Object: Large Magellanic Cloud
Date: 01. 06. 2013.
UT.: 18hr44m – 21h36m
Equipment: 120/600 Sky-Watcher achromatic refractor, star diagonal
Mag.: 15x
FOV: 8 deg x 8 deg
S=8/10
Observer: Kernya János Gábor
Location: Farm Isabis – Red house (Namibia)
Hi All,
A while back my eye was caught by an image I saw in Mark Bratton’s Herschel book of what turned out to be a galaxy (NGC 3081) in Hydra, at first glance I took it to be a planetary nebula, something along the lines of the Saturn nebula but without the ansae.
Last night having got band from playing my harmonica at the band rehearsal and with a lovely clear sky I decided to take a look, lying pretty close to the well loved Ghost of Jupiter planetary, it was well placed for me to observe on Tuesday evening.
I found this to be a rather unusual galaxy, having a distinct bright central nucleus and a definite outer ring, slightly elongated E-W but basically a ring, some discernible haze outside of the right but no evidence of any structure connecting the ring to the nucleus or of any arms projecting out from the ring, therefore back to my original thoughts that it looked like a planetary nebula with a bright core, stellar illuminated with a fainter outer shell of expanding debris.
Galaxy
Spain
March 2014
White paper/pencil + Photoshop
Telescope: Astro-Physics Traveler EDF 105mm F/5.8
Eyepieces: Televue Ethos 10mm, Pentax XO 5mm
Transparency: 3/5, 21.2 SQM
Seeing: 2/5
Hello,
Two and a half hours of clear sky at 04.February 2014 were sufficient to hold the SN in M82 and take a long walk on the winter night sky.
After a tough cloud cover and then the mist had dissolved about 21:00 clock, I could start the observation with the TMB 115/805 Apo.
The supernova was a really great thing! Very bright and striking beamed the SN in the “cigar”. After a brief enjoyment, I started with the sketch!
Unfortunately, the review was only mediocre, so blurred finer structures of the galaxy almost. Nice to see was the interruption in M 82 and south two light specks.
CS Uwe
Object: Galaxy M82
Object Name: SN 2014J
Telescope: 115/805 TMB
Eyepiece: 6mm Baader Genuine Ortho
Magnification: about 110x
Location: near Tauberbischofsheim Germany
Good afternoon all,
I had to push myself last night to grab an observation through a clear sky window. Family taxi duties, followed by a music practice session at a friend’s house saw me return home under a cold clear sky with a frost already forming. I had intended to be in bed early as I had to be up at 5am for work, but! I couldn’t pass by a chance to grab a sketch before the moon rose could I?
I had nothing planned, so I looked through the Arp catalogue for something new in the vicinity of Orion, there were a few Arp’s that I hadn’t got but they lacked any wow factor so I looked to Herschel’s NGC observations, noting that NGC 1954 looked both attractive and a little different, this lay in Lepus beneath the giants feet. I star hoped to this mag 11.8, 4.2’ x 2.0’ spiral, it appeared rather faint on the monitor, I adjusted the monitor controls to maximise the contrast and the remote camera controls, I then went out into the observatory and lowered the southern observing flap, as this was cutting the 500mm aperture down by around 50%. This improved things but it was by no means bright all considerable detail was displayed. I drew in the main field stars and when I came to work on NGC 1954 itself I turned all the lighting off to elevate the contrast still further in an endeavour to pick out all the structure that I could. A smaller companion galaxy NGC 1957 which appears as an extended amorphous fuzz to the upper left in my sketch is a more distant mag 14 spiral.
Once my sketch was completed I was quite pleased after my initial disappointment at the targets lack of ‘star’ quality. Taking my SQM reading of the observation area, low in the south towards London showed as just 19, compared with 20 overhead, however the Moon was now above the horizon to the east.
In all a worthwhile observation, which had taken an hour and resulted in a reasonable sketch of an interesting and new galaxy for me.
Clear Skies to you, Dale
Do you want to know more about my interest in astronomy? If so take a look at my Website: http://www.chippingdaleobservatory.com/
Keep up to date with observations from Chippingdale Observatory by reading the Blog http://chippingdaleobservatory.com/blog/
NGC 5907 Draco
16 ” 180-240x fst:6m3 SQM 21,42
Kreuzleshöhe 1100m, Germany
At last I caught the supernova in M99, I made this sketch using the 505mm mirror and Watec 120n+ video camera on Thursday 27th Feb.
Regards Dale
Do you want to know more about my interest in astronomy? If so take a look at my Website: www.chippingdaleobservatory.com
Keep up to date with observations from Chippingdale Observatory by reading the Blog http://chippingdaleobservatory.com/blog/
Object Name: NGC 1023 Group
Object Cluster galaxies between Andromedae, Triangulum and Perseus
Location: Bonilla (Cuenca) – Spain. November 2. 2013 – Male 6.0
Media:
– Sketches made torchon with black and white pencil on paper and processed with GIMP.
– New 10” – 80x
Group NGC 1023 is a galaxy cluster late-type ( spiral and irregular ) that are around 10Mpac .
Just below the Milky Way and in one area, we x 10 º 10 º , which occupies part of the constellation Perseus , Andromeda and the Triangle found this cluster of galaxies .
Full members of the cluster :
– NGC 925 ( UGC dominates a subgroup with UGC 1865 and 1924)
– NGC 1023 ( is the principal of the whole cluster and leads another subgroup with NGC 891, NGC 949, NGC 1003, NGC 1058, UGC 2014 , UGC 2034 and UGC 2259 )
– NGC 746 and IC 239.
The amateur who has a tube 8” or 10” and a sky at least one stellar magnitude of 6, can see how little its four brightest members : NGC 1023, NGC 891, NGC 925 and NGC 1058.
Contemplation while these four galaxies of the same cluster and a similar distance , allow us to easily appreciate the different morphological characteristics and the actual importance of the size and mass of each .
Greetings to all visitors of this page.
Pedro Villamiel Gonzalez. Alcorcon, Madrid. November 03.2013
I saw SN2014J in M82 on Korean New Year night.
It is very surprise event to me, since I’ve never seen bright supernova.
Already I saw some supernovas in 2011. (M51, M101, NGC2655)
But that is more dark than this one.
I feel some futility.. because it is too easy to observing 🙂
I drew a sketch with 10″ dob, black paper and white pastel & jelly pen.
And I compared with my previous M82 sketch.
It is so interesting, I want to share everyone!
(original sketch : http://www.nightflight.or.kr/xe/files/attach/images/25489/716/121/453c7cb7b53fccfc7ac22288b35e05ed.jpg)
Object Name (SN 2014J in M82)
Object Type (Supernova in galaxy)
Location (Provence – France)
Date (Feb 2nd 2014)
Media (graphite pencil, watercolour on white paper)
Hello sketchers, here is my contribution to the observation of SN 2014J.
From Jan. 23rd till Feb. 11th I spend a lot of good time with the M82 supernova. Sketching the galaxy, estimate the visual magnitude and made watercolour of the sceneries.
Sometime I observed with friends and their materials, sometime I’m alone on the middle of no where, between the Provencal wild nature and the dark sky. Here in south France the temperature is quite high for the season but wind blows, so, often I place my car to protect the 12” Dobson from the mistral.
Attached is a kind of “auto portrait” (yes, that’s me!), from a photo I take tonight. On the basis I add the AAVSO curve with my own visual observations (blue cross is DMIB).
The technique used is inverted watercolour, so I invert the colours of the sketch while scanning. For the galaxy this is common sketch black on white – inverted.
Thanks to read this, clear sky to you all !
Michel
