Location: Anza desert site,
Equipment: Celestron 9.25” Edge HD
EPs:
Pentax XW 10mm, 70 deg (235x, 1.0mm exit pupil, 0.30 deg TFV)
Pentax XW 14mm, 70 deg (168x, 1.4mm exit pupil, 0.42 deg TFV)
Pentax XW 20mm, 70 deg (118x, 2.0 mm exit pupil, 0.6 deg TFV)
Once again cloudy sky with some rain at our home location, but clear weather at the desert site. Drove there on Saturday, and since bright Moon dominated the evening, I opted for the morning session instead. Set the camp and deployed the scopes. Had dinner watching sunset and went to sleep for a few hours.
Woke up past midnight. Orange Moon was setting down and I enjoyed moonset for a few minutes. Once the Moon set the sky got turned on. Unfortunately, light domes from distant cities became permanent feature at my dark site, but above them the sky was magnificent. Gemini and Orion were rising in the east. Milky Way while weak in Auriga became well-structured above, and Cassiopea and Perseus star patterns were lost in its glow.
00:45. JUPITER
Inspired by recent post from Gabby (Lady Fractor) I have started my session with Jupiter, high in Aries. Close to the opposition it was blindingly bright. I have used my left eye to preserve the dark vision in my right, galaxy eye. Tried a few filters, and the combo of Baader Contrast Booster + Moon & Sky Glow filters produced the best contrast, while preserving natural colors.
The temperate belts and shading of the polar regions were barely visible in the intense glow. The most prominent feature were the two equatorial belts. They had jugged look from festoons and turbulence. North Equatorial Belt was partially separated in two. I did not see anything out of the ordinary (235x).
Before going out I always check if there are any new comets or asteroids available, and there were a few this time.
01:00. COMETS
103P/Hartley – mag ~10, size 3.0’ comet in Auriga. Large but faint and diffused
C/2020 V2 (ZTF) – mag ~10, size 4.0’ comet in Fornax. Smaller but brighter comet with compact
I think magnitude/size prediction for one of these two comets were off (likely for 103P/Hartley).
ASTEROIDS
(60) Echo – mag 11.5 asteroid in Pisces (118x).
(123) Brunhild – mag 12.8 asteroid in Aries (118x).
(182) Elsa – mag 12.4 asteroid in Taurus (118x).
(304) Olga – mag 13.0 asteroid in Eridanus (118x).
(313) Chaldaea – mag 12.4 asteroid in Pisces (118x).
(429) Lotis – mag 12.9 asteroid in Pegasus (118x).
By 02:00 I have finished the Solar system portion of my session and was looking for a good area to hunt galaxies. East to south sector has the darkest sky at my site and Fornax, the constellation I rarely visit, was at it highest in that area.
FORNAX GALAXY CLUSTER
I was not aware of the Fornax Galaxy Cluster until I looked for the first galaxy on my Fornax list and realized that I am in the middle of a galaxy field. I have spent next two hours going from one galaxy to another within this field. Despite all targets been below 30 degrees altitude, some barely above the horizon, it was smooth and enjoyable hunting, testament to the sky quality in that direction.
FORNAX GALXIES
Next few galaxies were from Fornax but don’t belong to the Fornax Cluster.
04:00. It was a good run, but before wrapping up I wanted to catch couple more galaxies of Herschel 2,500 list I am working on. I overlooked them last year and had to wait for them to rotate back.
ERIDANUS
LEPUS
