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
No comments:
Post a Comment