My notes on this object are meager: I have only one observation from Texas Star Party 2014 when it was found and shown to me by young amateur astronomer Santhosh Surendra. I didn't even log whether...
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My notes on this object are meager: I have only one observation from Texas Star Party 2014 when it was found and shown to me by young amateur astronomer Santhosh Surendra. I didn't even log whether...
In a recent observing session from south India (13°N latitude), I was quite amazed to see the Jewel Box with the naked eye! Of course, with an 8" telescope, it was a pretty sight despite extinction...
NGC 5139 = Omega Centauri = GCL 24
Globular Cluster in Centaurus
RA: 13 26 47
Dec: -47 28 51
Mag: 5.3
Size: 55 arcmin
Well, this week I'm escaping from trying to write a good OOTW. You can...
HCG 61 = The Box
Compact Group of Galaxies
RA: 12 12 26
Dec: +29 09 57
This compact group comprises of four galaxies, all with NGC designations:
NGC designation
Redshift (z)
Finally got to look at the Pencil from humid but dark skies at a star party in Coorg in South India (13°N latitude). The conditions were around Bortle 3, with M33 visible to naked eye as an elongated...
Excellent OOTW, and great pictures of the alps. Thanks for introducing this off-the-beaten-path object!
Thanks for featuring this excellent target, Uwe. I took a look at both NGC 918 and NGC 7497 during two nights of excellent transparency near Death Valley National Park in California, about 8 hours...
Very fascinating, Uwe! Thanks for a great OOTW, this reminds me of another such galaxy NGC 7497. I'll put this on my list.
Thanks for your report, Uwe!
Ah, so that's where the [LA83] designations in SIMBAD come from! I looked up [LA83] NGC 253 A and [LA83] NGC 253 B in SIMBAD and both are listed as galaxies. This...
Raul, that's a fantastic sketch, thanks for sharing!
Scott, there's a wealth of info in your response. Very cool stuff.
Oh, excellent. I had no idea it might be possible from the northern...
Thanks for the inspirational OOTW, I felt compelled to take another few looks at this object. I'm pleased to report an excellent view of the Heart Nebula that I enjoyed through my 25x100 binoculars....
NGC 253 = UGCA 13 = PGC 2789 = Sculptor Galaxy
Galaxy in Sculptor
RA: 00 47 33
Dec: -25 17 20
Mag: 8.0
Size: 28.8' x 5.9'
Wait, what!? How has this galaxy never been featured as an OOTW yet?...
Wonderful write-up on the history, and how they confirmed the membership of the planetary Scott!
Perhaps it was 14 years ago when a friend pointed me to this article. In one of my recent trips to...
Here are my notes on Palomar 11 from a Central Texas observing site on 2013 August 3rd using my 18" f/4.5:
Easy star-hop from Kappa Aquilae. Rather faint, but "resolved" even in 31mm Nagler. After...
I've traced out the heart twice and the soul once. Both are challenging nebulae for visual observers. Here are some of my meager notes on some aspects of the heart nebula:
IC 1795 = NGC 896: "Easy...
IC 4592 = Ced 128 = LBN 1113
Reflection Nebula in Scorpius
150' x 60'
RA (J2000): 16h 12m 00s
Dec (J2000): -19° 27' 35"
(I apologize for the very late post this week. I'm currently abroad in...
Interesting timing. This past new moon weekend, I wrote a detailed naked-eye report on the Milky Way from the pristine skies of the Warner Mountains of northeastern California in my logbooks. Here's...
Remember the good old Edmund Mag 5 Star Atlas? Flip to Map 5 and you'll see this globular plotted in Libra. In my beginner days, I generally trusted anything in Edmund Mag 5 as "visible easily in my...
I'm wondering if anyone has made a comprehensive list of observable local group galaxies. I find these to be some of the most challenging targets for visual observers, and I would like to see as many...
The only observing report I have of this object comes from perhaps the year 2005 or 2006, when I used to observe with a few friends using my 8" f/8 telescope from the variable skies of southern...
I have a log entry of KTG 61 through Jimi Lowrey's 48" f/4 telescope from 2022 April 27th.
I wrote of the night: "Steve Gottlieb and Howard Banich arrived here. The sky is terrible with...
While I'm on this thread, I might as well share the report of the tidal tail of NGC 4438 in my 18" f/4.5
This was from ~5500ft altitude Bortle 2-ish skies near Big Pine, CA but the transparency was...
Last week, during Texas Star Party, I was up at Jimi Lowrey's observatory to observe with his marvelous 48" telescope. One of the observations that stood out from the Tuesday night of TSP 2023 (16th...
Amazing sketch, Mel! You must have had excellent seeing to see so much in a 30"!
Follow-up: I just noticed you mention the seeing to be "poor to medium". Perhaps our definition of excellent seeing...
As Steve pointed out, it looks like it might be -- but no paper that I encountered explicitly calls it a "Jellyfish Galaxy". But they do talk about ram pressure stripping and this galaxy is mentioned...