This was an unexpected observation session looking
at the weather. Six of us finally made it to the observing site.
Initially, a friend Pavan and me decided to go with another friend of
our's Ravindra. But last moment confusion by Ravindra made for wait for
2 hours and do just nothing at Dodballapur bus stand. It was the last
hope that if we have to reach there, we have to get there as late as by
the 6:30 pm bus. But chances of reaching there looking bleak. Also the
weather above us was there to completely make you lose hope. Then
finally Pavan arrived at the bus stop exactly at the right time and we
decided to leave to Hosahalli. Infact I was even thinking of coming back
from there back home. We also didn't have any telescope at the moment.
Finally we reached Hosahalli by around 8 pm or so. The sky was quite
cloudy in the South and other directions except North and zenith. We
approached the school teacher whom I was meeting after a long time. I
was worried to ask him for the instrument as it's school's property. But
maybe he could see the question mark on my face and himself asked me
whether do I need their instrument or not. I had never used their
instrument even once, and that too after reaching so late didn't want to
bother them at all. Finally we got the telescope out, a rarely used 8"
f/8 equatorial. We set it up and came to know that the eyepiece focuser
was missing because of which the telescope was as good as nothing. Then
the teacher there helped us find it and I'm very grateful to them for
lending their equipment and helping us find the focuser. By this time
the sky was cloudy, even though not all around. South was being invaded
by clouds and they reached up to the zenith. Because they were slow
moving haze, and not clouds, we had some clearance in the north. After
this the clarity kept on oscillating, sometimes getting more hazier and
sometimes dispersing. In the mean while, this time we had another 4
members on the way reaching our destination, coming for observation.
They came somewhere between 10 and 11 pm. They were Ravindra along with
his elder brother Narendra, and another friend Harshad with his friend,
Preeti. And by the time they came the sky had cleared.
This time, the quality of the sky exceeded more than other times. The
Milky-Way was visible right from beyond Cygnus, north to Sagittarius,
south. The extent of our Milky-Way extended maybe upto 10 degrees in
length. And the Cygnus Milky-Way along with the dark rift was looking
like a photograph put up on the sky. The Sagittarius Milky-Way was so
bright that it was visible even in quite thick haze. All of us had
gathered for an observing session which we hadn't expected. At the
moment, the band of our Galaxy, passed right over our heads, so that
looked nothing like a 'spinal cord' supporting the entire sky, as
believed by the Kung herdsmen of the Kalahari desert, Botswana, Africa.
This is what I had come across in the book Cosmos by Carl Sagan.
I completely go along with their thoughts, especially on that day.
In the meanwhile Ravindra had setup something on the tripod. I
initially thought that it is a camera. Later on when I learnt that it's
a large 11x80 astronomical binocular, I was shocked and very excited.
This was the first time that I got to touch such a huge binocular, what
I had been dreaming of, someday to use myself for comet-hunting. It was
a beauty with a 4.5 degree field as told by him. Holding it by hand was
not possible because of it's weight, and the mount too didn't support it
when pointed in the sky at more than 45-50 degrees upwards. We started
our observing with the 11x80 and the 8" telescope. We were not aware of
what a night we all are going to have !! I observed a total of 13 new
galaxies that day. A double asterix (**) ahead of the
object means that they are new objects.
Objects and Descriptions:
Globular clusters :
1) M13, M92, M4, M30, M55, M28
2) M15 and M2 - look like brothers, looking exactly the same always
with bright white light radiating from centers.
3) M71 - 'discovered' by Ravindra using his giant binoculars. was visible
in it quite easily. I then focused it with the telescope and tried
searching and came across something like an open cluster. M71 cannot be
that bright. So don't know.
4)M79 (small as usual and bright)
5) NGC 6638 (small and medium bright, looking like a tailless comet)
Galaxies :
1.
Andromeda galaxy (M31), M32, M110 - This was the most looked object in the entire night.
What a beauty this time they were !! They were even visible in 11x80
binoculars, all the three, yes !! M110 which is usually a low surface
brightness object, was bright this time !2.
M33 - Similar to M74
3.
NGC 404 ** - This is in a surprising position. It
sits right in the glow of the bright red star Beta Andromeda. Appeared
as nothing but a diffuse patch of glow.
4.NGC 7331 - always looks small (when surprisingly, it's supposed to be
elongated). This is called Deer Lick galaxy and belongs to the Stephen's
Quintet cluster of galaxies.
5.
M77 (Cetus A) - bright this time !!
6.
NGC 1055 - this was easily visible to me, and surprisingly bright this
time, it's a very low surface brightness object.
7.
NGC 247 ** - Very very diffuse and slightly elongated, never seen before
inspite of trying, hardly visible (surface brightness = 14.4 mag !!!)
8.
NGC 253 - quite bright and long, unfortunately didn't see the
globular NGC 288 nearby.
9.
NGC 55 - very dim glow
10.
NGC 300 - very diffuse
11.
M74 - Similar to M33
12.
NGC 134 ** NGC 289 ** - remember just nothing about these two brand new
objects. Of course they will be very dim and small. NGC 134 was beside a
good square of stars.
13.
NGC 1365 (Fornax A) - surprisingly, faint, it's a nice barred spiral but
radio galaxy
14. NGC 1404 ** NGC 1399 ** NGC 1387 ** NGC 1379 ** NGC 1381 ** NGC 1374 **
NGC 1380 ** - These are the 7 galaxies that I saw in two fields of view
!!! I had seen them last time but couldn't identify which is which, but
this time I was able to chart them successfully.
15. NGC 1360, NGC 1398, NGC 1371, NGC 1385, NGC 1395 **, NGC 1232 **
Planetary
Nebulae :
1. M57 - bright with the central hole always visible to me,
was bright this time too
2.
M27 - Gosh !! This was the highlight of the night apart from M31. It
was the brightest today. It looked exactly like the photo, completely
white in color. Dumbbell shape not easy to make out due to it's
brightness !!
3. M76 - I'm shocked, it was easily visible to my eyes, unlike other times
when it was horrible, it was at it's brightest and also bigger in size.
4. M1 - surprisingly, faint, just a patch of light
NGC 7293 - WOW !! This was a beauty when I spotted it with the
binoculars ! And with the telescope, this object has a specialty that
unless telescope is shaken it wont be visible to your eyes. Big and
round. Very dim due to it's large size. Better than last time.
Open Clusters :
M7, M6, M25, M24, M35
DOUBLE CLUSTER (H AND CHI PERSEI)
Nebulae :
M8, M42 (Orion Nebula) and M43
Totally viewed just 53 objects. Seemed like much more. Observation ended
with view of NGC 1232 galaxy just beginning of twilight (when sky was
already getting bluish from black in color). And also saw Venus, which
was not very bright, just like Jupiter, but low in the horizon.
The 6
of us left together on 3 bikes. It was quite a trouble keeping awake.
This was the only day in my life when I hadn't eaten any food for a
whole 24 hours !!! I felt very very dirty too while returning back,
completely soaked up in dirt and mud. This was one of the most unhealthy
feelings.
THE 11X80 GIANT BINOCULAR -
HIGHLIGHT EQUIPMENT OF THE NIGHT
