💾 Archived View for koyu.space › mrael2_obsv › sessions › 2015 › 2015-06-19.gmi captured on 2023-04-26 at 13:34:29. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
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Date: 2015-06-19
Time: 10:00 PM - 11:58 PM MDT
Seeing: II
Transparency: 6
Crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter formed a nice triangle in the west tonight.
M61, Virgo
84x (30 mm w/2x Barlow)
Averted vision shows circular halo of consistent brightness throughout with a center that resembles a dim star.
M49, Virgo 10:30 PM
84x: small, bright throughout with just a hint of the adjacent galaxy NGC4470
138x: Two galaxy cores resolved; very close together. It looks like one galaxy with two cores.
Mosquitoes are a nuisance tonight. Salazar ranch harvesting in progress at 10:35 PM. Tractor headlights are bright and frustrating.
M60, Virgo
138x: small and bright throughout. Averted vision clearly shows cloud nearby that is NGC 4647, which is separated from M60 by more than what separated M49 from its companion.
84x: Both appear brighter with greater context around them that more clearly shows the two objects' separation. Nice.
Moon has set by 10:45 PM.
M59, Virgo
42x: This shows a nice triangle with M60 and NGC 4638.
84x: M59 seems oval shaped but asymmetrically so. All three galaxies still fit in field of view at 84x. N&* 4638 is dim. An uncharted star (on Sky Atlas 2000.0) makes the galaxy triangle into a diamond shape.
M58, Virgo 11:00 PM
84x: bright core, perhaps with bar at center? bright star nearby
M89, Virgo
84x: halo is very dim requiring averted vision to see. Round. Core is dot-like.
M87, Virgo
84x: Round, bright core. NGC 4478 nearby is exceedingly dim requiring averted vision just to get a hint of its presence.
M84, Virgo and M86
84x: Both galaxies are in the same field of view. They appear as two fuzzy eyes at opposite ends of the field of view. Both are round. M84 seems ever so slightly brighter. Both have bright cores. NGC 4387 forms a triangle in the same field of view, but it is so very dim. Averted vision gives only a hint of its presence.
M90, Virgo 11:58 PM
84x: dim pinpoint core very oval shaped
This was a good night with ten Messier objects found. All of them were galaxies in Virgo, and it seems like the intense proliferation of galaxies makes them too common to hold my interest in them over the long term. I can't wait to see some more globular clusters.
The sky was starting to get cloudy near midnight. The temperature was pleasant, perhaps 10 degree C going down to maybe 5 degrees C. I wore a hat. I needed a coat for the last 45-60 minutes due to the cold, but no gloves were needed.