Embedded Files
Transcendent
April 30, 2019 observations:
I've been looking for a single word to sum up my observing last Tuesday night (April 30 – May 1, 2019) in West Texas with Jimi Lowrey and his 48-inch scope, and transcendent is as close as I can get. I really need a better word though. The rest of the week ranged from merely incredible to pretty good.
Steve Gottleib and I arrived at Jimi's around 10:30 pm on the evening of the 30th and promptly joined him at the 48-inch. The first thing we looked at was CGCG 122-67, a Super Spiral galaxy at 1.2 billion light year travel time. By then it was 12:18 am and I took my first SQM reading - 21.98. I didn't believe it so I took another four readings - still 21.98. Huh.
A perfectly dark sky is supposedly 22.00 so it doesn't get much better. But it did.
By the time we got to M51 seven SQM readings averaged 22.05. Given that every Sky Quality Meter will give a different number when measuring the same sky at the same time there's no way to know the accuracy of any particular value, but relative to readings I've gotten using this same meter for the past ten years, these are the darkest readings I've gotten. The previous darkest was 21.92 at the Golden State Star Party a couple years ago.
The SQM gave readings between 21.90 and 22.06 for four solid hours on this Tuesday night, an amazing streak of dark sky.
But it was the sky that was transcendent. The Milky Way looked ropey, knotty, textured, billowing, bright, dark and very wide - and I've never seen it so 3D, with so much depth, and it was only about 30 degrees above the eastern horizon. It became even more jaw dropping the higher it rose.
At one point Jimi pointed out that Hercules had a backdrop of faint naked eye stars that made it look like a huge open cluster. I'd normally need binoculars to see those stars. M92 was an easy naked eye sight as well.
The entire sky had a remarkable depth and cleanliness I've seen only a few times before.
The transparency was almost as excellent as the darkness, and the seeing was fairly steady as well, as we had sharp stars in the 48-inch scope from 488x to 564x all night. The overall stability of the observing conditions was unprecedented in my experience. We were giddy!
CGCG 122-67
Arp 260
M87 Jet
AGC 1704 CD galaxy at 2.65 billion light years travel time
UGC 8281, MCG +08-24-079, LEDA 214090 and CGCG 245-031 (not labeled in my observing notes)
M51 along with IC 4277 and IC 4276. I saw 4277 as an edge on galaxy for the first time, and 4276 looked like it had a double core.
Mitchell's Object
Teacup ADM
Rose 15 - the galaxy with the apparent double core is UGC 8728, and actually has only one - the other is a magnitude 17.3 red star superimposed on the galaxy.
Arp 69
ACO 2151 Arclet. Yep, we saw a lensed arc! The bright galaxy right next to it, and presumably the lensing galaxy, is MCG +03-41-095.
M102
May 1, 2019 observations:
The following night was almost as dark- SQM ranged from 21.81 to 21.90 all night with good transparency and good seeing.
Hubble's Variable Nebula
AGC 1390
Arp 198
IC 2657 at 2.1 billion light years travel time
IC 2661 - in my observing notes I mention a star right next to the edge on IC 2661 - turns out this is the core of a companion galaxy at the same light travel time of 923 million years.
NGC 3319
M65
NGC 4419
NGC 4485 and NGC 4490
OGC 581 at 1.7 billion light years travel time
Arp 220
NGC 5921
UGC 9830
UGC 9829 / KTG 61
PGC 1981854 at 2.7 billion years light travel time
NGC 5777
Markarian 830
May 2, 2019 observations:
The third night was shortened by high humidity - telescopes are shut down when the humidity hits 95% in West Texas. No one wants a wet telescope.
UGC 5281
Arp 291
NGC 5474
Hickson 56
NGC 3953
Arp's Galaxy
May 3, 2019 observations:
The final night on the 48-inch was merely excellent but had more typical variations - the seeing and transparency fluctuated all night.
NGC 3242
NGC 3801
M104 and UCD 1
Hickson 73
Corona Borealis Galaxy Cluster
OGC 34 at 3.0 billion years light travel time
NGC 4725
NGC 5421
Arp 239
Shakbasian 289
MAC 1515+0235, the most luminous Super Spiral galaxy at 1.79 billion light years travel time
M22's newly discovered nova nebulosity (didn't see it but its location is easy to find)
Shakbasian 22
NGC 6888
May 4, 2019 observations:
The first night on the McDonald Observatory's 82-inch was shared with 14 other paying customers so we each got only a quick look at each object, but the scope operator, who Steve and I know, was open to suggestions as soon as it got dark. We had to leave at 2 am for the next group of observers, but the transparency had nosedived by then so it was easy to leave and get some sleep.
NGC 3242
IC 2487
Shakbasian 1
Hickson 56
NGC 4028 and NGC 4039
M87 Jet
M100
M104 and UCD 1
M3 star colors
M51
May 5, 2019 observations:
The second night on the 82-inch, and the final night of observing for this trip, was completely off the hook. It was the 80th anniversary of the 82-inch - which was why the scope was open for visual observing during a dark period instead of collecting data - and this night (Sunday) had only a few University of Texas staff signed up to observe, and they all left by midnight.
So, it was just Steve Gottleib, our friend and fellow amateur astronomer Jim Chandler operating the telescope, and myself for the next two and a half hours. We looked at whatever we wanted with the 82-inch, which is a fabulous visual instrument by the way, and it wasn't lost on us what a special opportunity this was. When the scope was commissioned 80 years ago it was the second largest scope in the world and here we three amateurs had it to ourselves.
Good gracious, what would Edwin Hubble have thought?
Unfortunately, high clouds shut us down at 2:30 am so it was another short night, but since we had a three-hour drive to the El Paso airport a few hours later that was just as well.
Palomar 3
M61
IC 3138 and IC 3187
M104 and UCD 1
NGC 4898 and NGC 4889 group in the Coma galaxy cluster
Arp 240
Markarian 273
The Mice
Arp's Galaxy
VV 752 (high clouds spoiled the view)
Hoag's object (high clouds spoiled the view)
By the way, the weather forecast when I left home on the morning of April 30th showed only the night of the 30th would be clear in Ft. Davis. A normal weather forecast can't predict an incredible night like the 30th, so in the end we beat the forecast for six straight nights. To me, that's as amazing as anything about this trip!
My notes and sketches from all six nights:
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse