OR: Calstar Friday 17th of April 2026, Part I

[Muriel Dulieu Holzer]

Calstar Friday 17th of April 2026

Friday was my second evening at Calstar. The weather forecast was a lot less promising than the previous evening. One model showed a clear sky, another showed high clouds coming in around 11:30 pm. Unfortunately the second model proved to be right. But somehow the conditions improved around 12:30 am, giving us another 2 hours of observing.

Before nightfall, I decided to take a telescope tour. There were so many interesting telescopes all around. I noticed a few familiar commercially produced telescopes, amongst them a low and attractively modern 22” StarStructure (first picture). But I was surprised to hear that a great number of the telescopes present were actually made by their owners.  A few were based on Albert Highe designs (second picture) and others were more traditional Dobs of different sizes. I talked to Ido for a few minutes; he told me that he found all the instructions to make his telescope (third picture) on YouTube, surprising, but why not? Mark McCarthy showed me his ingenious three-foot observing chair that doubles as a ladder. Finally, there were a few aesthetically remarkable telescopes (fourth to seventh picture) made by Steve Houlihan, a poetic one with a moon and a sun, and a daring, elegant red one but unfortunately still under its protective cover (I came back later at night with a red light to look at it and take a picture, see the last picture). While wandering around and admiring the telescopes, Steve Houlihan himself invited me to share a really good taco and I had a nice chat with the friendly group from the Santa Cruz Astronomical Society. 

       

       

After sunset, it was finally time to start observing. The weather seemed to have deteriorated since the night before. In my telescope, the sky seemed brighter, details were harder to see, maybe because of more moisture in the air. There was some dew on the table toward the middle of the night but thankfully my mirrors stayed dry. 

Jupiter

Before going back to the Markarian Chain, I looked at Jupiter and its Great Red Spot. The Great Red Spot is a persistent anticyclonic storm rotating counterclockwise. It has been continuously observed for at least 195 years. Originally it was documented to be 40,000 km wide, about 3.1 Earths, and oval shaped. But it has been shrinking, and as of 2020, it is about 15,000 km wide, 1.2 Earths across, and roughly circular. Looking at it in a telescope, it was visible on the left side of the disk, just above the top red band, which curved slightly below it. To me it looked round, but Steve Gottlieb and Jamie both said it looked elongated.

The Markarian Chain (continuation)

Going back to the Markarian Chain, I tried to orient myself for a little while, having a hard time finding the now familiar patterns from the night before. Steve came to take a look and commented that the chain had a different orientation. He was right; at 10 pm that evening, the chain was located at a different place in the sky and somewhat rotated compared to where it had been after midnight the night before. I had not thought of this. The sky also seemed brighter than the previous night, making the galaxies harder to see. 

NGC 4479, Barred Lenticular Galaxy in Coma Berenices

NGC 4479 is a small barred lenticular galaxy near NGC 4477. Despite their close apparent proximity, NGC 4479 and NGC 4477 are not physically associated. NGC 4479 contains a small amount of cool gas and dust, which is unusual for a lenticular galaxy and may indicate it has accreted some gas from another galaxy. It lies about 55 million light-years away, has an apparent size of 1.6′ × 1.3′, and a magnitude of ~12.5.

In my 18", NGC 4479 appeared as a faint glow visible only with averted vision, just to the upper left of NGC 4477.

NGC 4459, Lenticular Galaxy in Coma Berenices

NGC 4459 is a lenticular galaxy with a supermassive black hole of about 70 million solar masses, and a notable globular cluster system with about 200 confirmed clusters. The globular cluster system shows a wide range of metallicities, indicating a complex history of mergers and accretion. What is special about this galaxy is that it has a small dusty disk visible at its center, oriented at a sharp angle to the plane of the main galactic disk. 

The dusty disk, roughly 600 light-years across, is similar to a polar disk from a polar ring galaxy but on a smaller scale. Like in a polar ring galaxy, this dust disk also likely comes from the absorption of another galaxy. The new dust and gas accreted this way are causing star formation in the galaxy’s center, adding new young stars to the older stellar population more typical of lenticular galaxies. The galaxy lies about 50 million light-years away, has an apparent size of 3.5′ × 2.7′, and a magnitude of ~10.4.

In my 18", NGC 4459 was easy to find thanks to the star HD 108676 at the 10 o'clock position. The galaxy showed a brightness increase toward a small core of low-medium brightness. NGC 4459’s body appeared slightly elongated, with the elongation more pronounced under averted vision, and oriented from 10:00 to 4:00 toward the star.

NGC 4446 and NGC 4447, Spiral and Lenticular Galaxies in Coma Berenices

NGC 4446 is a non-barred spiral galaxy with relatively loose, well-defined arms. Its apparent size is 1.0′ × 0.6′ and its magnitude is ~15.

NGC 4447 is a lenticular galaxy, slightly smaller and fainter than NGC 4446. Its apparent size is 0.75′ × 0.62′ and its magnitude is ~15.2.

Both galaxies are seen in the same field as the Markarian Chain but appear fairly small as they lie 6-7 times farther away, about 340 million light-years. They are far behind the Virgo Cluster and are therefore a pair of background galaxies. However, they are likely close enough to each other to form a physical pair, around 350,000 light-years apart, but not close enough to exhibit obvious tidal distortions.

Thanks to a star just below and slightly to the right of NGC 4459, HD 108613, located right between NGC 4459 and the pair NGC 4446 and NGC 4447, I could locate the position of NGC 4446 and NGC 4447. Looking in my 18” with my Baader Hyperion Zoom eyepiece, and zooming in to 8 mm, I saw the galaxies as two faint star-like nuclei each surrounded with a barely visible round glow. The galaxies were forming a line oriented roughly perpendicular to the line to NGC 4459.

NGC 4474, Lenticular Galaxy in Coma Berenices

NGC 4474 is a small lenticular galaxy in the Virgo Cluster, seen nearly edge-on with an unusually thin and elongated profile. Detailed imaging suggests it has a box-shaped (or peanut-shaped) bulge, the visible signature of an inner bar viewed nearly edge-on. It lies about 50 million light-years away, has an apparent size of 1.8′ × 1.0′, and a magnitude of ~11.5.

In my 18", NGC 4474 appeared as an elongated galaxy oriented roughly straight up and down, with a brighter elongated core (possibly a bar), faint but visible with direct vision.

NGC 4468, Dwarf Elliptical Galaxy in Coma Berenices

NGC 4468 is a dwarf elliptical galaxy, or possibly a small lenticular galaxy, in the Virgo Cluster. It is a low-mass, low-luminosity galaxy with no significant recent star formation and a small population of globular clusters. The Virgo Cluster dwarf ellipticals are thought to be in the end state of various processes acting on smaller galaxies in cluster environments: tidal effects, ram-pressure stripping, and others. NGC 4468 is located about 55 million light-years away, has an apparent size of 1.4′ × 1.0′ and a magnitude of ~13.

In my 18", NGC 4468 was a barely visible brightening between NGC 4474 and NGC 4459.

M88, NGC 4501, Spiral Galaxy in Coma Berenices

M88 is a multi-armed intermediate spiral galaxy with ongoing star formation in its arms and inner regions. It is classified as a Seyfert 2 galaxy with a low-luminosity active nucleus, powered by a supermassive black hole of ~80 million solar masses. M88 is on a high-velocity trajectory through the intracluster medium, and going away from us. Its velocity through the dense intracluster medium is causing ram-pressure stripping, with gas being pushed away from the galaxy’s leading edge. It lies about 50–60 million light-years away, has an apparent size of 7.0′ × 4.0′, and a magnitude of ~9.6.

In my 18", M88 was a large elongated galaxy oriented from 10:00 to 4:00, with fairly even brightness and a slight brightness increase toward a small medium-bright core. The disk appeared mottled. Two stars sat on the upper-left edge of the disk, on a line oriented from 8:00 to 2:00.

Post-apocalyptic encounter worthy of a futuristic magazine from the 1970s.

All of a sudden I saw a half-human, half-machine shape walk by with prominent devices on his head and face. It looked a bit dystopian but the devices turned out to be a pair of night-vision devices strapped on Marek Cichanski’s head. We chatted about Halton Arp and astronomy books. After learning that Marek is an astronomy professor, I asked him for his book recommendations on the science and history of astronomy. He recommended The Red Limit by Timothy Ferris, 21st Century Astronomy (3rd edition) by Jeff Hester, Brad Smith, George Blumenthal, Laura Kay, and Howard Voss, and Your Cosmic Context: An Introduction to Modern Cosmology by Todd Duncan and Craig Tyler.