blueberryrose
Well-Known Member
Spring is galaxy season in the Northern hemisphere, so if you have a telescope and can get out of the city to relatively dark skies (when it's clear and if you're really lucky it's close to the new moon)
The current fantasy:
At least within a week up to the new moon or up to a few days after, I'll be looking for clear skies, and when they come, I'm going to head to Algonquin park Ontario for some of the darkest skies you can get to in this part of the world. With me (and probably in addition to a small cooler and my tent if needed) I'll be bring this
My dobsonian telescope has a 10" primary mirror so it's a bit of a light bucket. With f/5 focal-length the scope and a small collection of eyepieces that give me different magnifications I'll be setting up and chasing the faint fuzzies. In Spring Leo rises in the East in the evenings and with him Virgo. It's here that we find the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and there are hundreds of them you can see under the right conditions, cosmic strands of galaxies, ranging 50 to 70 million light years away. One region in particular I'll be observing will be Markarian's Chain https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/uNdKIwl22aPr_1824x0_kWXURFLk.jpg I caught this one last summer with my dob and it was amazing. My first glimpse of the Great Galactic Face (with NGC 4387 as the nose) last Summer confirmed I had found the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Scientists tell us that NGC 4387 is actually blueshifted - that is it's coming towards the Milky Way Galaxy (which also happens to be falling towards the center of the cluster with NGC 3487. And what is located at the center of the Virgo Cluster? Well the giant elliptical galaxy M87. You may remember some years back when we got our first glimpse of the shadow of a black hole.
My scope isn't big enough to resolve the radio jet that emits from the black hole at the center of this this galaxy. But you never knew, in a few more years I may just upgrade my scope to a 20"
Any other stargazers out there? Does a nice dank spliff make the night for you like it does for me? What dso's are you aiming for this year?
Some of my all-time faves:
M101
M51
M13
M42
M81 M82
M65 M66 Leo Triplet with the Hamburger galaxy
I could go on and on
Clear Skies!!
The current fantasy:
At least within a week up to the new moon or up to a few days after, I'll be looking for clear skies, and when they come, I'm going to head to Algonquin park Ontario for some of the darkest skies you can get to in this part of the world. With me (and probably in addition to a small cooler and my tent if needed) I'll be bring this
My dobsonian telescope has a 10" primary mirror so it's a bit of a light bucket. With f/5 focal-length the scope and a small collection of eyepieces that give me different magnifications I'll be setting up and chasing the faint fuzzies. In Spring Leo rises in the East in the evenings and with him Virgo. It's here that we find the Virgo cluster of galaxies, and there are hundreds of them you can see under the right conditions, cosmic strands of galaxies, ranging 50 to 70 million light years away. One region in particular I'll be observing will be Markarian's Chain https://cdn.astrobin.com/thumbs/uNdKIwl22aPr_1824x0_kWXURFLk.jpg I caught this one last summer with my dob and it was amazing. My first glimpse of the Great Galactic Face (with NGC 4387 as the nose) last Summer confirmed I had found the center of the Virgo cluster of galaxies. Scientists tell us that NGC 4387 is actually blueshifted - that is it's coming towards the Milky Way Galaxy (which also happens to be falling towards the center of the cluster with NGC 3487. And what is located at the center of the Virgo Cluster? Well the giant elliptical galaxy M87. You may remember some years back when we got our first glimpse of the shadow of a black hole.
My scope isn't big enough to resolve the radio jet that emits from the black hole at the center of this this galaxy. But you never knew, in a few more years I may just upgrade my scope to a 20"
Any other stargazers out there? Does a nice dank spliff make the night for you like it does for me? What dso's are you aiming for this year?
Some of my all-time faves:
M101
M51
M13
M42
M81 M82
M65 M66 Leo Triplet with the Hamburger galaxy
I could go on and on
Clear Skies!!