#13 Review Of The Year

 31st December 2020

 So as this year of the plague draws to a close I thought I would look back at one of its more positive aspects. For me this was getting back out under the stars and doing some observing. The Grand Tour Project was created as motivation to get out though my initial plan of it taking two years was over ambitious. The observation of Perseus open cluster NGC 1513 ended this years observing run which had started 111 objects earlier with the giant elliptical galaxy M86 in Virgo on the 11th May. These early observations were done at a rush just ticking objects of the list rather than doing them justice. Later on I decided to take more time with each object and find out more about each of them.

  As a comet fan the highlight of the year was without question Comet C/2020 F3 Neowise. A bright naked eye comet reaching above magnitude 1  and visible from suburban skies occurs maybe once every decade. This one also looked like most peoples idea of a comet with a long sweeping tail. Other highlights include the bright Supernova in M61 and getting a look at Mars during this favourable apparition.

 Every year I am going to pick ten objects from my observations to return to sometime and have a closer look. These will be objects that have either intrigued me or surprised me or maybe I have just taken a fancy to. This year I have selected the following:

NGC 1275 and the Perseus Galaxy Cluster. Vast group of galaxies in one field of view, awe inspiring.

NGC 520  This pair of colliding galaxies in Pisces looks unusual even on my small image. 

NGC 891  Impressive perfectly edge on spiral galaxy in Andromeda.

NGC 7662 Blue Snowball Planetary Nebula Andromeda. Surprising amount of detail on small image.

M33 Local Group spiral galaxy. Amazing star clouds. Want to take a more detailed image.

NGC 7320 and Stephans Quintet.  Just dots on my image. 

NGC 7479  Beautiful barred spiral in Pegasus.

NGC 6819 Surprisingly rich open cluster in Cygnus.

NGC 6631 Could not quite work out where this Scutum cluster started or finished.

NGC 6857 I need to have another look at this Cygnus Planetary Nebula.

   Although I prefer visual observing my light polluted skies do not allow proper dark adaption to see faint objects. This year I  acquired an Atik Infinity colour video camera so I can view faint objects "live" on a laptop screen. This camera has made a big improvement to my observing and I hope to do a review of it sometime.

  Writing this blog was inspired by  "Uncle" Rod Mollise' astro blog which I have followed for a long time. Like "Unk" I have made an effort to observe the Orion Nebula M42 every Christmas Eve and this year despite being swamped by moonlight I got a nice view with my 4" f5 refractor.  With direct vision the Great Nebula looked red in colour but with averted vision this effect disappeared. A little more magnification separated the quartet of stars at the heart of the nebula.  As I packed the telescope away Leo  and the realm of the galaxies were rising in the east where the Grand Tour began in the Spring.  It was a nice way to round off the year.

M42

  So what are my plans for next year? There are a number of variable stars on the tour that I would like to follow over the year and there are also a lot of double stars to look at. Other than Mars I did not do much planet observing this year so I hope to do more. Otherwise I will carry on tracking down objects on the list and hopefully enjoy it as much as I did this year.

#12 Seeing Double

 20/12/2020

   Up to now on The Grand Tour I have only observed one double star; and that was an all to superficial glance at the showpiece double Beta Cygni. There are in fact 89 doubles on the list so tonight I decided it was time to hunt down a few more starting with three in Aries. All observed visually with the 8" SCT  f10 x210.

Gamma Arietis   Both components are magnitude 4.8  and separated by 8".  Both appear white with maybe a hint of yellow

Lambda Arietis  Separated by 37" with components of magnitude 4.9 and 7.7. The primary is a golden yellow colour and to me the secondary has a lavender blue tint.

1 Arietis   Very widely separated by about 3'  and magnitudes 6.2 and 7.4.  The primary has  a golden yellow tint and the secondary white / blue but the colours are not so obvious as Lamda just observed. 

.   A quick trip to Andromeda now with my wide field eyepiece x60 to observe Open Cluster               NGC 752  At 50' across this large cluster fills the field of view. The brightest star on view is orange and terminates the southern end. A white double terminates the northern end. The main body of the cluster sprawls out between these and is moderately rich. No fainter stars are hinted at with averted vision.

 The Infinity video camera was now attached for some galaxy hunting.

NGC 672  Spiral galaxy in Triangulum with what appears to be a diffuse elongated core. Forms a nice group with at least two other galaxies rather like the Leo triplet but fainter.

NGC 925  Barred spiral galaxy also in Triangulum. Elongated and also has a diffuse, spread out central area. Faint spiral arms are visible. A bright spot near the centre is, I guess, a foreground star.

   I never associated Perseus with galaxies but two rather fine ones make my list.

NGC 1275 and Perseus Galaxy Cluster

 NGC 1275  Magnitude 12 galaxy classed as peculiar but appears like an elliptical with a bright core. Brightest member of compact cluster of galaxies with at least 10 in the field of view. Apparently the closest super cluster  to Virgo.

NGC 1023  Magnitude 9.4 elliptical galaxy with a very impressive, bright core.

 Staying in Perseus for two fine Open Clusters.

NGC 1245

 NGC 1245  Very rich in relatively faint stars and fairly compressed. Has chains of stars curving away from centre rather like a loose globular.

 NGC 1513  Rich group of stars of varying magnitudes elongated north to south.

 To finish of the evening I had another look at Comet M3 Atlas.

Comet M3 Atlas

Well condensed nucleus with tail fading away to north - east. Around magnitude 10.

# 11 Grand Tour: 102 down 399 to go.

 19th December 2020

   A gap in the clouds allowed me to observe seven more objects starting with 3 galaxies in Cetus. 8" SCT f3.3 and Infinity camera.

NGC 584

 NGC 584 Elliptical galaxy orientated about 15' x 15' with a relatively large bright core. A star lies close to the southern edge of the nucleus. NGC 584, a spiral galaxy, is seen to the west.                                    NGC 936  Barred Spiral Galaxy with a bright nucleus. Almost edge on aligned east - west along the long axis. A fainter galaxy lies 13' to the west.          NGC 1052  Similar to NGC 936 but has an even brighter core region. About 45 degrees inclined and elongated NW - SE  12" x 15".  

 At this point a bank of cloud rolled in.

 

M76

   With the cloud rolling away to the east I headed up to Perseus which was overhead.

M76  A Planetary Nebula known as "The Little Dumbbell "  Does indeed resemble its larger namesake in Vulpecula but is rather more rectangular. Has prismatic colours either end and is aligned NE - SW. The magnitude 16 central star is not visible. This object lies in a rich field and looks like its "floating" in space.

NGC 869 and NGC 864

 NGC 869  Is the western component of the  well known naked eye double cluster along with NGC  864 to the east.  Both only just fit in the field of view. Always an amazing sight. A couple of orange stars lie between the clusters.

NGC 957 An open cluster not far from the Double Cluster.  Magnitude 7.6 and quite rich elongated E-W 20" x 8" . The brighter stars across the cluster give the impression of being foreground stars.

  Looking up after this observation a bank of cloud rolled in from the west ending the evenings session.

                                                             

#10 A Ghost and a Snowball.

 12th December 2020

      After a lengthy spell of cloudy skies a clear spell on this Saturday evening got me setting the 'scope up before the forecast rain clouds rolled in. I wanted to get a look at comet Atlas in Auriga but first tracked down nine more objects on my Grand Tour 501 list. All observed with the 8" SCT f3.3 and Infinity video camera.

M74

    Pisces contains 9 objects on the GT501, 5 of which are double stars and 4 are galaxies.

 M74 is a face on spiral galaxy some 30 million ly distant. At magnitude 10 it should be easy to see visually but as its light is spread out over 10' x 10' it can be difficult in light polluted skies. The spiral arms are visible on my image and I wondered if the star near the nucleus was a supernova as this galaxy has had three in the last twenty years!           NGC 488 is a near face on spiral galaxy about magnitude 10 and 5' x 4'.  The faint outer spiral arms appear almost like a ring around a compact nucleus.      NGC 524 This lenticular galaxy has a relatively bright well defined nucleus surrounded by faint haze. In a group including an edge on spiral to the west. 3' x 3'. The Hubble image is quite spectacular, rather like looking down a tunnel of light.

NGC 520

 NGC 520  This galaxy was a surprise in as much as it appears more like a ghostly comet than a galaxy. Further investigation reveals it is a highly distorted pair of colliding spirals and is certainly worth a closer look sometime. About magnitude 11 and 4.5' x 2' in size.

 Now I head across to Cetus for another interesting galaxy.

M77  Is a barred spiral galaxy , magnitude 10 and about 8' X 8'.  This is one of the nearest Seyfert Galaxies with an active  black hole in its nucleus.  I can see a very bright nucleus with extensions either side which look like a bar. The spiral  disc is visible with hints of structure.

NGC 404  "Mirach's Ghost"

 Heading up to Andromeda for two contrasting galaxies

.

NGC 404   Only 7' away from magnitude two star Beta Andromeda "Mirach" - which really does look like an orange blazing sun in my image. I assumed by its appearance that this galaxy is a typical giant elliptical. Turns out it is in fact a Dwarf Lenticular Galaxy only 10 million ly away , just beyond our Local Group. It is similar in size to the Small Magellanic Cloud a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way.

NGC 891

  NGC 891   Measuring 14 x 3' this edge on spiral galaxy is an impressive sight. A prominent dark dust lane runs along the midline bisecting the central bulge and disc. About 30 million ly distant and a member of the NGC1023 group. 

 NGC 7662  A Planetary Nebula known as the "Blue Snowball"  . At magnitude 8.6 and about 25" diameter I did not expect to see much structure at the resolution of my set up but on enlarging the image there are some features to be seen. Overall the slightly oval disc is blue-green with an incomplete bright ring structure within. A bright spot at the centre is possibly the magnitude 13 central star.  This nebula is around 3000 ly distant.

NGC 7662

       The 3 stars seen to the top left of the image     range  from  magnitude 14 to magnitude 15.8.

   Aries contains 4 objects on my GT list 3 of which   are double stars. The fourth is magnitude 10.3 spiral   galaxy NGC 772.   The core is very bright compared   to the faint surrounding disc. A slightly brighter   incomplete ring feature seems to be visible around     the edge of this disc which on more detailed images   is revealed as an elongated spiral arm. This galaxy is   interacting with nearby NGC 770 also seen on my   image. This brings my Grand Tour total up to 95.

COMET C/2020 M3 (ATLAS)

I finished of the session with a look at Comet C /2020 M3 (ATLAS) over in Auriga at about magnitude 8.  This comet reached perihelion in late October and passed 0.4AU from the earth. It has a condensed nucleus and tail fading to the north-west.