Earlier this week I observed IC 1613 with my 16” from our club site. Following the passage of clouds the sky cleared beautifully, and for the first time in months it was almost bracing at night. IC 1613 was visible at 45x with the Pentax XW40 and displayed the bar and possibly the large NE star cloud, the features that I saw with my 12” SCT two years ago. At 225x with the 8-mm Ethos the galaxy immediately showed some intricate detail at the E end of the bar. I felt compelled to abandon my observing plan and remained on IC 1613 through culmination, 01:00-03:00, completing the sketch by 04:00. At culmination the area measured 21.28 mag/sq arcsec by SQM-L, not terribly dark but apparently dark enough. Zeiss Abbe II 6 mm (300x) did not improve the view; in fact I lost many details in the narrow field.
There was a bright star in an unexpected position and I considered the possibility of a supernova, but later determined it to be the classical asteroid Nysa (m10.5).
Stellar associations (A), HII regions (H), and dark nebulae (D) are labeled on the sketch according to the Hodge Atlas of the Local Group. The labels list components in the E-W order and minor components in brackets. The field drawn is that of the Ethos, 1/2 degrees. One pencil arrow indicates the “supernova”, the other the place of the brightest star nearest to that position that was not seen.
EDIT: Our forum system (when it so decides) does some additional compression on attached images, which is not optimal. Below is my sketch referenced externally:
Last edited by Ivan Maly; October 3rd, 2013 at 12:57 PM.
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