OR Pinnacles Wednesday night the 8th
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Jamie Dillon, DDK
Jul 12, 2026, 4:38:00 AM (2 days ago) Jul 12
to The Astronomy Connection (TAC)
Peter Natscher earlier said we had fun at the Pinnacles on Wednesday night. You can believe Peter, we were treated to a lovely night. Quality vault of stars, 6.0 limiting magnitude for me. Excellent seeing, 5/5. Crickets were singing it up.
Speaking of Natscher, he mentioned something intriguing that I hadn’t known. The middle star in the head of Scorpius, delta Sco, has been getting brighter over the past 20 years or so, is now much brighter than it’s two side companions, and is the brightest star now between Antares and Arcturus. I’d been only vaguely aware that it’s been brightening over all these years, do remember when the 3 stars in the head were equally bright.
After Lord Alsing and others mentioned the magic trick with M4, naturally I started with that. Sure enough once again it was redder just after dark. The red giants in the cluster have a chance to stand out first.
Peter was hunting dark nebulae with his snazzy refractor. I had some fun with galaxies in Draco, 4 of which I’d seen before and one of which was a “discovery.” Started with ngc 5907, where we saw a supernova in May from the Pinnacles of all places, in Mark Tomalonis’ 22”. It’s an interesting edge-on, very long and dim. I do not know why it’s ghostly dim. 4565 is eminently bright, at 49 mly, and 5907 is closer, 34 mly from here. Intervening dust is the only answer I can think of.
There are 4 galaxies in SkyAtlas in a compact area right there. 5866 stood out, it’s pretty. A compact lens with pointy ends and a bright core, with swirls at the core. Clearly a spiral. Again in a comparison, it’s 37 mly away, about the same distance at 5907, but much shorter and a lot brighter. Peter noted how both of them have active-looking cores. Yup, both 5907 and 5866 are Seyfert galaxies, with active galactic nuclei, i.e., supermassive black holes and quasar-like nuclei. Serious engines.
5879 and 5908 are both worth a visit, but while looking for 5908, about 12 arcminutes away from this moderately bright galaxy, just to the NW I spotted “a dim irregular medium-sized smudge, with some brightening toward the core and some stellarings.”
Sure enough, this is ngc 5905. It’s only mentioned in passing in SkyAtlas Companion as paired with 5908, but isn’t on the chart. Once again, Luginbuhl and Skiff’s Observing Handbook came in handy. Their description in a 30 cm scope matches closely what I saw. Plus it’s in the right position in Uranometria. Of course this is very far from a first discovery, but it’s big fun to stumble onto an object that’s not on the chart you're using.
The crickets kept going all night. Coyotes piped up way off to the southwest at midnight. And I saw a big owl on the way out.
Speaking of Natscher, he mentioned something intriguing that I hadn’t known. The middle star in the head of Scorpius, delta Sco, has been getting brighter over the past 20 years or so, is now much brighter than it’s two side companions, and is the brightest star now between Antares and Arcturus. I’d been only vaguely aware that it’s been brightening over all these years, do remember when the 3 stars in the head were equally bright.
After Lord Alsing and others mentioned the magic trick with M4, naturally I started with that. Sure enough once again it was redder just after dark. The red giants in the cluster have a chance to stand out first.
Peter was hunting dark nebulae with his snazzy refractor. I had some fun with galaxies in Draco, 4 of which I’d seen before and one of which was a “discovery.” Started with ngc 5907, where we saw a supernova in May from the Pinnacles of all places, in Mark Tomalonis’ 22”. It’s an interesting edge-on, very long and dim. I do not know why it’s ghostly dim. 4565 is eminently bright, at 49 mly, and 5907 is closer, 34 mly from here. Intervening dust is the only answer I can think of.
There are 4 galaxies in SkyAtlas in a compact area right there. 5866 stood out, it’s pretty. A compact lens with pointy ends and a bright core, with swirls at the core. Clearly a spiral. Again in a comparison, it’s 37 mly away, about the same distance at 5907, but much shorter and a lot brighter. Peter noted how both of them have active-looking cores. Yup, both 5907 and 5866 are Seyfert galaxies, with active galactic nuclei, i.e., supermassive black holes and quasar-like nuclei. Serious engines.
Interesting zoo of galaxies we get to look at.
This was with Johannes, an Albert Highe made 13" f/4.5 grab and go scope. Was using a 20 mm Pentax, 16mm Brandon, and a 9mm type 6 Nagler. The 9 Nagler is the workhorse galaxy hunter.
5879 and 5908 are both worth a visit, but while looking for 5908, about 12 arcminutes away from this moderately bright galaxy, just to the NW I spotted “a dim irregular medium-sized smudge, with some brightening toward the core and some stellarings.”
Sure enough, this is ngc 5905. It’s only mentioned in passing in SkyAtlas Companion as paired with 5908, but isn’t on the chart. Once again, Luginbuhl and Skiff’s Observing Handbook came in handy. Their description in a 30 cm scope matches closely what I saw. Plus it’s in the right position in Uranometria. Of course this is very far from a first discovery, but it’s big fun to stumble onto an object that’s not on the chart you're using.
The crickets kept going all night. Coyotes piped up way off to the southwest at midnight. And I saw a big owl on the way out.
Jamie Dillon, DDK
Jul 12, 2026, 5:57:22 AM (2 days ago) Jul 12
to The Astronomy Connection (TAC)
It's possible that I've been at this too long. Going to my log database to put in the new "discovery" of 5905, I saw it 25 years ago, on a fantastic night at Devastated Area at Lassen. It was that night I was remembering on Wednesday, how I was studying the sky in Draco. On 21 July '01. The LM for me was 6.5, seeing 5/5, a big kid sky.
For 5905, at least on Wednesday I got more details. In 2001, I wrote, "paired with 5908, more elliptical with irregular edges. On HB, not SkyAtlas." Good old Herald-Bobroff Atlas, still have my copy.
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