The period of nocturnal darkness is drawing to an end here in the high north, and it is time to put the scope away for the summer season. Yesterday night was clear, and I decided to sacrifice som hours of sleep to have a galaxy observing session with my 12.5-inch Portaball. Seeing wasn't excellent, and the sky in the north was still bright when I started observing at 11:45 pm. Therefore I used the first 30 minutes to teach a friend how to locate a couple of objects. From about 00:30 until the moon came up an hour later, the sky was dark enough for some decent deep-sky work. Totally I logged 58 galaxies this night. I spent some minutes galaxy hopping with a 13mm Nagler in the central part of the Virgo cluster, and just along the chain between M84 to M88 I found 18 galaxies. Afterwards I made a stroll through M87 with its satelites, down to the Siamese twins.
After a period of observing just moderately bright galaxies, I spent some time on the large spirals in Canes Venatici and Ursa Major. With this aperture M51 clearly shows its spiral structure at 63x magnification. More detail is, however, seen with higher power. M101 is great with the 13mm Nagler. I consider it to be the most appealing of the spiral galaxies within reach of my scope. This time I also located a group of neighbours to M101. The galaxies, NGC5473, 5422, 5443, 5475 and 5485 are almost arranged in a circle. None of them are impressive, but are easily found, and will probably be within range for smaller scopes.
After a new period of fuzzyball viewing, I turned to M106 which is an awesome galaxy, impressive in size and brightness, but not showing any appreciable spiral pattern. It has two neighbours, NGC4346 and 4271 (possibly line of sight coincidence), both much smaller, but with high surface brightness. In particular I found 4271 very appealing, being so different from the large galaxy.
Another very bright galaxy in the region is NGC4449. Yesterday night I saw it for the first time in the 12.5-inch and I was really impressed. A much smaller galaxy, NGC4460 is located nearby.
I also observed some globular clusters, all being old friends. M13, of course, and M5, which I don't observe so often. M53 is still fainter, but it is well resolved. Some effort was needed to spot the "ghost" of M53, NGC5053. Now the moon started interfering, and the sky background was affected. At 115x power, however, I could see individual stars in 5053.
I also observed a pair of calaxies in Draco, NGC4291 and NGC4319. They are fuzzyballs in the 12.5-inch, but I tried to use them as a guide to the distant quasar, Markarian 205. However, the sky wasn't dark enough for me to spot this faint starlike object.
Inge S
After a period of observing just moderately bright galaxies, I spent some time on the large spirals in Canes Venatici and Ursa Major. With this aperture M51 clearly shows its spiral structure at 63x magnification. More detail is, however, seen with higher power. M101 is great with the 13mm Nagler. I consider it to be the most appealing of the spiral galaxies within reach of my scope. This time I also located a group of neighbours to M101. The galaxies, NGC5473, 5422, 5443, 5475 and 5485 are almost arranged in a circle. None of them are impressive, but are easily found, and will probably be within range for smaller scopes.
After a new period of fuzzyball viewing, I turned to M106 which is an awesome galaxy, impressive in size and brightness, but not showing any appreciable spiral pattern. It has two neighbours, NGC4346 and 4271 (possibly line of sight coincidence), both much smaller, but with high surface brightness. In particular I found 4271 very appealing, being so different from the large galaxy.
Another very bright galaxy in the region is NGC4449. Yesterday night I saw it for the first time in the 12.5-inch and I was really impressed. A much smaller galaxy, NGC4460 is located nearby.
I also observed some globular clusters, all being old friends. M13, of course, and M5, which I don't observe so often. M53 is still fainter, but it is well resolved. Some effort was needed to spot the "ghost" of M53, NGC5053. Now the moon started interfering, and the sky background was affected. At 115x power, however, I could see individual stars in 5053.
I also observed a pair of calaxies in Draco, NGC4291 and NGC4319. They are fuzzyballs in the 12.5-inch, but I tried to use them as a guide to the distant quasar, Markarian 205. However, the sky wasn't dark enough for me to spot this faint starlike object.
Inge S
