A Night of Galaxies

Name: Eric Smith
Observing Site: Calhoun, GA (Earth N' Sky Farm)
Observing Date: 05/23/06
Observing Time: 9:45 pm to 1:15 am
Seeing: 7
Transparency: 6
Equipment: Meade LX 200 10"

Although conditions were not as good as I expected, it was an incredible night of viewing galaxies. 19mm Panoptic eyepiece used on most objects.

- C32, a very nice view in a 2" eyepiece w/ 1 degree FOV. Edge on with slight tilt, fills most of eyepiece.

-NGC 4656 Crow Bar Galaxy, View through 19m Panoptic, 130x, bright nucleus to one side and the other side shows irregular shape/curve.

-M99 PinWheel Galaxy, Face on showing only haze, possibly some spiral structure with averted vision

-M88, edge on galaxy, obvious but no particular outstanding characteristics

-M64 Blackeye Galaxy, with averted vision by looking to lower right the dark lanes under the nucleus are evident, and the "blackeye" does appear. Very nice site.

-M66, M65, NGC3628, This was one of the highlights of the night. Two galaxies in the same 1/2 degree FOV. I viewed these for at least 20 minutes. W. averted vision some dark lanes seem to be present. After viewing M65 & 66, slewing to the right about one field of view I found NGC3628. Wow! Closing my eyes for a while and then viewing this, it is astonishing, consuming the width of the FOV. W/ 24mm panoptic, all three are in one FOV.

-NGC 3605, 3607, 3608 all in one FOV w/ 24mm panoptic. Not hard to see and surprising upon first look. NGC 3599 should be in view also, but I didn't see it.

-C36 Nucleus is obvious w/ hazy surrounding. W/ averted vision some structure slightly evident. Nucleus seems to be off to one side. Three mag 10-11 stars in right edge.

-M51 Whirlpool galaxy was a good indicator of the lack of transparency. The arm linking the two galaxies was not evident.

-C6 Cat's Eye Nebula, looks very much like the Blue Snowball nebula, basic planetary but a bit larger and blue.

-M13 Hercules Globular, Outstanding. best in 19mm, some resolution even in the center. However, seeing not good enough to use higher magnification.

-NGC 6210, "Tonight's Sky" notes labeled this as the Turtle Nebula. However, upon slewing to it, I find that it is M12, a globular cluster. I could see how this could be mistaken as a turtle shaped nebula though. Smaller than M13, and not as resolved.

-M57 Ring Nebula, this is always a good one to check the seeing. Star on side not visible and center star certainly not visible. Definition of edges fuzzy.

-NGC 4438, "Eyes", Now this is cool. Two galaxies in one field of view that do resemble two eyes. Bright core with fuzzy halos.

- M86, NGC 4402 Two nice galaxies, one eliptical and the other edge on. NGC 4402 is below and not as large. These two are inside of the Markarian Chain of galaxies. The time was getting late and I didn't have time to explore the chain.

-Jupiter, bands evident and Great Red Spot just barely visible if perfectly focused. Two of the
moons appear very close to the planet. Best with green filter.

A great night of viewing!