its best. Still impressed though by how large they are, particularly 4631. NGC 4657 (the “hook”) was very faint – just visible with averted vision as an extension on the eastern edge of 4656.

NGC 4203, galaxy, Coma Berenices
Small round galaxy near a bright 8th magnitude star. Bright core with averted vision. Nice double star (Struve 1615) close by to the southwest: pale yellow primary and a pale blue secondary (due east).

NGC 4214, galaxy, Canes Venatici
Extended misty patch; brighter towards centre with averted vision and a suggestion of mottling. (I had a better view of this galaxy in 2019; think I need to revisit it on a really good night). In photos it looks similar to NGC 4449.

NGC 4244 (Caldwell 26), galaxy, Canes Venatici
Large, faint edge-on galaxy. Fairly easy to spot, but tough to make out any detail other than a subtle brightening towards the centre.

NGC 5982, galaxy, Draco
Brightest member of the Draco triplet (although I could only see two of them). Appeared as a small round galaxy with a bright core.

NGC 5985, galaxy, Draco
Large round galaxy in same fov as 5982. Low surface brightness. The third member of the trio (5981) is probably too faint to see from my home location.

At this point I upped the magnification to 171x (DeLite 7mm) and had a quick look at some old favourites: M13 and M57. And then it was on to Cygnus for a planetary nebula I haven’t seen for sixteen years.

NGC 6826, “The Blinking Planetary”, Cygnus
171x. Pale green disc near the bright double star 16 Cyg. The nebula brightens with averted vision, causing the blinking effect (although this is by no means unique to NGC 6826). The central star was flitting in and out of view, its visibility affected by the deteriorating seeing.

I also had another look at NGC 6543 (which looked so good the other night). This time the central star wasn’t visible at all, so I dropped back down to 133x for the remainder of the session.

NGC 6939, open cluster, Cepheus
Rich little cluster with two lines of stars forming a distinctive right-angle.

NGC 6946, “The Fireworks Galaxy”, Cygnus/Cepheus
Amorphous round glow near a distinctive triangle-shaped pattern of stars. It’s unusual to see a galaxy in such a rich star-field, but it needs to be much higher in the sky for me to have any chance of spotting the spiral structure. (I did see this one with the SP-102 back in 2004, but it was extremely faint in that scope.)

Nature note:
The tadpoles are getting noticeably bigger. The resident pale adult frog was also present, as well as one of last year’s froglets, sitting on the access log.

Dusk till Dawn

19 – 20 April 2020, 22:15 – 04:15

Conditions: Windy, cold (for time of year).

Seeing: Average
Transparency: Average

The evening got off to an inauspicious start when I was “treated” to a display of the infamous Starlink satellites. They were already crossing the sky when I took the scope out at 21:30 and the grim spectacle carried on in a continuous procession for another fifteen minutes. The occasional straggler was still passing overhead at 22:00, following the same path as the others. Each satellite reached a peak brightness of about 2nd magnitude, rivalling the primary stars in Ursa Major. I suppose I’m fortunate in that I’m primarily an old-school observer who dabbles in astrophotography, so I have less at stake than those who’ve spent vast sums of money on dedicated astro-cameras, high-end mounts etc., but I am worried about the impact these mega-constellations will have on professional astronomy – particularly the various wide-field survey programmes.

Anyway, satellite trains aside, as the previous session had gone so well I wanted to try something longer, perhaps even an all-nighter (clouds and energy levels permitting). I had no specific plan, other than revisiting a few old favourites, as well as picking up a few objects I’d missed along the way.

All observations carried out at either 133x (Nagler 9mm) or 171x (DeLite 7mm).

M53, globular cluster, Coma Berenices
Viewed at 133x and 171x. As per previous observations. Dark lane on the north side separating a moderately bright star (noted previously) from the core of the cluster.

NGC 5053, globular cluster, Coma Berenices
Finally tracked it down (at 133x) after who knows how many attempts. Visible as a large, hazy patch of very low surface brightness. A little speckly with averted vision, and a field star to the east. Not impressive. Definitely my least-favourite globular cluster.

M51, Whirlpool Galaxy, Canes Venatici
133x. Best view of M51 this season. Ghostly spiral arms visible. With time and careful use of averted vision, there were even hints of brighter spots within the arms, most prominently on the arm immediately east of the core.

M101, Pinwheel Galaxy, Ursa Major
133x. Tantalising hints of structure with averted vision but, as usual, little more than that. Now I’ve seen it a few times I’m more confident of the nebulous spot east of the core (most likely NGC 5461 or 5462). There also seemed to be a tiny faint spot (possibly a star) west of the core.

Porrima (Gamma Virginis), double star, Virgo
133x. Close “headlight” double. Identical white stars 38 light-years away on a 169-year orbit.

NGC 4684, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Small, faint streak of light, aligned NE-SW. Brighter towards centre with averted vision.

NGC 4691, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Another small faint ellipse, aligned E-W. Bright core with averted vision.

NGC 4697 (Caldwell 52), galaxy, Virgo
133x. Bright oval galaxy. Stellar core with averted vision, surrounded by a large extended envelope. Faint star to north; brighter one east.

While I was in this part of the sky I ventured south to Corvus to look for the Antennae galaxies again, but couldn’t detect anything with any degree of confidence.

M99, galaxy, Coma Berenices
133x. Ghostly round galaxy. Dark patch west of nucleus. Suggestion of reverse-s spiral.

M98, galaxy, Coma Berenices
133x. Large faint streak of light, aligned NW-SE. Brighter towards centre with averted vision.

NGC 4262, galaxy, Coma Berenices
133x. Small round fuzz. Bright stellar nucleus with averted vision. (Plotted on Sky Atlas 2000, not PSA.)

M100, galaxy, Coma Berenices
133x. Large round galaxy with bright fuzzy core. Possible bright spot east of core but tough to discern detail in this one.

NGC 4340 & 4350, galaxy pair, Coma Berenices
133x. Pair of similar sized galaxies in same field of view; both with stellar nuclei. The eastern one (4350) clearly brighter and more elongated.

NGC 4450, galaxy, Coma Berenices
133x. Large round haze, brighter towards the centre with averted vision. Stellar nucleus. Another reverse-s spiral?

M85, galaxy, Coma Berenices
133x. Bright, round, with very bright core. Star north of nucleus. NGC 4394 in same field to east-northeast. Similar size, but fainter than M85. Brighter towards centre with averted vision.

I then pushed the scope south again to confirm my previous observation of M83. It was still visible, albeit not as clearly as on 15 April, with only the core region standing out from the background.

As I don’t normally observe for much longer than three hours, this seemed like a good point to stop for a coffee break and a cereal bar. Q1: How do you make a hot drink with only a dim red light for illumination? Answer: very carefully. Q2: How do you get the milk in and out of the fridge without ruining your night vision? Answer: close (and cover) your eyes and do it quickly (practice in daylight if you have to). Who needs a thermos?

I resumed the session with one of my favourite globular clusters:

M5, globular cluster, Serpens Caput
133x and 171x. See previous observation for superlatives. This time I remembered to check the cluster for colour; it was subtle: a pale aquamarine tinge. The bright star (SE of the core) I noticed last time out didn’t seem as bright tonight. At 171x the cluster was spectacular; the greater contrast allowing me see even more faint stars. The core wasn’t fully resolved, but definitely speckled.

NGC 5838, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Small round galaxy with bright core. One of a group of several galaxies (I picked up 8 tonight) clustered around 110 Virginis, a few degrees west of M5.

NGC 5854, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Faint ellipse, a little brighter towards the centre. (Sky Atlas 2000)

NGC 5846, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Round fuzzball, somewhat brighter towards the centre. Visually, this appears to be the dominant galaxy of this cluster.

NGC 5850, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Large hazy patch east of 5846 in same field. Very low surface brightness.

NGC 5831, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Small ellipse; sharp stellar nucleus with averted vision. (Sky Atlas 2000)

NGC 5813, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Small, fuzzy oval at the centre of a square formed by four stars. Brighter core with averted vision.

NGC 5806, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Very faint oval galaxy, brighter towards the centre with averted vision. (Sky Atlas 2000)

NGC 5864, galaxy, Virgo
133x. Very faint streak of light. Brighter along central axis with averted vision. (Sky Atlas 2000)

NGC 6309, “Box Nebula”, planetary nebula, Ophiuchus
133x. Small disc of light with a very close star off the western edge. Suggestion of asymmetry – northern half brighter?

NGC 6503, “Lost in Space Galaxy", Draco
133x. Large, bright lens-shaped galaxy. Unusually, no brightening towards the centre that I could see. Some nostalgia attached to this galaxy as it’s one of the select non-Messier/Caldwell galaxies that I tracked down with the SP-102 years ago. It's also one of the rare bright DSOs that wasn't discovered by a member of the Herschel family.

NGC 6543, “Cat’s Eye Nebula”, Draco
Viewed at 133x and 171x. Very bright blue-green ellipse near a bright star. 171x showed the central star embedded in the nebula and – in moments of fine seeing – a suggestion of structure in the form of two curved arms extending through and just beyond the nebula. The colour also seemed more intense at the higher magnification. On this evidence, the Cat’s Eye ranks high on the list of beautiful planetary nebulae.

M4, globular cluster, Scorpius
133x. Large, grainy globular; a little washed out, but still impressive. Amazingly, given its low altitude, I counted at least two dozen stars resolved. It may be an illusion due to the way the brightest stars are arranged, but the core region seemed more bar-shaped (on a north-south axis) than round. This must be a superb sight from more southerly latitudes.

M80, globular cluster, Scorpius
133x. Small, bright, condensed globular. Grainy, but no stars resolved.

While I was in Scorpius I took the opportunity to look at the red supergiant star Antares. It was a remarkable sight in the XT10, with the thick atmospheric turbulence at that altitude making it appear to seethe and boil, as well as cycling through a range of vivid colours from blood red to apple green.

M19, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
133x. Large, grainy – and faint – globular. A few stars resolved with averted vision. Pretty good considering its low altitude.

I had to balance the XT10 on my restored observing table to see two of the remaining three objects, such was their low altitude. The rubber feet were a little too near the edge for my liking, but otherwise it was fine.

M62, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
133x. Small condensed globular. Quite bright, but no resolution.

M9, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
133x. Grainy globular; not particularly bright. Starts to resolve with averted vision. Apparent dark patches give it a misshapen appearance.

It was 4:15 at this point, and the morning twilight was becoming ever more apparent, but there was just time for one last object.

M6, “Butterfly Cluster”, open cluster, Scorpius
133x. Glimpsed through a convenient gap in the neighbour’s tree, and still only just clearing the fence. But even then the distinctive pattern of bright stars which gives it its name was visible. Will try and revisit this one with the Ethos. Also worth noting there are only three Messier objects more southerly than this one…

Nature note:
A robin started singing from about 3:20 onwards (the beginning of astronomical twilight, but still well before dawn).

Night of the Globular Clusters

14 -15 April 2020, 23:30 – 02:45

Conditions: Slight breeze, hazy bands of cloud receding low in the southeast.

Seeing: Poor
Transparency: Average

I was in the mood for something different after all those faint galaxies, so I started a bit later than usual with a session devoted (mostly) to globular clusters. All observations carried out at 133x with the 9mm Nagler. In the XT10 this eyepiece seems to hit the sweet spot for framing and resolving globulars; also, sticking to one magnification for the entire session makes it easier to compare one cluster to another.

M13, globular cluster, Hercules
What better place to start? (I returned to this cluster several times during the session as it rose higher in the sky.) Stunning as always, and for the first time I clearly saw the dark Y-shaped “propeller feature” adjacent to the core. Like the nearby galaxy NGC 6207, I suspect it’s one of those things that becomes fairly obvious after you’ve seen it once. No overall colour to the cluster that I could see – at least not on this occasion.

M92, globular cluster, Hercules
Smaller than M13, but an impressive globular in its own right. Well resolved. Oval shape. Slight blue tinge.

NGC 6229, globular cluster, Hercules
The “baby bear” of the three Hercules globulars. Small, condensed, quite bright. Grainy, but no stars resolved.

M104, Sombrero Galaxy, Virgo
A “stop-off” on the way to M68. Long, saucer-shaped galaxy with central bulge and bright stellar core. Dark lane clearly seen offset to the south.

M68, globular cluster, Hydra
Large, faint misty patch of light, all but washed out by its low altitude and atmospheric haze. With averted vision it seemed a little mottled, but that was all I could make out. A tough object – I lost it a couple of times and had trouble relocating it.

NGC 4565, Needle Galaxy, Coma Berenices
Very long and thin compared to M104, extending almost halfway across the field of view. Star-like nucleus embedded in slightly bulging core. Dark lane cutting across core; with averted vision it can be seen extending further out across the galaxy.

NGC 5634, globular cluster, Virgo
Small, round unresolved fuzzball, not very condensed. Faint star to west, bright one to east.

M5, globular cluster, Serpens Caput
A lovely, rich condensed cluster, rivalling M13. Well resolved most of the way to the core. (It’s such a stunning cluster I completely forgot to check for colour.) Stars appear “swept back” to the east. Particularly prominent star just southeast of the core. Further away, just out of the field to the southeast, lies a bright and closely paired double star (5 Serpentis).

M83, Southern Pinwheel Galaxy, Hydra
Took a while to track down, and when I did it was literally grazing the neighbour’s fence (culminating at less than 9 degrees above the horizon!). The galaxy itself was just visible as a condensed fuzzy core, with a distinctive line of 3 stars to the south and east. Averted vision revealed a very faint surrounding haze. A minor miracle that I’m able to see a galaxy this far south (I only searched for it on a whim because the haze had cleared and all the neighbours’ lights were off). That I was able to see it all illustrates that it must be a spectacular object when viewed from more southerly latitudes.

M12, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
Unusual, spidery cluster with a pear-shaped core and two long straight “arms” of stars forming a flattened “X” shape. Also a seemingly detached clump of stars to the west and a bright (foreground?) star southeast of the core, reminiscent of the one in M5. A straggly cluster, quite well resolved, with lots of intriguing detail.

M10, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
A more “conventional” globular than M12, appearing as a rich, condensed ball of stars. Most distinctive features are a wavy arm of stars to the north and an opposing one extending south (like the integral sign or the f-hole on a violin). Well resolved.

M56, globular cluster, Lyra
Small, condensed globular residing in a rich Milky Way field. Bright star to west. Distinctive triangular core. Resolved fairly well with averted vision.

M14, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
Large, grainy, condensed cluster. Very few stars resolved – not sure if this was due to haze, interstellar dust extinction, or tiredness creeping in.

M107, globular cluster, Ophiuchus
A relatively faint, condensed cluster, smaller than M14. Grainy with averted vision. Again, possible haze/dust/tiredness affecting the view.

IC 4665, open cluster, Ophiuchus
Loose, boxy cluster of bright, blue-white stars of similar magnitude. Too large to fully appreciate at 133x, but looked very good in the finderscope and in 7x50 binoculars.

As tempting as it was to wait around for Scorpius (another constellation typically lost to the midsummer continuous twilight) to clear the neighbour’s tree, I’d been outside for over three hours, so I called it a night.

Hickson 68

12 April 2020, 21:30 – 22:45

Conditions: getting chilly, breeze picking up. Cloud cover increasing gradually. Sporadic flashes of lightning way off in the northeast.

Seeing: Poor to average
Transparency: Poor

The original plan was to photograph a galaxy or two, but as the sun set and patches of haze and cloud began to advance across the sky I abandoned that idea and hauled out the XT10 for an impromptu observing session. It was also an opportunity to put my newly restored wooden garden table to the test. (As I found out on 22 March, balancing Sky Atlas 2000 on a chair is not a practical way of going about things.)

I started with some double stars again, looking at Polaris, Cor Caroli and Izar (Epsilon Bootis). The latter was more challenging than it should have been due to the indifferent seeing, but still an impressive sight with a distinctive orange primary and a very close secondary lurking within the diffraction rings.

M94, galaxy, Canes Venatici
171x. Bright fat oval, like an unresolved globular (as noted previously). Very bright towards the centre.

I then moved over to the eastern part of Canes Venatici to investigate HCG 68, one of the few Hickson Compact Groups within range of my scope. According to sources online, these galaxies are 100 million light years away.

NGC 5353 & 5354, interacting galaxies, Canes Venatici
133x and 171x. A pair of small, very close galaxies, resembling eyes in a mask. Their long axes were angled towards each other, not unlike the 4485/4490 pair (also in CVn), although this pair were more closely matched. The southernmost galaxy (5353) was a little brighter and more condensed than 5354.

NGC 5350, galaxy, Canes Venatici
133x and 171x. Very faint round haze close to bright orange-hued star. In same field as 5353/5354 pair.

NGC 5371, galaxy, Canes Venatici
133x and 171x. Very faint amorphous haze; quite large. A little brighter towards the centre with averted vision.

The observations at 171x were mirrored at 133x: the lower magnification had less contrast, but this was balanced by the surface brightness being concentrated in a smaller area. Either way, these galaxies were a lot easier to see than Stephan’s Quintet (arguably the most famous Hickson group).

The clouds were starting to gather overhead at this point, so I called it a night.

Nature note
Two large frogs in the pond and 1000+ tadpoles!

Venus and the Moon

31 March 2020 and 4 April 2020

Okay, so not a post on deep-sky observing, but still worthy of mention because Venus was high enough and bright enough to be viewable from my back garden (as it is every eight years). To get the best view I had to locate it against a blue sky - which can be tricky if the moon isn't nearby. It was a very pretty sight at 171x, with none of the halo or colour distortion that I often got with the SP-102. On 31 March the phase was similar to that of the moon, but there was no detail in the cloud tops (not that I was expecting to see any.)

I didn’t photograph the Venus/Pleiades conjunction (a fast 300mm lens or one of those RedCat scopes would be better suited for that), but I did get a nice view of it through binoculars over several consecutive evenings.

I also got to study the moon with the 7mm DeLite and it was every bit as good as I’d expected: crisp, contrasty, and a good complement to my other magnifications. On 31 March I had my best ever view of the Triesnecker rille system, with the detail visible through the eyepiece exceeding the stacked image for once.

On 4 April the seeing was good enough for me use the 2.5x Powermate, pushing the magnification up to a whopping 428x. I previously wrote that the DeLite doesn’t have the “wow” factor of the Ethos, but this was definitely a “wow” moment of a very different kind; I’ve never seen the moon quite like that before. The detail visible in Gassendi alone was almost too much to take in. The seeing is consistently better in late summer / early autumn (in my neck of the woods at least), which bodes well for the upcoming Mars apparition.

(Back to galaxies in the next post!)