STARLOG

TRAVELLING THE ANDROMEDA ROAD

NOVEMBER 8, 2015

Observer: Tom Campbell
Location: College Station, Texas (Long: 101°56'W Lat: 33°47'N)
Telescope: Zhumell 12" f/5 Dobsonian
Eyepieces: 1.25" Plössls - 25mm (60x), 15mm (100x)
2.0" 30mm (50x)
Lenses: Celestron Luminos 2.5x Barlow
Seeing: Mostly Stable (8/10)
Transparency: Mostly clear to start, with clouds rolling in throughout the evening
Temperature: Low 60s

Observing Summary

  • ANDROMEDA: Almach, M31, M32, M110, NGC 404
  • AURIGA: M37
  • PERSEUS: M76


    • There were a few clouds in the sky tonight and the temperatures were rapidly dropping, but I wasn't about to let that stop me. I've been socked in with clouds for far too long. Besides, I had a new Celestron Luminos barlow lens I was anxious to try out. I played around with finding a few favorites, just to test the sky conditions. NGC 457 looked nice and gave me a friendly wave. I missed you, too, E.T. I swung the scope to M57 and found the Ring Nebula easily enough, but it didn't seem quite as clear as usual. I popped my 30mm into my new barlow. Big, but not great looking. Was the because of the sky conditions, or was my new barlow a big disappointment? I decided to test the sky further to find out.

    Andromeda was high overhead and not yet affected by clouds, so I decided to spend most of my time there.

    NGC 404 Andromeda Lenticular Galaxy 7:45pm CST
    Mirach's Ghost RA: 01h 09m 27s Dec: +35° 43' Mag: 11.2

    I've seen this galaxy on several occasions in the past, but looking back through my StarLogs, I realized I never did actually log it. Although visible at 50x, it was very faint tonight, appearing more as a lens reflection than a galaxy. I've seen it look a lot more obvious at this magnification, so that meant this may indeed be a challenging night. The best view was with my 15mm eyepiece. It looked oval and a bit mottled at the edges. Averted vision revealed a stellar core, with nebulosity rapidly fading from the center.
     
     
    M31 Andromeda Spiral Galaxy 7:50pm CST
    Andromeda Galaxy RA: 00h 42m 44s Dec: +41° 16' Mag: 3.4

    The Andromeda Sisters were their usual stunning selves. At 50x, all three galaxies were barely able to fit into the field. M31's core was bright and large, and the dust lane sharply cut off details along one edge. No real details were visible in the spiral arms but they did visibly extend far past the field of view.
     
     
    M32 Andromeda Elliptical Galaxy 7:55pm CST
    Le Gentil RA: 00h 42m 42s Dec: +40° 52' Mag: 8.1

    At 50x, M32 was easily visible as a small elliptical sporting a stellar core.
     
     
    M110 Andromeda Elliptical Galaxy 8:00pm CST
    NGC 205 RA: 00h 40m 22s Dec: +41° 41' Mag: 8.9

    At 50x, M110 was bashful, but could still be barely detected with direct vision. Averted vision revealed an elliptical shape to her as well.
     
     
    γ And Andromeda Double Star 8:05pm CST
    Almach RA: 02h 03m 54s Dec: +42° 20' Mag: 2.3, 4.8

    This is a nice double, even at low power. At 50x, I can detect both components easily. The primary is bright yellow-white and the secondary is several magnitudes fainter, appearing white. It looks almost like a star and planet.
     
     
    M76 Perseus Planetary Nebula 8:25pm CST
    Little Dumbbell RA: 01h 42m 24s Dec: +51° 34' Mag: 10.1

    The best view is with the barlowed 25mm eyepiece (150x). The nebula has a distinct 2-lobed appearance. Both ends are shorn off sharply, giving it an apple core shape. No real mottling or detail could be detected, although one edge did appear brighter than the rest. Using my O-III filter blocked the nebula out completely.
     
     

    I started marching my telescope towards NGC 278 and NGC 185, but at this point, the clouds were moving in quickly. Soon, Andromeda and Cassiopeia were completely covered. I turned my telescope towards Auriga, the only remaining constellation visible, even though it was still low in the sky.

     
    M37 Auriga Open Cluster 8:55pm CST
    NGC 2099 RA: 05h 52m 18s Dec: +32° 33' Mag: 6.2

    At 125x, it takes up over half the field, with hundreds of stars visible. Spectacular! The brightest star is right in the middle of the cluster. Various streams of 4-5 stars arced in various directions. The cluster was not quite round, but still impressive. Nudging the power up to 150x, the entire field was taken up by the cluster. The longer you look, the more stars you can see.
     
     

    I looked up at the sky again. Most of Auriga was now covered in clouds. A few bright stars were still twinkling here and there, but I knew my session was basically over. Only about 90 minutes outside, and not the best of conditions, but it still felt good to be under the stars again, however briefly. Even the "Doh!" moment with regards to NGC 278 couldn't hamper the evening.