Last night was one of those rare nights for observers on the East coast, where the conditions were perfect for the entirety of the night. I spent most of the day trying to figure out what the weather would do, and even by 7:30pm we had no clue! Every forecast was predicting something different, and the actual conditions had been changing all day. I arrived at our observing site at sunset. The two people who I had plans to observe with that night were already set up and letting their optics cool off. One of them was using a 5 inch Takahashi Refractor, and the other a 14 inch truss tube Dob. I, like always brought my 10 inch Dobsonian. After setting up, I noticed that the thin layer of clouds blanketing the sky was miraculously rolling out, and aside from a few solitary stray clouds around 9:30pm, it was clear all night! This would be my first night out under a dark sky since December, due to my current living arrangements (college).
While waiting for it to get completely dark, we exchanged views of Saturn and Mars. This was actually the first time Ive seen Mars since August 2008. I missed Mars this Winter and Spring, because I've been living in Northern Virginia, without a Telescope. Mars looked terrible and could barely be resolved into a disk, because of its poor location near tree limbs. Also, around 9:30 we checked out M13 and the nearby galaxy NGC 6207, which was barely visible during the evening twilight, however I noted the core being visible and noticeable elongation. I also Observed the Antennae Galaxies in Corvus during evening twilight, and only the heart shaped cores were visible. One of my favorite Planetary Nebulae, NGC 4361, lies in the center of Corvus. I noted this PN as being noticeably mottled with a central brightening. The central star was visible, and I noticed that the brightness is irregular.
By this time it had gotten completely dark, and we were getting SQM readings of 20.22, corresponding to about magnitude 6.2! The darkest I had ever seen at this location. I set out to tackle some of the Leo Galaxies before they fell behind the trees. I had been trying for a chance to log NGC 3626 for over a year now, and tonight would finally be my chance. The thing about Leo, is that there are so many Galaxies! Sometimes it can be difficult to know what you are looking at. I finally picked out 3626, this galaxy is about midway between face-on and edge-on, with a bright elongated core, and an even brighter nearly stellar nucleus. While I was in the area, I also took a quick glance at M65 and M66. The amount of detail these show from a dark sky is amazing!
After this, I focused on the Globulars in Libra. I started with the Caldwell Catalog object, NGC 5694. Even at 150x, this Globular remains small. It has a very bright core with a dim outer haze, individual stars were not resolvable. Another globular in Leo is NGC 5897. This Globular is large and loose, with uniform density, and brightness, there is no central brightening. Stars are barely resolvable with averted vision.
I also viewed various Open Clusters in Vulpecula and Scorpius. Eventually I observed the easy to locate, but difficult to see galaxy, NGC 6000. The core in this galaxy is noticeably elongated. What makes this galaxy interesting is that there was a supernova recorded in it back in march, at magnitude 15.2, however last night I, and 3 others, were able to view the supernova in my 10 inch at 150x, so I think its safe to say this supernova has brightened. The last observations of this SN were over a month ago, so it would be nice if others would take it upon themselves and confirm this observation. Seeing the supernova required averted vision in my 10 inch. I really enjoy transient phenomena like this because they always make observing more exciting.
After viewing this supernova, my observing partners had begun to pack up. I spent the rest of the night observing stellar planetaries such as the White Eyed Pea in solitude. I also experimented viewing various bright nebulae through an OIII filter, such as the Dumbell, the Lagoon, and the Swan. Before beginning to pack up myself, I viewed a few bright messier Globulars and Barnard's star in Ophiuchus. This star has the highest recorded proper motion, and is also a red dwarf, so the overall of novelty of this object makes it an interesting target to observe. At this time I also noticed th at M22 was a naked eye object tonight! I had frequently seen M13 naked eye, but never M22!
At about 1:30am I sat down and looked at the Milky Way, rising overhead in the southern sky. It's such a welcoming sight to see this again, after nearly 10 months without seeing it rise. This was my first extraordinary observing session this summer, and I hope it's not the last.
