#4 COMET NEOWISE: A SUMMER VISITOR.

     The long hours of daylight during June and July usually result in very few observing opportunities.  But when I found out Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise had survived perihelion and was a naked eye object in the late evening sky I  had to see it.  At 22:00 UT on 16th July I scanned the still twilit northwest horizon and thought I could make out an elongated misty patch in Ursa Major. With 8x40 binoculars the comet was revealed. The nuclear region was very bright - around magnitude 2 and disc-like but no stellar nucleus was seen. The outer coma had a greenish hue and  extended into an elongated tail of several degrees length. Hints of structure could be seen in the tail. This comet reminded me very much of a smaller version of Hale - Bopp back in 1995. The image was taken on the 19th July with the Atik Infinity camera and the 4" f5 refractor 8x10s exposure.

   I observed the comet again on the 27th July by which time it was positioned to the south of the Plough. It seemed slightly dimmer than before but could still be seen with the naked eye in my light polluted sky.

  As observing a bright comet is on my Grand Tour this deserves to be my 39th observation.

           

#3 GRAND TOUR PROJECT : 38 down 462 to go.

        The night of the 20th May was very clear so I decided to leave the camera in its box and do some visual observing with the 8" SCT f10 at x60. With Leo and Virgo heading into the gloom of my western horizon I decided to have a look at what Canes Venatici  had to offer.  It had a lot to offer as I soon discovered

M3    Certainly one of the best  Globular Clusters in the northern sky. The outer stars were resolved but faint whilst the core was round and well condensed. Several brighter stars (foreground?) were seen on its western edge.

M63   This Sbc galaxy was a surprisingly bright oval elongated east - west. I could not detect a "core" but rather a brighter, mottled central area surrounded by a fainter halo. There is a bright foreground star on its western edge

M94   The third Messier object in Canes V.  is a Sab galaxy. It has a striking bright, round core surrounded by an easily visible halo. Appears to be elongated slightly east - west.  

NGC 5005  This spiral galaxy is a large, bright oval with an elongated brighter central area aligned east - west.

NGC 5033 Another Sbc galaxy larger than 5005 but with a lower surface brightness and more gradual brightening to centre. Some structure is glimpsed.

NGC 4631 This Sbn galaxy appears as a large elongated oval of ratio 4:1 and aligned east - west . It gradually brightens towards the centre.

NGC 4490 Smaller and brighter than 4631. Elongated 3;1 NW - SE with gradual brightening to centre.

         At midnight the clouds rolled in and put an end to this session. I was very impressed by the galaxies in this constellation as they were much larger and brighter than expected.

          The night of 22nd May was probably going to be my last chance to observe before darker nights return in August so concluded the first stage of the Grand Tour with three classic Messier objects in Ursa Major.

M81 Fabulous Sbc galaxy. Bright well defined nucleus with sweeping spiral arms and dust lanes visible as the image built up.

M82 This peculiar starburst galaxy showed much detail including dust lanes and brighter areas.

M97 The "Owl Nebula" is one of my favourites. I have seen the "eyes" visually on a darker night but tonight the imager is needed to see them.

    I finished of the night with a look at comet C/2017 T2 Panstarrs at magnitude 8.7. which showed a nice "antitail" pointing towards the sun.

                                                                           M82

                                                  COMET C/2017 T2 PANSTARRS

#2 GRAND TOUR PROJECT: First observations.

38 DOWN 462 TO GO.

The project  finally got underway on the 11th May with the giant elliptical galaxy M86  in Virgo.    With the nights getting shorter I decided concentrate on the realm of the galaxies before Virgo and Leo sank into the summer twilight.

    5 more galaxies were imaged that night  M49, NGC 2903, NGC 3190, NGC 3227 and NGC 3377.

( Objects on GT500 list highlighted in blue)

M86

              The 15th of may added 11 more galaxies to the tally including giant elliptical M87 in Virgo  along with  a Leo contingent M105, M65, M66, NGC 3384, 3412, 3489, 3521, 3593, 3607 and 3628. On 13th May Spiral Galaxy M61 and its recent  Type 2 Supernova  were imaged along with galaxies NGC 3640, 4429, 4435,4438,4442,4526, 4527 and 4535.                 As luck would have it another bright Supernova, this time a Type 1 was observed in  NGC 3643  ( Not  on the GT500 list) The supernova this time  was much brighter than its host galaxy!                   

                                                                                  

 

M61 and Supernova

                                                                                

                                                                     M65 AND M66

 

  

  NGC 3643 and Type 1 Supernova