OR: Pinnacles NP West Entrance, Friday Night 6/4/2021

[Peter Natscher]

Observing from the Pinnacles NP West Entrance, last night Friday Night 6/4/2021was once again awesome. The weather conditions were very summertime with the temperature not dipping below 60°F and RH not above 55% all night. I was alone in the parking lot. I was able to continue enjoying observations and sketching of local galaxies in the M106 group in Canes Venatici high overhead.  A noisy owl near the visitor center kept me company with lots of screeching most of the night.

At 9:10pm the ISS made a nice transit from the west in Gemini across Corvus and disappearing in the east in Scorpius.  Three degrees behind it was the 3rd magnitude appearing Space X Dragon approaching for a cargo delivery.  What a sight of two fast moving space crafts!

[Vishal Kasliwal]

What was the sky brightness like? 

On Sat, Jun 5, 2021, 11:50 Peter Natscher <nats...@redshift.com> wrote:

Observing from the Pinnacles NP West Entrance, last night Friday Night 6/4/2021was once again awesome. The weather conditions were very summertime with the temperature not dipping below 60°F and RH not above 55% all night. I was alone in the parking lot. I was able to continue enjoying observations and sketching of local galaxies in the M106 group in Canes Venatici high overhead.  A noisy owl near the visitor center kept me company with lots of screeching most of the night.

At 9:10pm the ISS made a nice transit from the west in Gemini across Corvus and disappearing in the east in Scorpius.  Three degrees behind it was the 3rd magnitude appearing Space X Dragon approaching for a cargo delivery.  What a sight of two fast moving space crafts!

--
TAC Astro-Classifieds: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sf-bay-tac/extFBoHlCe4
 
Observing Sites, Observing Reports, About TAC linked at top of:
 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sf-bay-tac
 
Subscribers post to the mailing list at:
 
sf-ba...@googlegroups.com,
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Astronomy Connection (TAC)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sf-bay-tac+...@googlegroups.com.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/abd8b06c-8c36-48bb-a455-dace9e40b290n%40googlegroups.com.

[Peter Natscher]

My SQM readings at 10pm was 21.40 and by 11:30 to 2:00am was 21.60, the maximum darkness.  The sky was a bit brighter than Wednesday's SQM of 21.71.  The Soledad and Salinas light domes to the west and northwest were more noticeable than on last Wednesday.  I think there was more moisture in the sky above even though the ground level RH was a dry 50%, but no dew existing even at sunrise. Still, the Milky Way was very nice to see exhibiting very good contrast and definition. The Funnel Cloud NE of Deneb, Cygnus was very dark attesting to the very good transparency of the sky.  Seeing leveled off at around 1 arc-sec 45° altitude and higher.  Below that to the south in Virgo and lower the seeing was worse at 1.5-2.0 arc-sec.  All night long I felt warm and cold breezes back and forth passing through affecting the ground temperature at Pinnacle West's 1,935 elevation.  I think that location was near the mixing level of the lower elevation Salinas Valley's 10°F colder air. The temperature generally never went lower than 60°F, warmer than last Wednesday's 50°F temperature.

[Peter Natscher]

Starting off with my observing and sketching Friday night, I chose a interesting galaxy group that's part of the Virgo super galaxy cluster.  It was the NGC 5044 galaxy group that lies farther south of the more popular "Main Street" Virgo group. This large grouping with more visible galaxies that would fit in my maximum 1° field of view is lower in the sky being at declination -16° and below the main constellation of Virgo. It was already past the meridian and darkest part of the sky. My sketch shows only the center part of the group.

NGC 5044 Galaxy Group

[Peter Natscher]

Here are two sketches from observations made Friday night of galaxies from the Astronomical League's " Local Galaxy Group" list.

NGC 4485 / NGC 4490

NGC 4618

[Dan Smiley]

Really nice sketches Peter. Looks like we both observed the NGC 5044 group this week, your sketch corresponds with what I saw albeit with more detail in your 20" compared to my 12". I didn't see MCG 3-34-33, not surprising at mag 15.1, also my chart didn't show NGC 5030 so I didn't even look for that one. I found this a really nice galaxy group with just the right amount of challenge for my aperture!

[Peter Natscher]

Thanks!  I couldn't find the id for the faintest galaxy I saw adverted positioned a few minutes east of MCG-3-34-33.  It's was fainter than MCG so I guess magnitude 15.5-16.0.  MegaStar doesn't show it.

[Peter Natscher]

NGC 5044 Group, black on white.

[Jamie Dillon, DDK]

Haha! Now you put it out in the original. That horse is already out of the barn and printed up.

[John Pierce]

ok, your MGC there, my Sky Safari refers to as PGC 46108, and your ?, SkySafari says its PGC 83870 aka 2MASS 13153203-1628509, mag 15.81, 0.8 x 0.5 arcmin.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/f889b383-2e2a-4e46-930b-5282bd74ac04n%40googlegroups.com.

--

-john r pierce

  recycling used bits in santa cruz

[Peter Natscher]

Thanks, John!  I was right, I estimated it (PGC 83870) to be between magnitude 15.5-16.0. I saw it 50% of the time adverted in SQM 21.4 skies early at 10 pm and it was noticeably fainter than magnitude 15.1 MCG-3-34-33. This galaxy group was only up 35° from the southern horizon and in softer seeing (>1.5 arc-sec). Spotting it was a pretty good catch. Transparency was very good or I would not have seen it.

[John Pierce]

On Sun, Jun 6, 2021 at 11:53 AM Peter Natscher <nats...@redshift.com> wrote:

On Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 11:32:50 AM UTC-7 jhn.p...@gmail.com wrote:

ok, your MGC there, my Sky Safari refers to as PGC 46108, and your ?, SkySafari says its PGC 83870 aka 2MASS 13153203-1628509, mag 15.81, 0.8 x 0.5 arcmin.

 

Thanks, John!  I was right, I estimated it (PGC 83870) to be between magnitude 15.5-16.0. I saw it 50% of the time adverted in SQM 21.4 skies early at 10 pm and it was noticeably fainter than magnitude 15.1 MCG-3-34-33. This galaxy group was only up 35° from the southern horizon and in softer seeing (>1.5 arc-sec). Spotting it was a pretty good catch. Transparency was very good or I would not have seen it.

just fyi, in case you try and find this in SkySafari, I have the Pro version, and I've loaded the extra databases,  including the PGC Extension Database (3 million more galaxies, 200MB), and GAIA Extension Database (about 90M more stars, 1.64GB)....  I do NOT recommend doing this unless you have a powerful device with at least 3GB actual ram size.

[Peter Natscher]

Thanks for the iOS atlas recommendation. I have a 11" iPad Pro with 250Gb storage.  I will look into installing Sky Safari on it along with the additional databases.

[John Pierce]

On Sun, Jun 6, 2021 at 1:17 PM Peter Natscher <nats...@redshift.com> wrote:

Thanks for the iOS atlas recommendation. I have a 11" iPad Pro with 250Gb storage.  I will look into installing Sky Safari on it along with the additional databases.

pick up some Rubylith (you can get it from Dick Blick Art in SF or online), and cut a piece just a bit bigger than the screen area of your tablet but smaller than the outside dimensions of the tablet, and secure it over the screen top and bottom with blue painters tape, put SkySafari in 'night mode', and boom, its dark enough and pure enough red for even GSSP grade night vision, and the rubylith is thin enough for the touch screen to be fully functional.

[Tan usa1]

Sky safari is great. It also has a night mode which darkens the screen quite a bit

--
TAC Astro-Classifieds: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/sf-bay-tac/extFBoHlCe4
 
Observing Sites, Observing Reports, About TAC linked at top of:
 
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sf-bay-tac
 
Subscribers post to the mailing list at:
 
sf-ba...@googlegroups.com,
---
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Astronomy Connection (TAC)" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to sf-bay-tac+...@googlegroups.com.

To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/sf-bay-tac/CAJnkzXJbwZpQzVk1Ta5dVjmjqPmoQfuRjUHwyu3MZvja6PGo3Q%40mail.gmail.com.

[John Pierce]

On Sun, Jun 6, 2021 at 9:25 PM Tan usa1 <tanveer...@gmail.com> wrote:

Sky safari is great. It also has a night mode which darkens the screen quite a bit

yeah, even when you use Rubylith, you want to put SkySafari in 'night' mode, otherwise all the stuff in blue or green over black completely disappears with the deep red Rubylith.   and you want to use the red filter so any OTHER thing that pops up on your screen doesn't blind you.

I didn't mention...  Rubylith actually has a clear backing, and a thin adhesive red layer.   you 'can' peel a piece off and stick it directly on a clean screen, and it will work very well.   however, it will be single use, you can not peel it off and expect to reuse it.   left on its backing, cut to the appropriate size, held in place with two narrow strips of blue painters masking tape, you can use the same piece several times, even with the same tape, if you are careful.

here...  my tablet with the last piece I cut and have used a half dozen times taped to the back, then put over the top, recycling the same piece and tape for what might be the last time.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/m37cHPXbZx2SG1RY6

[Akarsh Simha]

Peter, your sketches are absolutely incredible. The amount of detail you've captured in the sketches is amazing, something I would like to work up to.

I was just comparing my notes and I have "Wow! One, mottled arm! Beautiful!" as my notes for NGC 4618 from Jan 2015 along with a very vague sketch 😂:

The AL "Local Group Galaxies" list seems interesting. I last observed the NGC 4490 pair with my own telescope in 2013... definitely needs a refresher.

Regards

Akarsh

[Akarsh Simha]

BTW, is the list of this observing program (Local Galaxy Group by AL) public, or is the only way to access the list through buying the guide book?

Regards

Akarsh

[Peter Natscher]

You need to buy the guide book. Become a supporting A.L. member.  Only $5 per year.

https://store.astroleague.org/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=1&products_id=166&zenid=702l7ou7co06hll39broc2jdu7

[Peter Natscher]

Steve Gottlieb told me to turn on the MAC database (Mitchell Anonymous Catalog) in MegaStar.  This enabled the object in question and other similarly deep objects to be displayed with info. It's MAC 1315-1628B.

On Sunday, June 6, 2021 at 11:32:50 AM UTC-7 jhn.p...@gmail.com wrote:

[Akarsh Simha]

I recommend not using the MAC database. Much as I truly respect Larry Mitchell, there are two issues:

1. It is only available on MegaStar, by exclusive agreement. (Not sure what happens now that Willmann-Bell is no more)

2. Kind of a corollary of the above: it is not a catalog recognized by professionals.

Moreover, almost everything in MAC now has a LEDA (extended PGC) designation.

Shameless plug: If you would like to find out what a galaxy is, I have a tool (although the UX is clunky):

http://bas.org.in/dss.php?id=NGC+5044 -- click on the position you are interested in, so it places the red cross-hairs, and then click the red "SIMBAD" link below the image (the "Query: SIMBAD" one). It will take you to SIMBAD and list the designations available. I need to work on adding NED some day, because NED is way more reliable than SIMBAD. Here's the search for the galaxy in question.
http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-coo?Coord=198.8827043597666%20-16.48105556&Radius=2

SIMBAD knows it as 6dFGS gJ131532.0-16285 as well as LEDA 83870. So I'd just refer to it as LEDA 83870 or PGC 83870.

Regards

Akarsh

[Peter Natscher]

Thanks. Akarsh!  This DSO graphic identifier is very useful along with LEDA.

[Peter Natscher]

I screened up a view of NGC 5044 in my SkyTools 4 app, Interactive Atlas, and it did show many LEDA's surrounding 5044 including my questioned galaxy.  Should have looked at this in the beginning.