The annual meeting of the Finnish deep sky observers was organized at the Tähtikallio Observatory, Artjärvi, Finland in 6th-8th of September 2013. Weather couldn't have been any better, it was clear during both nights of the event, and my SQM-L gave readings of ~21.2. NELM was about 6.6 during both nights.
Tähtikallio observatory is the countryside observatory of Ursa astronomical association, the national astronomical association of Finland. Tähtikallio observatory is home for three large telescopes. The telescopes are: 16'' Meade for visual observing, 36'' Astrofox for visual observing and 16'' Alluna for astrophotography. Also the 25'' Obsession telescope of astronomy club Kvadrantti was at the site during the event.
Many interesting observations were made during the event, for example, I observed and sketched following objects: IC 1296, Parsamian 21, Abell 4, NGC 4319 & Markarian 205.
I did all of the following observations with the 36'' Astrofox -telescope.
IC 1296 is a small and faint spiral galaxy only 4′ NW of Messier 57, and it is overlooked by many. This galaxy appears as an elongated, fuzzy nebula with almost stellar core. The long axis of this galaxy is oriented in SW-NE -direction, so this galaxy is oriented in similar way than Messier 57. With averted vision, it is possible to see hints of spiral structure in the NW and SE sides of the galaxy.
Parsamian 21 is a small reflection nebula in the constellation of Aquila. There aren’t many visual observations of this object in the whole world yet, and with Riku Henriksson, we propably made the first visual observations of this object in Europe, or even the whole world!
This small reflection nebula was relatively easy to see visually with this instrument. The object has a really comet-like appearance! The nebula has a tail pointing northwards roughly to position angle 360°. The star lighting-up this nebula is embedded within the ‘head’ of the nebula. The star itself wasn’t visible visually.
Abell 4 is a small planetary nebula in Perseus, only about 40′ east of Messier 34. With OIII -filter, this planetary nebula was visible as a round, featureless disk. With the filter, the nebula was easy to see. The central star wasn’t visible.
NGC 4319 is a spiral galaxy in the constellation of Draco, Markarian 205 is a quasar just 1′ south of the galaxy. The distance of the galaxy is about 70 million light years, whereas the quasar is much more further away, the distance of it is about 1 billion light years! NGC 4319 was visible as an oval-shaped nebula with bright, stellar core. The long axis of the galaxy is oriented in NW-SW -direction. The visual size of the galaxy is roughly 2´x1´. In the NW and SE edges of the galaxy, hints of the spiral structure can be seen. The quasar Markarian 205 was visible as a star-like object 1′ south of the core of NGC 4319. The brightness of the quasar is roughly 15 magnitudes.
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