Observing Log for Mike Durkin
5/29/2008 about 8:00 PM-11:00 PM
AOS StarFest
Stone Tavern Farm, Roxbury, NY
Transparency: 10/10, seeing: 2/5
Temperature: about 50 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 PEC
AOS's second star party once again at the Stone Tavern Farm. I got up there a day early along with Geoff
and Bill Br. Sue French, one of the speakers for the Starfest also joined us that night.
I decided to use this time to try to nab some galaxies in Virgo since I haven't really observed
galaxies there. Last week at the beach I took pictures, and for today I just wanted to observe.
M98: Observed with 17mm(118x). Appeared as edge on spiral. Estimated 5-10 arcminutes in length.
M99: Observed with 30mm(67x) and 17mm(118x). Looked somewhat like a comet. After a bit was able to see some
irregular brightening. Estimated 5-10 arcminutes diameter.
The high point of my night, M86, M84, NGC 4388, and NGC 4387 all in same field of view at 30mm(67x).
The whole thing almost resembled a face.
M84 and M86: The eyes of the face, both circular, I'd estimate about 5 arcminutes in diameter each.
NGC 4388: much dimmer than M86 and M84, looks like edge on spiral estimated less than 5 arcminutes in length.
NGC 4387: This galaxy wasn't on the original chart that I was looking at, but I thought I saw it faintly at
30mm(67x). At 17mm(118x), I was better able to see it, I'd estimate about 2-3 arcmintes in size.
I confirmed the galaxy after I had Starry Night display more galaxies and the chart matched up with
what I saw.
NGC 4438 and NGC 4435: Also known as "The Eyes". Observered at 30mm(67x) and 17mm(118x). They appeared
as 2 ellipticals, and like their nickname. Seemed about as bright as NGC 4388. I'd estimate about
2-3 arcmintes each, maybe 5 arcmintes of separation. NGC 4438 is displayed in pictures and my
star chart as possible an edge on spiral, however I was only able to see the core which looked elliptical.
M87: An elliptical galacy about 3-5 arc minutes in diameter. Observed with 30mm(67x) and 17mm(118x)
M89: A smaller (2-3 arc minutes) elliptical looking object. Not quite as obvious a galaxy. Observed with 30mm(67x)
M90: An oval shaped, somewhay bright galaxy, about 10 arc minutes in length. I was also
able to see galaxy IC3583 right next to M90 in the same field of view. Observed with 30mm(67x)
5/23/2008 8:00PM-12:00AM
Robert Moses State Park
Transparency: 9/10, Seeing: 3/5
Temperature: 40-50 degrees
Equipment: Celestron Ultima 8 with PEC, Modified Canon XT
I had a chance to leave work early for the Memorial Day weekend. A couple of AOSers
said that they were going down to the beach, so I headed down there as well.
First I observed Saturn along with a couple of it's moons.
Then I started to look for galaxies in Virgo, since I never really had a chance
to look there in the past. I started at Vindemiatrix heading towards Leo and soon was
able to find a galaxy. I assumed that it was a Messier object and started taking some
DSLR pictures of it. I thought my polar alignment was pretty good, but it wasn't
good enough for unguided pictures longer than about 1-2 minutes. This still isn't
quite long enough since I was trying to get the histogram to stop clipping on the black side.
So I was able to get 1 decent picture below. It is a single light frame, no darks or flats.
After I got home I matched the star field in Starry Night and found that this galaxy is
NGC 4526. I also compared the field with the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, and say that I also had
2 background galaxies in the field, NGC 4518 and PGC 41666. I have seen both galaxies
identified as being NGC 4518 as well.
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