Hey folks
This report is coming somewhat late. I was out observing with my 18" near this place called Pontotoc, TX, USA. There was some cirrus in the sky, but the skies seemed good enough for some serious observing. (I'm copying content of some of this report from a post I made on another mailing list.)
I composed my observing list mostly from Steve Gottlieb's website, the Hickson catalog, and some of the OOTW on this forum.
Abell 46:
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Abell 46, which I picked off of Steve's website, was "very faint, but could feel some non-uniformity, although it might be because I had been prejudiced by the DSS imagery."
HCG 89:
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Hickson 89 seemed much harder than it looked on the DSS plate. Only one galaxy was easy. The rest two were just felt on occasions.
HCG 90:
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Hickson 90 was very easy. It was just spotted easily without precise star-hopping. All 3 members were easily seen. I did not try for the features, which is stupid in hindsight.
Burbidge chain:
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The two ends of the chain were the easiest galaxies to observe, and the brighter intermediate member was observed with great difficulty. The elongation on the
brightest (north end) member was easily seen. I ignored the fainter two intermediate members, and the fainter stray galaxy in the field. There were a few instances when all three galaxies appeared in a neat line. (I'd love to try and borrow a view of this on larger aperture some time!)
NGC 520:
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I came across this galaxy on the OOTW for Arp 199. Much as I tried, I couldn't reconcile the picture and the observation. It definitely appeared weird and asymmetric in the eyepiece.
Barnard's Galaxy:
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One of the things I tried and did was to observe Barnard's Galaxy to try and pick out nebulosities.
I initially thought I could use Paul Hodge's atlas of local group galaxies as reference (I have it checked out from my university library), but I found out that it was hard to use on the field. Any pointers on how to effectively use Hodge's atlas will be greatly appreciated (especially since I've seen so many of the DSF's members cite it on their websites.) I ended up just using the picture of Barnard's Galaxy on the cover of the same book as reference instead of the charts inside it. I was able to spot the three brighter nebulosities in the galaxy. This, along with the MCG planetary nebula from Larry Mitchell's "Rings over TSP 2000" list, makes it a total of 4 nebulosities in Barnard's Galaxy. I plan to re-visit it more carefully. Any guidance on this subject is much appreciated!
Warm Regards
Akarsh
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