Viewing Notes
April 22, 2001
Dragoon Mountain Ranch
Obsession 20" f/5 reflector

I was planning on doing some viewing Sunday evening with fellow Obsession owner Bernie Dufresne and figured we'd have to cancel because of the weather. The beginning of the week looked terrible, mainly because of the dust cloud brought over from the Gobi Desert. Then came strong winds mid-week and clouds later on. I managed to get in some viewing in between storms that rampaged the desert southwest, actually doing some CCD imaging from my backyard on Friday evening (see results here). Then Saturday brought more wind and rain in the evening. But, Sunday was absolutely gorgeous. So we went down to our land near Benson, had a picnic, and visited John Gross's observatory. John also owns a parcel at Dragoon Mountain Ranch. The afternoon breezes were a bit on the chilly side, but they died down shortly after sunset and the evening temperature was not too unbearable, even though it was about 10 degrees cooler than normal.

Bernie didn't bring his 20" Obsession with him, instead opting to bring his lovely wife, Lucille. (Hey, Bernie's no dummy). He also brought along a custom built off-axis solar filter mask that easily fit on my scope. We checked out the two large sunspot groups on the Sun that were present at the time.

Jupiter was about 45 degrees above the western horizon and, as expected, not in the steadiest of skies. The primary was also not at thermal equilibrium and this also contributed to a degraded image of Jupiter. Still, several bands were present at at 133x, but no cloud structure could be discerned. Io, Europa, Callisto and Ganymede were all visible.

Saturn was even lower in the sky, though Cassini's division was detectable at 133x and 234x. The former magnification showed 4 - 5 satellites (I saw 5, Bernie saw 4). The Nagler 31mm (95x) gave a higher detailed image and really made Cassini's division stand out.

M42, The Great Orion Nebula was pretty spectacular with the eastern half of the dust cloud was really extended, much farther than I had remembered, especially considering that I wasn't using any nebula filters. The E and F stars of the Trapezium were visible using the 22mm Panoptic (133x).

NGC 2024, The Flame Nebula was faint, but discernable. This nebula really is much larger than expected. Bernie had an H-beta filter that we used to try to hunt down the Horsehead Nebula but we were unsuccessful. I'm convinced that this is because I don't know exactly where to look. I'll have to wait until I'm out with someone who knows where it's at and can show me.

M46 was next on the list, in part because Bernie had never seen the planetary nebula NGC 2438 that is a foreground object to the open cluster. The image was very good, looking just like The Ring Nebula (M57) nestled in the star cluster when viewed with the 22mm Panoptic. Bernie asked if I've seen the planetary nebula in the middle of Corvus and I didn't think I had. 

M104, The Sombrero Galaxy. I know where this galaxy is at and, since I was driving the scope, the planetary was going to have to wait. The dust lane was immediately visible, oriented to the left of the central bulge.

NGC 4361 was the planetary that Bernie was talking about. Very nice at 133x, looking like a fairly bright central star was visible.

I had to look up the position of NGC 4361 (previous) in The Night Sky Observer's Guide and found a picture of  NGC 4038, Antennae / Ring Tail Galaxy, on the same page. We viewed this using both the 22mm Panoptic and Bernie's 30mm Orion Lanthanum eyepiece.

Wanting to look at some spiral structure in some galaxies I positioned the scope to M51, The Whirlpool Galaxy. This was perfectly positioned high in the sky, almost near zenith and the view was the best I've ever seen. Honestly, I saw more structure than in the CCD image I took two nights earlier. This was the view of the evening for me.

We also looked at M101 which was also in the same general area, but on the opposite side of the Big Dipper's handle. Like M51, this was one of the better views I've had of this galaxy. I could easily see at least 3 of the spiral arms.

M81 was another galaxy that showed more detail than I've ever seen before. I could actually make out the spiral arms directly (no averted vision). The detail / structure I saw was very similar (maybe even better) to this image from two nights earlier, except that I saw much more contrast (and the view wasn't washed out like the CCD image).

M82 was also excellent to view, showing the knotty structure very nicely. Both M81 and M82 easily fit into the field of view with the Nagler 31mm.

Hercules was high enough in the sky now that we turned our attention to M13. Using the 31mm Nagler I positioned the great globular cluster so that NGC 6207, a distant spiral galaxy, was also in the field. Bernie was impressed, never having known the spiral galaxy was nearby.

M92 was another globular cluster that Bernie wanted to view so we took a peek. This is a very nice globular with a fairly tight central core.

Still in globular cluster mode, and wanting something better, tracked down NGC 5139, Omega Centauri in Centaurus. It was very low in the sky and the scope was about a horizontal as it could go. Neither of us thought the view was amazing enough to overcome the pain induced from the contortions necessary to get to the eyepiece.

NGC 5128, Centaurus A, was a little higher and was another first time treat for Bernie. I once heard this galaxy referred to as the Hamburger Galaxy and I think that's an appropriate description. This galaxy just happens to be on the cover of the May 2001 issue of Sky & Telescope Magazine.

Bernie asked to see M1, The Crab Nebula, and I immediately spouted my opinion that this object really isn't all that spectacular to view, looking nothing like any photo or CCD image I've ever seen. I think it is really more interesting because it is the remnant from a supernova recorded by the Chinese in 1054 A.D. In hindsight I should have kept my mouth shut and let Bernie draw his own conclusions. Instead, I think I've passed my disappointment with this object onto another astronomer. Sorry, Bernie.

 Just for grins I asked Bernie if he wanted to see 7 galaxies in the same field of view. Of course he said yes and we went to the Virgo cluster of galaxies, centering around M84 and M86. As it turned out, we were able to see 9 galaxies in the same field using the 31mm Nagler: NGC 4374 (M84), NGC 4406 (M86), NGC 4387, NGC 4388, NGC 4413, NGC 4402, NGC 4438, and NGC 4435. Here's an AAO image of the same set of galaxies oriented similar to what we saw.