06/02/19
You can't win if you don't play! Anza weather forecast was iffy for last weekend: some thunderstorms during the day, 90% humidity and some low clouds at night. I took a gamble of two days trip and it paid of handsomely.
Arrived to the Anza site on Sunday afternoon to clear blue skies - welcome change from the June gloom we are having at the coast.
At sunset heavy dew precipitated as predicted. Around 21:00 I rushed into observing fearing that I have a couple of hours tops, before the scopes get dewed.
Centaurus
This time of year low riding Centaurus reaches highest position during the evening.
NGC 5139 - Omega Centauri – my favorite glob was magnificent. Gigantic swarm of stars filled
FOV of Pentax XW 20mm (102x) in 8”
SCT. In 150ST with TV Delite 18.2mm (41x) peripheral stars merged into large bright orb of light.
NGC 5128 - Centaurus A – gal – trademark wide dark band splitting the disk in half was well resolved in Pentax XW 20mm (102x) and 150ST/Delite 5mm (150x).
NGC 5253 – gal – elongated oval with brighter central area. 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x) and 150ST/Delite 5mm (150x).
On a typical evening I would spent more time in Centaurus, but this was a special session. For the last three years I was working on Herschel 400 II list and had only 10 targets left, all were galaxies in Canes Venatici. I could not wait to start the finish run.
Canes Venatici
NGC 4395 – gal – large elongated oval with averted vision. 8”
SCT/TV Plossl 32mm (64x) and 150ST/Delite 18.2mm (41x).
NGC 4914 – gal – small oval with brighter central area. 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x).
NGC 4956 – gal – fuzzy star in 8”
SCT/XW 20mm (102x). 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x) – tiny disk with stellar core.
NGC 5023 – gal – very thin and long edge-on. 8”
SCT/XW 20mm (102x).
NGC 5103 – gal – ghost of HD 116056
. Fuzzy spot next to bright star (HD 116056) in 8”
SCT/XW 20mm (102x). 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x) – stellar core with a bit of fuzz around.
NGC 5371 – gal – large faint wide oval with small round core. 8”
SCT/XW 20mm (102x).
Supernova 2019ein
I was about to move to the next target on H400-II list but noticed the interesting looking group of galaxies near
NGC 5371. One of them,
NGC 5353, sounded familiar. Right! This is where SN2019ein supernova, recently observed by Alan (kt4hx), is located. Last reported magnitude was 14.6, below stated 14.3 mag limit of my 8”
SCT. However, the actual minimal observable magnitude depends on many factors and the sky tonight was as good as it gets. The early dew was gone completely. Air felt drier and both transparency and seeing were good (rear combo). On top of that
NGC 5353 was straight up. Now or never!
First, I wanted to scout SN location. The group of three galaxies were located next to Mag 6.4 star HIP 67778.
NGC 5350 – gal – faint round disk with brighter central area. 8”
SCT/XW 10mm (203x).
NGC 5354 – gal – small round disk with stellar core. 8”
SCT/XW 10mm (203x).
NGC 5353 – gal – small elongated disk with brighter round core. 8”
SCT/XW 10mm (203x).
There were a few stars in the
FOV. One with mag 14.3 was a faint but steady and sharp dot with direct vision at 203x. Pushing power to 290x with Pentax XW 7mm made view softer, but the mag 14.3 star was still visible. Good!
I had a printout of the area image with 2019ein labeled. At first pass there was no star at that location, but I knew it will not be easy. I tried my arsenal of faint stuff busting EPs. For a few minutes could not resolve anything and was about to give up. However, on another pass with XW 7mm I noticed a flitting spec with averted vision on the edge of
NGC 5353 disk. I could not reproduce it again with XW 7mm. But I knew the location now and switched to 10mm range EPs which gave sharper views. BCO 10mm and Delite 11mm did not deliver. However, with XW 10mm over next 10 min I caught a few sightings of blinking dot with averted vision. It was only detected by moving, shaking or tapping on the
EP. However, I am confident enough to call it … score!
It was definitely more than 2 fold dimmer than the 14.3 mag reference star, which places it in 15 mag range.
It was an hour long eye-popping assault on 15 mag target near zenith. I needed a break. For the next half hour I set in a chair enjoying naked eye views of summer sky riches. Milky Way was magnificent, stretching unbroken from Cassiopeia to Sagittarius. Great Rift and smaller dark dust clouds interweaved with bright star fields with level of details typically seen only in images. Rejuvenated I went after a few galaxies left on H400-2.
NGC 5383 – gal – wide oval with averted vision, brighter central area. 8”
SCT/XW 20mm (102x).
NGC 5440 – gal – stellar core, small narrow disk with averted vision. 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x).
NGC 5444 – gal – oval disk with averted vision, stellar core. 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x).
NGC 5445 – gal – tinny narrow rod in the same
FOV with
NGC 5444. 8”
SCT/XW 14mm (145x).
And Herschel 400-2 is completed!!! What a ride! Took me over two years and I have enjoyed every moment of it.
Jupiter
By midnight Jupiter was high enough to give it a shot. I loaded 150ST with Delite 5mm and took a look. There was a strong blue halo around Jupiter disk from
CA, but otherwise it was the best view I have gotten from 150ST so far. Lighter divisions in the North and South Equatorial Belts were well resolved and I immediately spotted black sharp little circle of moon’s shadow. SkySafari confirmed that Io was in transit.
I switched to 8”
SCT. Pentax XW 10mm, TV Delite 11mm and BCO 10mm all delivered great views. At the moments of better seeing festoons in the belts were well resolved. Close to opposition (which is June 10) Jupiter was super large and super bright. Temperate zone details were lost in the intense glow, even with filters.
For the next few minutes I worked with filters and EPs to resolve Io’s disk against the planet in addition to the well-defined shadow. Finally, with Light Red #23A filter I spotted a little light brown disk in front of the black shadow against dark brown belt. I switched to Baader Moon and SkyGlow + Contrast Booster filters combo and managed to resolve Io’s body again as half circular beige dent in the red-brown belt. TV Delite 11mm delivered the clearest view of Io’s body, followed by BCO 10mm. I could not resolve it with Pentax XW 10mm.
Overall, it seems that Delites have slightly better contrast and deliver a bit more details in both
DSOs and planets over BCO and Pentax XW. While Pentax is the ultimate winner in picking the faintest targets; slightly better than BCO and Delites. I picked a few XWs and Delites to test and see which set would replace my 82 deg EPs which I am phasing out. Now I want to keep both.
Over the evening I saw a few meteors. Also, I was playing with my new Stellarvue finderscope. It takes 1.25” EPs but F4 ratio makes it fussy about
EP quality. In no time I have discovered that it has a test for fine things and prefers Pentax XW and Delites over other stuff.
But boy I was getting great 7 deg vista views of Milky Way clouds with XW20.
Well, this was the night I did not want to end, but I still had to go to work next day. Reluctantly, I wrapped it up around 02:00.
