Friday night I experienced clear skies and good seeing, and spend a couple of hours observing galaxies and double stars. Totally I logged 61 galaxies, but I didn't look closely at all of them. I spent some time galaxy hopping in the Virgo cluster, and then the number of spotted object easily becomes high. I'll mention some of the highlights here.
I always enjoy observing the Coma cluster of galaxies. The two brighter ones, NGC4889 and 4874 can definitely be seen with a much smaller scope than my 12.5-inch. A nearby 7th magnitude star disturbs a little, however, particularly if you also try to see some of the fainter galaxies of the cluster. I could see several faint light pathces in the field, but I haven't identified any individual galaxies so far. An exception is NGC4921 which lies some distant from the two giant ellipticals. It is moderately faint, but it is impressive to think about the grandeur of these objects being visible at 400 million light years' distance.
A bit south of the Coma cluster lies a bright galaxy, NGC4725. This is another of Messier's omissions, looking quite similar to NGC2907 in Leo. At 167x power it gave a clear impression of being a barred spiral.
One fun target is the galaxy pair, NGC3226/3227 near Gamma Leonis. One of the galaxies is elongated, the other one small and round, and the pair always reminds me of a celestial exclamation mark.
M61, in the southern part of the Virgo cluster is one of the galaxies where the spiral pattern can be detected in my scope. The galaxy is rather small, but bears magnification well. I used 167x, but probably 200 - 250x would bring out still more detail.
I also observed M49, slightly further to the north. N49 is an elliptical, and as such not extremely interesting. It lies very close to a 12.5 mag star which ould give the impression of a supernova in the galaxy. The main reason for spotting this galaxy was to make a galaxy hop via NGC4526 to the double star, Struve 1658. In this case it is easier to use galaxies to navigate for a double star, than using stars to navigate for a DSO. The galaxy 4526 is a good object in itself. To me it is always "the galaxy between the two stars".
M101 was great this evening, and so was M51.
I also observed several doubles this evening. Some of them are mentioned in a post under the double star forum.
Inge S
I always enjoy observing the Coma cluster of galaxies. The two brighter ones, NGC4889 and 4874 can definitely be seen with a much smaller scope than my 12.5-inch. A nearby 7th magnitude star disturbs a little, however, particularly if you also try to see some of the fainter galaxies of the cluster. I could see several faint light pathces in the field, but I haven't identified any individual galaxies so far. An exception is NGC4921 which lies some distant from the two giant ellipticals. It is moderately faint, but it is impressive to think about the grandeur of these objects being visible at 400 million light years' distance.
A bit south of the Coma cluster lies a bright galaxy, NGC4725. This is another of Messier's omissions, looking quite similar to NGC2907 in Leo. At 167x power it gave a clear impression of being a barred spiral.
One fun target is the galaxy pair, NGC3226/3227 near Gamma Leonis. One of the galaxies is elongated, the other one small and round, and the pair always reminds me of a celestial exclamation mark.
M61, in the southern part of the Virgo cluster is one of the galaxies where the spiral pattern can be detected in my scope. The galaxy is rather small, but bears magnification well. I used 167x, but probably 200 - 250x would bring out still more detail.
I also observed M49, slightly further to the north. N49 is an elliptical, and as such not extremely interesting. It lies very close to a 12.5 mag star which ould give the impression of a supernova in the galaxy. The main reason for spotting this galaxy was to make a galaxy hop via NGC4526 to the double star, Struve 1658. In this case it is easier to use galaxies to navigate for a double star, than using stars to navigate for a DSO. The galaxy 4526 is a good object in itself. To me it is always "the galaxy between the two stars".
M101 was great this evening, and so was M51.
I also observed several doubles this evening. Some of them are mentioned in a post under the double star forum.
Inge S
