Observing Nights of November 2nd and 3rd, 2016 Galaxies in Pegasus and Pisces

I took 3 days off work and spent two of them observing.  One day was spent with my son and I had a blast doing some target shooting and spending father/son time together (he’s 22 now).  The days were absoluetly beautiful and the nights ended up that way also, minus some dew. I have never really dwelt with dew issues out at my observing location on Forest Road 006.  By around 11:00pm I had to deploy my dew heaters for the 1 1/4″ or 2″ eyepieces, the Telrad, the finderscope and the secondary mirror. I did not have dew on the secondary but I did not want to risk it.  Luckily with this time of the year, I was observing between 6:30pm to 7:00pm and went to around 12:00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. when I packed up and went home to my bed.  My summer days of having to sleep over because you don’t start doing serious observing until 10:30pm or so and observing until 3:00 a.m. or later are over.  Fall is in full swing and I love that I can go to my favorite dark site, drive home, park in the locked garage and go to bed and unload in the morning!

Here are some pictures I took at the site from both days.

Driving out to the site on the Pony Express Road

Above and below: Looking south from the observing site. Notice how brown the hills/mountains and area is after a long, hot and dry summer. Awesome sky and no, at this location if the sky is like this it stays this way unless a front comes through. 

Above: Looking south per the last note

 

Looking north  to Juniper Grove that blocks the 3 lights from Vernon and from any car driving on SR 36.

Looking NE.  My home is on the other side of those mountains to the left center in the picture. 

Zoomed in view of the previous image. 

Looking west to northwest from the site. 

I add the two shots above of jetliners flying over or near the site. The first one shows a very short contrail and the second jet shows no contrail. I have often been told that short contrails show excellent to outstanding transparency and that has always held true. Long contrails ensure poor transparency since the sublimation process is slow, causing more ice to form to the contrail and attracting other particulates to it in the air. That reduces transparency (I am assuming).  Low humidity means that the warmer air from the engine quickly goes through sublimation and  thus ice crystals do not add to the contrail and it fades away. It means particles up top are not clinging or freezing to each other and thus transparency should be improved since conditions are set for overall better transparency or clarity in the atmosphere. True, false, leave a comment to expand on that if you wish. 

Above: Shadows of Night Begin to Arrive; or here comes twilight! 

Above (two images) Not pollution, the Belt of Venus 

The Moon and Venus (Venus is on the left side 2/3 up on the side)

Above: The 17.5″ Star Catcher f/4.4 cooling with collimation with Catseye Tools done, waiting for tweak with Howie Glatter System. Yep, time for the hunting bibs and parka, that when combined with the right layers kept me warm and secure each night! The bibs and parka can be seen on the step ladder.  Below each sketch I am placing the dss image that I am retrieving from The Digitized Sky Survey at LINK. In case you follow my blog I am orientating my sketches now with North up, and west to the right. 

1. NGC 16 Galaxy in Pegasus; November 2nd, 2016; 8:30pm; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi II, cold 44 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm Nagler T4 & 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II

Faint galaxy that is larger than it first appears using both averted and direct vision.  Bright inner core region with a stellar nucleus. 

2. NGC 14 Galaxy in Pegasus; FR006 Juniper Grove; November 2nd, 2016; 07:55pm MDT; v mag. 12.1, size 2.8 x 2.1; 22mm Nagler T4; 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II; Antoniadi I, clear cold, 50 degrees F; 

Faint galaxy that lays NNE-SSW. Brighter near the core with soft edge and hint of extensions on the NNE and SSW ends. 

3. NGC 23 Galaxy in Pegasus; November 2nd, 2016; FR006 Juniper Grove; SQM 21.7; 08:10pm MDT; Antoniadi I, clear, cool 48 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm Nagler T4 and 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. 

4. NGC 52 Spiral Galaxy in Pegasus; November 2nd, 2016; 08:20pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cool, 48 degrees F; SQM 21.7; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm Nagler T4 & 10mm Pentax XW; Type II Paracorr. 

NGC 52 appears to be an edge on spiral and images show a strong dust lane in the middle. Visually it is a edge on spiral but with a constant surface brightness with no brightening across it. It is more retangular/box like in shape. 

5. NGC 7042 (the large face on spiral galaxy in the middle) & NGC 7043 (smaller galaxy in the upper left).  November 2nd, 2016. 08:25pm MDT.  FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cool, 45 degrees F; SQM 21.7; 17.5″ dob, Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm Nagler T4, 7mm & 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. 

NGC 7042 is a face on spiral galaxy that is moderately bright, large and round.  This galaxy has brightening at the core.  

NGC 7043 is smaller and fainter and round. Bright core. 

7. NGC 7137 Spiral Galaxy in Pegasus; November 2nd, 2016; 08:55pm MDT; Antoniadi I, clear, cold, 42 degrees F; FR006 Juniper Grove; SQM-L 21.7; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher, f/4.4; 22mm Nagler T4, 7mm & 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. 

This is a rather bright face on spiral galaxy. It is large and oval in shape that has a slight brightening to the core with a mottled appearance. Hints of structure possible arms? 

8. NGC 7156 Galaxy in Pegasus Sc Class; November 2nd, 2016; FR006 Juniper Grove; 09:20pm MDT; Antoniadi I, clear, cold, 40 degrees F; SQM-L 21.7; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm T4 Nagler, 5mm & 7mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II.

Rather small galaxy, my sketch is larger than it is. Pretty faint surface brightness in the outer halo. Inner halo is brighter and the shape is round to slightly oval.  Well defined edges and appears mottled with some hints of structure.

9. NGC 7177 Spiral Galaxy in Pegasus, SbII; November 2nd, 2016, 9:40pm, FR006 Juniper Grove; Clear, Cold, 38 degrees F, dew rising now over 70%-75%; SQM-L 21.8. 17.5″ dob Star Catcher, f/4.4; 22mm T4 Nagler; 7mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. 

Rather large and rather bright galaxy that is elongated east to west.  Right inner core region that is not on the main axis but lays off the main axis at a 45 degree angle.  Stellar nucleus easily seen with hints of irregular surface brightness in the outer halo. 

November 3rd, 2016 (observing night 2) 

1. NGC 198 & NGC 200 Spiral Galaxies in Pisces; November 3rd, 2016; 09:05pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cold 46 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm T4 Nagler, 10mm Pentax XW, Paracorr Type II 

NGC 198 is a face on spiral (in the middle of both the sketch and the image) and is almost perfectly round with a faint outer halo and a opaque inner core. 

NGC 200 is in the upper left and is a face on spiral that is rather faint, small, and laying NNW to SSE. There is a weak concentration here with a bright core and faint extensions on the NNW and SSE ends that are hinting at structure, arms. 

2. NGC 315 Elliptical Galaxy in Pisces.  09:25pm November 3rd, 2016; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cold, 42 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 22mm T4 Nagler, 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II 

Oval shaped elliptical galaxy laying ENE-WSW. Has a diffused halo and a bright inner core. Possible stellar nucleus but could be more brightening in the central core region also. 

3. NGC 12 Spiral Galaxy in Pisces; November 3rd, 2016; 09:40pm; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cold 40 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher, f/4.4; 20mm Pentax XW, 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II.  

Small, faint and round spiral galaxy with a bright inner core region, with a stellar nucleus.  Need averted vision as it helps to hold the interior region. 

It was with this observation that though I prefer the 22mm T4 Nagler to use as my finder and in some cases, observe with it, when it is getting really cold and in the case of these two nights, somewhat dewy, enough that I hooked up my dew equipment for the first time in observing at this location, switching back and forth between a 2″ eyepiece and a 1 1/4″ eyepiece is hard to do.  So I went with the 20mm Pentax XW in the Type II Paracorr and the 10mm or 7mm Pentax XW.  Staying at the same barrel size made it easier to observe. 

4. NGC 36 Spiral Galaxy in Pisces; November 3rd, 2016, 09:55pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear & cold 38 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher, f/4.4; 20mm & 10mm Pentax XW, Paracorr Type II 

Small faint oval galaxy lying almost directly north to south, just off a tad.  Diffused halo, brighter core with a bright stellar nucleus.  A 14 mag star lies east of the galaxy. 

5. NGC 57 Elliptical Galaxy in Pisces; November 3rd, 2016; 10:10pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cold 36 degrees F; SQM-L 21.83; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 10mm & 20mm Pentax XW, Type II Paracorr. 

Rather bright elliptical galaxy yet small, adding to the concentration of surface brightness, roundish in shape. Bright core region.  

6. NGC 95 Spiral Galaxy in Pisces; November 3rd, 2016; 10:30pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I; clear, cold 34 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 10mm & 20mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. 

Rather bright and large galaxy, roundish in shape, diffused outer halo with bright inner core region, perhaps a faint stellar nucleus. 

7. NGC 125, NGC 128, 130, 127, 126.  Galaxies in Pisces.  November 3rd, 2016, 11:00pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I; clear, cold 32 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 10mm & 20mm Pentax, 26mm T5 Nagler, Paracorr Type II. 

NGC 125 is the round central galaxy in both the sketch and the image.  It is round, small galaxy that has a bright inner core surrounded by a diffused halo. Mag 12/13 double star is to the SE of the galaxy. 

NGC 127 is the faint galaxy to the west (right) of the elongated galaxy on the left side. It is very faint, small, and round galaxy just to the west of NGC 128.  Needed averted vision to see it. 

NGC 128 is the elongated and large galaxy on the upper left of the sketch and image. It is rather bright, large, elongated North to South.  It has a very bright inner core that increases in brightness to a stellar nucleus. The north and south extensions come and go though averted vision helps to hold them. 

NGC 130 is the very faint and very small galaxy to the east (left) of NGC 128. It has a small/tiny core. 

NGC 126 is the lone wolf in the lower left central portion of the sketch and image.  It is VERY faint, small, and you need averted vision to acquire it. Oval in shape at first, then perhaps slightly elongated WNW to ESE. 

FUN group and challenges exit in observing this group! 

8. NGC 137 Galaxy in Pisces; November 3rd, 2016; 11:30pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cold, 28 degrees F; SQM 21.86; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 10mm & 20mm Pentax XW, Paracorr Type II. 

Faint and small galaxy. Uneven edges, tries to be round but not quite.  Small bright core with a small stellar nucleus. 

9. NGC 379,380,383,382,385,384,375, 373, 386,388 galaxies in Pisces, also known as the Pisces Cloud;  NGC 379 is the top most galaxy, 380 is below that, 383 is the large central galaxy, 382 is below 383 on the right; 385 is the first of the larger two galaxies below 383, 384 is below 385, 386 is to the east of 383; 388 is to the east of 385 & 384; 375 is to the west of 385 & 384, 373 is in the lower right corner. 

November 3rd, 2016, 11:55pm MDT; FR006 Juniper Grove; Antoniadi I, clear, cold, 24 degrees F; 17.5″ dob Star Catcher f/4.4; 26mm T5 Nagerl, 22mm T4 Nagler, 7mm & 10mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. 

NGC 383 is the largest and rightest of the NGC 383 cluster or Pisces Cloud.  Pretty bright, moderately large, concentrated halo. NGC 383 forms a double system with NGC 383.

NGC 382 is next to NGC 383, is faint, extremely small, round in shape and a faint stellar nucleus.  SN2000dk was in this galaxy. 

NGC 379 is top galaxy, and is faint, small, elongated north to south with even surface brightness. 

NGC 380 is below NGC 379, faint, small, round with a bright core and stellar nucleus. 

NGC 385 is below NGC 383 and is faint, small, with a bright core and a little elongated. 

NGC 384 is below NGC 385 and is faint, with a bright core, somewhat elongated. 

NGC 386 is east of NGC 383 and a little lower, is very faint, and very small and round in shape. Bright core. 

NGC 388 is far left bottom, is extremely faint, and small and round. 

NGC 375 is west of NGC 385 and is extremely extremely FAINT and small and round. 

NGC 373 is far right and is also very very faint and small. 

On both nights when I was done with my sketches and observations I spent another hour just observing and then breaking down and going home.  I love observing with it getting darker sooner as I can observe until midnight and then pack up, go home, park in my garage which is locked and go to bed. I then can unload the next morning.  Great two days!