STARLOG

THE QUEEN'S JEWELRY

NOVEMBER 9, 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: Somewhat Stable (7/10)
Transparency: Mostly clear
Temperature: Low 60s

Observing Summary


Tonight was mostly clear, but the temperatures were dropping quickly and there was already dew on the ground when I set up my telescope in the driveway. I hoped I could see a few new galaxies tonight, but just in case, I had a backup plan of observing some open clusters in Cassiopeia, the Queen.

My first target for the evening was the galaxy I had failed at last night. Now that I was armed with a better star chart, I was determined to track it down.

NGC 278 Cassiopeia Spiral Galaxy 8:40pm CST
  RA: 00h 52m 04s Dec: +47° 33' Mag: 11.5

This galaxy is faint, but it is detectable with direct vision. With averted vision, it appears a bit larger. The best view is 150x. The galaxy is not quite round, with an almost stellar core.

 

I tried locating a couple of other faint galaxies, but the local sky conditions just wouldn't allow it. So I started concentrating on open clusters instead.

 
NGC 752 Cassiopeia Open Cluster 8:50pm CST
Caldwell 28 RA: 01h 57m 55s Dec: +37° 52' Mag: 5.7

This is a large open cluster, taking up about 2/3 of the field of view at 50x. Most of the stars are a uniform brightness. There are a couple of bright ones forming a pair of eyes about halfway out from center. Off on one edge of the cluster is a really bright pair of stars. There is a spiral arc of stars starting at the center and going out to the bright outer pair. About 30-40 members are visible.

 
 
NGC 436 Cassiopeia Open Cluster 9:00pm CST
  RA: 01h 15m 58s Dec: +58° 49' Mag: 8.8

This is right off the tail of the Owl Cluster (NGC 457). At 150x, about a dozen stars are visible, with some nebulosity behind it. They form a 3-toed bird's foot pattern, with the brightest stars at the toes and the dimmer stars at the ankle.

 
 
NGC 637 Cassiopeia Open Cluster 9:15pm CST
  RA: 01h 43m 06s Dec: +64° 02' Mag: 8.2

This is a very sparse open cluster. At 150x, maybe 6-7 stars are visible, with a bit of nebulosity, forming a chevron shape.

 
 
NGC 663 Cassiopeia Open Cluster 9:20pm CST
Caldwell 10 RA: 01h 46m 00s Dec: +61° 15' Mag: 7.1

This is a large open cluster, more impressive than M103 and twice the size. I could see 15-20 stars present. The 25mm eyepiece shows it nicely. It looks like an iron with wings on either side of it. I will call this one the Flying Iron.

 
 
NGC 654 Cassiopeia Open Cluster 9:30pm CST
  RA: 01h 44m 00s Dec: +61° 53' Mag: 6.5

This cluster is about the size of M103. It has one bright star on one edge. The other members are about half as bright, forming little knots of 2-3 stars in an irregular pattern.

 
 
NGC 659 Cassiopeia Open Cluster 9:45pm CST
  RA: 01h 44m 04s Dec: +60° 40' Mag: 7.9

This open cluster is small and faint. About 8 members are visible, forming a loose pentagon. One point of the pentagon has 3 stars, pointing outwards.

 
 

By this point, my finder scope was completely unusable due to the dew and fog on the eyepiece. I'm going to have to come up with a solution to this. Even my telescope tube and star charts were dripping wet. Time to call it a night.