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Glad to hear it Dean. I was out for 3.5 hours myself. And what do you know, I started imagining with a little of M105. I didn't get much data, as I was futzing around with my old 1.25" focal reducer. I turns out it can't quite focus with my 2" adapter. I will need to try a "zero-profile" adapter or something. I also got out my laptop and webcam for planetary imaging, and imaged Mars a bit. I haven't looked at the data, but I'm not so hopeful. I may need to use a barlow next time.
I also observed a few open clusters in Puppis and Monoceros with binoculars for the Binocular deep sky list. I also found "Winter Albireo"(145 CMa) with my large binoculars. It looks wonderful at 22X. I also managed to see M97 with my large binoculars. That is a first for me. The tough parts were the Rochester light pollution, and that fact that my mount for those is a little too short, and just barely pans high enough to see it. Another amazing sight is M42. It looked so large. Almost like a short exposure photo. The effect of seeing it with two eyes, and with enough aperture is great! It a completely different beast than from the city.
I have a question…When I recorded NGC 3556 on Tuesday night (also known as M108, spiral galaxy in Ursa Major near M97 the Owl Nebula), I noticed a star superimposed on the galaxy near the nucleus.
Is this a foreground object or is there some sort of nova activity going on in M108?
If any of you active cold weather observers are out tonight, I'd appreciate anyone giving this a look.
Thanks!
Dean, this is oddly coincidental, but I was also looking at M108 for a long time last night as I was working with some new equipment on my 18" Obsession. I actually took a snapshot of it and attached is the photo and also a picture from the internet side by side. It appears that it is a foreground star but neither of my planetarium programs list it, although the programs do go down to 16 and 20th mag stars. See attached.
I will try to read your mind again tonight (what would Dean look at???)
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Interesting. I actually took 1 photo of it as well. I will post it when I got home tonight.
Randy, was that just a camera up to the eyepiece?
Randy, you're attached photo is exactly like what I saw. If your planetarium photos don't show that star, could it be a supernova in M108 or a faint nova from our galaxy superimposed on NGC 3556? In either case, could we be missing out on a minor astronomical discovery?
At an Eagle Bluff star party in 2006 members of the RAC spotted a nova in M51 that had been discovered by an amatuer astronomer in Germany just eight days previous.
I'll look at it again tonight, hopefully it is still there.
I need nine more Herschel 400's to pass the 300 mark. No bartending on a clear night. What a blessing!
I also got a very short look at M108 on the 3rd. Although I did see the nucleus my main objective was to find M97. I'll take a better look tonight. Read my {horse head} mind for {nebula} tonight !!!
Happy Trails
Rick
The sky was nicely transparent tonght. I got an even better view of Mars tonight than last. Actually could see some darker shading in parts along with the ice cap. That was fun. So I tured to Saturn…Very nice!! Saw just a little bit of banding. The nucleus of M108 twinkled for me…? A forground star? I think so. M81 & M82 looked very good…nice & bright. Then I noticed Hercules…M13 !!! Not yet high in the sky, I didn't get a very good view, but hey…it's one of my favorite targets. Good to see it again. We had company tonight so I did't get out until after the Horse Head was out of view…another time.
Happy Trails
RickWell, I screwed up. I got so busy looking at other stuff, that I forgot to check back on M108. ???
However, I did nail 12 Herscel 400's, a personal best for one night. All galaxies, NGC's 3412, 3414, 3486, 3489, 3504, 3593, 3607/3608, 3626, 3655, 3686 and 3621. 3621 was in Hydra, all the rest were in Leo and Leo Minor. The best ones were 3607/3608, a Herschel 400 "2 for 1" in a pretty starfield. Also good were 3655 and 3414. Oh yeah, I also HAD to check out M65/M66 when I was going after NGC 3593. Just beautiful. :-*
Moonrise was at 12:41 a.m. I also got another position on asteroid 4 Vesta, naked eye, binocular and telescopic observations of Mars (killer ice cap and some vauge surface markings), a Lunar II target, crater Linne' and for the grand finale…
Saturn, of course, right at the zenith. Atmosphere banding, 3 moons, clear gaps between the rings and the planet, definately the best look at the Ringed Planet so far this year.
A Glorious Night For Astronomy!!! (P.S. Thanks for all the great images of M108 from everyone)
The picture in the Night Sky Observer's Guide clearly shows the star, and in the text description it states, "An 8th magnitude star lies 8' west of the galaxy's center."
Hello everybody. Eagle Bluff has a small quilters group there this weekend, but the staff does not think that will interfere with stargazing.
We can have the parking lot lights off.
Weather is the main issue right now. Keep checking the forum. Maybe we'll get lucky.
Tested out my new SV105Apo and QHY8Pro imager last week and have a picture to share with a question. I captured M35 with only 3 frames at 60 seconds. Still trying to get a good flat field by adjusting the spacing on the field flattener and imager but thought this wasn't too bad with a little drift.
The question I have is just above M35 and slightly to the right 1 o'clock position appears to be another cluster or what?
John P.
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NGC2158, about 6x further away than M35 (NSOG). Invisible to my eye with a 10" under urban skies, it simply explodes into view from darker skies. The stars mostly are 13th magnitude and fainter.
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