On Saturday night Bill Cone, Matthew Marcus and I boldly took the challenge to brave the predicted cold conditions in Northern California and headed for Lake Sonoma under what appeared to be mostly clear conditions in the afternoon.  Bill and I stopped for dinner in Healdsburg and then caravanned the rest of the way up to Lake Sonoma as the sun as setting and the numerous Sonoma County wine vineyards nearby were turning a golden hue.   At first it looked like the weather was going to mock our efforts as wispy clouds soon turned thicker and covered the entire area as it was getting dark.  But around 7:00, the curtain of clouds started to be pulled open and in a short time we were looking at completely skies.

After this brief early interlude of clouds, sky conditions were excellent -- although cold, the air was perfectly still and dry and the transparency was quite good for Lake Sonoma.  I brought along my new 80mm Stellarvue finder (F80) and was quite pleased with the widefield views and the star images.  Using a 24mm Panoptic the actual field was just over 5 degrees at 13x and sharp from edge to edge!  This low power/wide field combination gave an excellent view of the California Nebula (most contrasty that I remember seeing) as well as a clear view of Barnard's Loop using an H-beta filter as a wide river of nebulosity flowed through the entire 5 degrees!  Thor's Helmet was a very easy target using an OIII filter.  Finally, in the finder I confirmed an earlier 80mm sighting of the Medusa Nebula (Abell 21) using 13x and OIII filter.  This was not a difficult observation with averted vision.

California Nebula (NGC 1499): Using a 24mm Panoptic and H-beta as a huge, elongated bar of fairly high contrast stretching across the 5 degree field.  The glow was generally brightest in the broad middle section between Xi Persei and the 6th magnitude star off the central north side.  The nebula noticeably tapered towards the southeast end as the northern side of this end squeezed inward.  Similarly, the northwest end also tapered as the northern boundary narrows towards the southern side.

Barnard's Loop (Sh 2-276): 13x80mm (1/13/07): easily visible extending through the entire 5° field of the 80mm finder at 13x (24 Panoptic) using a H-beta filter.  With NGC 2122 centered in the scope, a gently curving band of nebulosity of width 30' extended edge-to-edge over the field and could be traced an additional degree or two beyond by slowly panning.  I was previously aware that the region around NGC 2122 was pretty contrasty at low power, but I also found a locally brighter patch at the north end of the Loop (my digital setting circles read 5h 47m +01.3) including three brighter stars.  To the south, I could follow the arc to where it passed a bright star at -03 degrees dec and ended about a degree further south.  The total length followed was roughly 6 degrees.

In my 18-inch Starmaster I focused on a few clusters -- Abell Galaxy Cluster (AGC) 569 in Lynx with brightest member NGC 2329 (9 galaxies viewed in total) as well as the NGC 2389 group in Gemini.  I last time I had looked at the NGC 2389 group was back in 1985 with my old 13.1" Odyssey I so it about time for a return visit.  On the other hand I observed AGC 569 from Willow Springs just a couple of months back (11/18/06) but had forgotten about the observation!  Despite the apparently darker skies at Willow Springs, my descriptions ended up amazingly similar and I was able to view all of the objects I had picked up at Willow Springs and a couple of additional ones that I hadn't look for before.  Bill Cone and I also made a dual assault on all the main galaxies in the Beehive cluster.  Some of these I had observed back in 1997, but others were first time observations.   Finally, I went through the field of reflection nebulae in Monoceros that includes N2170, 2182, 2183, 2185 as well as vdB 68 and vdB 69.  We kept observing until 1:30 logging over 40 objects.

AGC 569:  This Abell cluster may be connected to the great Pisces/Perseus Supercluster on the opposite side of the Milky Way.  At the very core I picked up four galaxies -- NGC 2329, UGC 3696 and MCG's +08-13-072 and -082, though the MCG's are much fainter.  Scattered around the core are a number of faint galaxies and 9 were viewed in total.

NGC 2329 group: This galaxy group contains 7 NGC galaxies and a couple of additional members that were even missed by Lord Rosse with his 72-inch from Birr Castle in Ireland.  The group is very elongated -- really a string of galaxies somewhat like the NGC 383 group (Pisces Group) -- beginning on the west end at NGC 2373 and continuing east to NGC 2375 and 2379 and then on to the core which contains NGC 2385, 2388 and 2389.  Further NE you can find NGC 2393.  The two dims ones that Lord Rosse missed were CGCG 177-019 and UGC 38979.  If you're a fan of galaxy clusters, this one is not too difficult in 12-inch and larger scopes but none of the galaxies showed any interesting structure.  The brightest member, NGC 2389, was described at 280x:  "Moderately bright, fairly small, oval 5:3 ~E-W, ~1.1'x0.7'.  The outer halo fades into the background gradually so it's difficult to trace with averted vision.  The halo has a broad, weak concentration with no well-defined core althought there is a small brighter nucleus with direct vision.  Forms a trio with NGC 2388 3.4' SW and 2385 7.7' WSW.

Beehive Cluster galaxies:  Yes, there are a number of faint galaxies hiding among the bright stars of the Beehive (M44).  Bill and I confirmed our observation of 8 of these elusive galaxies.  Five have NGC numbers, 2624, 2625, 2637, 2643, 2647) and were discovered by Albert Marth using a 48-inch f/9.4 reflector from Malta (see http://www.klima-luft.de/steinicke/ngcic/persons/marth.htm to have a look at this behemoth scope).  With some effort we also identified CGCG 89-056, IC 2388 (discovered by E.E. Barnard) and UGC 4526.  The easiest of the lot are the pair NGC 2624 and 2625 on the west end.  NGC 2624 was described as "fairly faint, small, round, 25" diameter, weak concentration.  A mag 15.5 star is close SW.  Brighter of a pair with N2625 located 3.2' ESE.  Situated on the NW edge of the Beehive cluster."  My notes for NGC 2625 read "faint, very small, round, 15" diameter.  Smaller and fainter of a pair with N2624 3.2' WNW, though the difference in brightness appears less than the 1.4 magnitudes listed in catalogues."  This was using 280x in my 18-inch (7mm Pentax XW).

NGC 2170-2185 Reflection Nebulae: Just west of 4th magnitude Gamma Monocerotis is an interesting group of reflection nebulae mostly surrounding 10th magnitude stars.  No filters are necessary as the glow is mostly reflected light off dust particles.  From west to east here are my descriptions;

NGC 2170:  Fairly bright, moderately large reflection nebula surrounding a mag 9.5 star, ~2.5' diameter.  There are two stars bracketing the nebula at the north and south ends with the brighter southern star 10th magnitude.  Reflection nebula vdB 69 lies 8.5' ENE.

vdB 68: moderately bright, large reflection nebula surrounding mag 9.6 HD 42004 and encompassing two mag 11 stars 1.5' NE and 3' NE.  The shape appears irregular and ~5' in size.

vdB 69: moderately bright, large reflection nebula surround a mag 9.5-10 star.  Extends mostly SE of the star, ~4'x2'.  Located 8.5' ENE of N2170 in a group of RN.

NGC 2182: bright reflection nebula, round, ~2' diameter, surrounding 9.3 HD 42261.  In a group of reflection nebula with N2170 28' WSW and N2183 20' ENE.

NGC 2183: fairly faint , appears ~1' diameter and notably was *not* surrounding a bright star as are the other nebulae in the group.  There appears to be a faint star, though, at the south edge which may be the illuminating star.  A much larger complex of of nebulosity including N2185 is less than 5' E and SE.

NGC 2185: faint, fairly small, 1' reflection nebula surrounding a mag 12-12.5 star.  This glow is a few arcminutes NE of a group of 4 mag 12 stars which are also encased in a larger 3' haze of weak nebulosity.  Both of these pieces are part of N2185. Located  5' E of N2183.

Around 1:30, after logging over 40 objects, we all decided to call it quits.  All in all it ended up a delightful evening and well worth bundling up to keep warm in the cold conditions.

Steve

Regarding some of the difficult objects that you describe in your post about the observing session on 1/13/07 at Lake Sonoma:

Some of these were sought by me at a less dark site in the mountains south of San Jose on the night and morning of January 22/23 and I was surprised that despite the residual light pollution in certain directions -- mostly from downtown San Jose -- I could get them in a 10 inch scope, too.  For instance: 

I had made up a chart of the galaxies in the same field as M44, and notated every one that was within grasp of my 10 inch optimally.  But light scatter from the bright stars was playing havoc with some of my eyepieces (cheap Orion models that aren't as good as Televues.) I did, however, get very faint traces of NGC 2637 at 323x; NGC 2637 at 400x (had to let it drift thru the field several times to confirm that it was not imagined); and I decided that IC 2388 was "possibly seen".  After an hour of that struggle I gave up before getting NGC 2625 though 2624 was no real problem.

I found Abell 21 just downright obvious, and drew the entire looping extent of it, which looked very much like a photo I downloaded the next day.  It was even visible as a brightening in my 9x50 finder which has no option for installing a filter.  

I even had more than a hunch that LBN 891 actually DOES exist, because it too showed up, especially when I employed an UltraBlock filter.  I made a sketch and recorded the brightest part that I could detect; it seems to correlate with a very heavily enhanced UK/POSS red plate download that I'm working on.  Have you, Steve, confirmed LBN 891?  

I am so used to looking at the California Neb and Horsehead now that I did not even give them a tumble!  Usually at the site I use, they show up in my 4" RFT if the sky is transparent enough, with the HBeta filter; on occasion I've done them in a 3 inch.  A while I ago at this spot I even confirmed the Horsehead for the very first time with NO filter, which I've tried to do for many years without success.  That was such a good night that the HH was as well defined in the UltraBlock as it usually is in the HBeta.  

My light pollution at this site restricts my NELM to about 4-5 right toward San Jose and the north polar region; overhead at the zenith it's rarely worse than 6; to the south it's somewhere from 5 to 5.8 depending on how much fog is present.  On occasions it gets VERY dark with ground fog all around and below me; I'm observing at 3,400 ft above sea level, which helps a LOT, especially if one is using high power, as the transparency is often exceptionally good.  

Faintest star that I've confirmed in my C-11 is 16.5 mag (but I might be able to do better than that); in my 10" Dob it's about a magnitude brighter.  Yet I get darned near this when looking at faint small gx's and PN's of a similar integrated visual mag.  Often when I look up your reports of NGC objects, done from your 13 to 18 inch instruments, I have pretty much the same impression using my 10 and 11 inch scopes: after reading a few thousand entries that say, "pretty small, pretty faint" you come to the conclusion that those kinds of objects are NEVER very satisfying even in a giant scope!

Best,

Steve Waldee 

"I even had more than a hunch that LBN 891 actually DOES exist, because it too showed up, especially when I employed an UltraBlock filter.  I made a sketch and recorded the brightest part that I could detect; it seems to correlate with a very heavily enhanced UK/POSS red plate download that I'm working on.  Have you, Steve, confirmed LBN 891?" 

I've never looked for this one, Steve, or ran across other reports, as far as I remember.  Was there some reason this object caught your interest?

"Often when I look up your reports of NGC objects, done from your 13 to 18 inch instruments, I have pretty much the same impression using my 10 and 11 inch scopes: after reading a few thousand entries that say, "pretty small, pretty faint" you come to the conclusion that those kinds of objects are NEVER very satisfying even in a giant scope!"

There are a couple of reasons I've made it a long term goal to observe the entire NGC.  One was work on the NGC/IC Project to confirm historical observations and descriptions, particularly on objects that had ambiguous identities when we started this work.  The other was try to give a more or less homogenous set of observations from one observer using a similar aperture (I'm slowly updating all my old 13-inch observations with 18-inch).  As you know, the NGC included a pretty divergent group of observers and instruments, though the vast majority were of course from the Herschels.  Unfortunately, as you mentioned, that includes loads of 14th to 15th magnitude galaxies that don't show much structure at the eyepiece.

Steve

 >>Have you, Steve, confirmed LBN 891?" <<

>I've never looked for this one, Steve, or ran across other reports, as far as I remember.  Was there some reason this object caught your interest?<

The night that I was observing the Medusa nebula, I found a patch of barely distinguishable nebulosity about 5 and a half degrees away, which I later correlated with LBN 891: see this article I wrote that chronicles my attempt to find out more about it: 

 http://home.earthlink.net/~astro-app/essays/fuzzy-objects05.htm#LBN891 

 I haven't found any other visual sightings of it.

Steve W.

>Beehive Cluster galaxies:  Yes, there are a number of faint galaxies hiding among the bright stars of the Beehive (M44).  Bill and I confirmed our observation of 8 of these elusive galaxies.<

I worked on these during several early 2007 observing sessions and am happy to report that one may seem them with scopes at least as small as mine: 10 and 11 inches.

Here is my report:

http://home.earthlink.net/~astro-app/essays/fuzzy-objects05.htm#M44gx.

Thanks for your excellent work correcting the NGC & IC, which is most appreciated.

Best,

Steve Waldee

I mentioned earlier that I had posted on my website an article about my own observations of galaxies in the vicinity of M44.  Since then, I have extensively revised it to make it much more thorough and complete, doing a survey of all the galaxies within a radius of about a half degree around the outer perimeter of M44 -- and those that can be seen "through" it -- given magnitude ratings of 16.5 or brighter on my star chart software (and thus often visible to me.) 

In doing so I have discovered a needed correction of one duplicated item, a galaxy in the NPM (Northern Proper Motion Survey by Lick Observatory) that is equivalent to a PGC galaxy.  TheSky 6, and the Mikkel Steine Deep Sky Browser, plot this is a separate object at a different place; I could not see it but did see the PGC object.  Further investigation yielded the likely explanation that it is a mistaken position using the pre-2003 version of the NPM1 database; in 2003 Lick Observatory released an improved version that has precessed the data to J2000 coordinates with higher accuracy.  Therefore I revised my finder chart for all those galaxies.  Since I was able to see all of them, except I believe one, with my 10" or my 11" scope under excellent conditions -- not too many miles away from where AstroDawg observes with his 18" scope on the other side of Mt. Hamilton -- I would think that many other observers with larger scopes can sweep them up without too much struggle (presuming VERY transparent skies!)

Today I recalculated the visual magnitude of these galaxies that are given only a total-B or photographic magnitude; it's rough but probably not too far off the mark.  Most of them land in the range of 13.5 to almost 15th magnitude visually: don't be too put off by published photographic values that are sometimes as faint as 16.5.

So if anyone has looked at the article before, you might benefit from the revisions and improved chart.  It is locted here:

home.earthlink.net/~astro-app/essays/fuzzy-objects05.htm#M44gx

Yours,

Steve Waldee