[Lvas] FW: FW: Virgo Diamond

Wed Apr 1 20:44:31 PDT 2009

LVAS all

Please read also the following or preceding e-mails. 

This is an e-mail that I just forwarded, regarding Dr. Jim Dire's information concerning the "Virgo Diamond". Please read Jim's report in regard to the fifth star magnitude.

This is a good example of the importance of notes and a sketch concerning a SN in the bright Messier Galaxy M-81 in May of 1993. 

Do I need to say more? For posterity and science I would recommend notes even if you only image your objects. If not, what facts will you know the following day?

Is there anyone that can tell me what you observed during "any night" in May of 1993?

This was purely coincidental that I sent this e-mail on this night. 

With this said I thought this might be the answer for some observers of which have been perplexed as to why someone would want to sketch or take notes with all of the new technology available today. 

Something for contemplation and consideration.

Roger Ivester

From: drivester at hotmail.com
To: jdire at gardner-webb.edu; dolive at gardner-webb.edu; trenglish at gtcc.edu; jlspacerox at aol.com; dbrook at bellsouth.net; steve.davis at fascontrols.com; jbcustom at darrcam.com; blclapper at yahoo.com; tjafj at bellsouth.net; reskridge1 at carolina.rr.com; frankb at celestialwonders.com; bspencer5 at carolina.rr.com; pdwebb53 at sc.rr.com; martyk1 at bellsouth.net
Subject: RE: [Lvas] FW: Virgo Diamond
Date: Thu, 2 Apr 2009 03:20:16 +0000

Jim,

RE: Virgo Diamond

Jim, thank you for the information. After 16 years I have wondered what the magnitude of the faint fifth star was. I have "visually" observed this object on at least two occasions. My first observation was from my backyard on April 14th 1993 using my 10-inch reflector with a magnification of 190X. 

It was necessary for me to use my manual setting circles to locate this object. I had extreme difficulty when using lower magnification. My notes indicate that 190x seemed to be the "optimum" magnification with my 10-inch. Only four stars could be seem and the magnitudes of the stars varied. All stars were a brilliant white. I can see some faint nebulosity surrounding the "diamond" or possibly scattered light form my optics.    

Conditions were above average for both seeing and transparency. The temperature was a warm 60° degrees, with very low humidity.

My notes also indicated that I was observing a supernova on this night also in M-81. My estimated magnitude for this SN was 11.5 at 0.1 brighter than the previous night. 

SN in M-81 Sunday April 18th 1993. Estimated magnitude was 11.6 
SN April 20th:  Estimated magnitude 11.0. Tom English estimated SN mag at 10.5. 
SN May 11th:  Estimated magnitude 12.8
SN May 15th:  Estimated magnitude 12.8
Sn May 22nd:  Estimated magnitude 13.2   Final estimate as it went beyond the limits of my 10-inch reflector at the next session.

I have an excellent sketch of this SN if anyone would like to see the location of the SN within this bright Messier galaxy.

Re: The Virgo Diamond; It has been my intensions to go back to this object over the past few years but for some reason I have not.

An absolutely extraordinary object. 

Roger Ivester

    I can see how it might be possible for a man to look down upon the earth and be an atheist, but I cannot conceive how he could look up into the heavens and say there is no God.      Abraham Lincoln

Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 15:49:53 -0400
From: jdire at gardner-webb.edu
Subject: Re: [Lvas] FW: Virgo Diamond
To: drivester at hotmail.com; dolive at gardner-webb.edu; trenglish at gtcc.edu; jlspacerox at aol.com; dbrook at bellsouth.net; steve.davis at fascontrols.com; jbcustom at darrcam.com; blclapper at yahoo.com; tjafj at bellsouth.net; reskridge1 at carolina.rr.com; frankb at celestialwonders.com; bspencer5 at carolina.rr.com; pdwebb53 at sc.rr.com; martyk1 at bellsouth.net

All:
I found the the northernmost star, TYC 4948-53-1, on my Voyager 4 planetarium program which drives my mount, so I can find the cluster.  See the attached chart.

The program lists the star magnitudes as
northernmost star m =10.7
southernmost star m=12.86
easternmost star m=12.77

Surprisingly, the westernmost double star, is not plotted even though I have the magnitude limits set to 18 and the Hubble Guide Star catalog turned on.

Jim

From: roger ivester <drivester at hotmail.com>
Date: Wed, 01 Apr 2009 18:06:57 +0000
To: James Dire <jdire at gardner-webb.edu>, "Don H. Olive" <dolive at gardner-webb.edu>, Tom English <trenglish at gtcc.edu>, Jim Lamm <jlspacerox at aol.com>, Don Brooks <dbrook at bellsouth.net>, Steve Davis <steve.davis at fascontrols.com>, John Elmore <jbcustom at darrcam.com>, Brett Clapper <blclapper at yahoo.com>, Tommy Forney <tjafj at bellsouth.net>, Bob Eskridge <reskridge1 at carolina.rr.com>, Frank Barrett <frankb at celestialwonders.com>, Barre Spencer <bspencer5 at carolina.rr.com>, Paul Webb <pdwebb53 at sc.rr.com>, Marty <martyk1 at bellsouth.net>, Nancy-Pat Dire <direduo at bellsouth.net>, Judy Hoff <judyhoff at carolina.rr.com>
Subject: FW: [Lvas] FW: Virgo Diamond

All,

Tom English sent this great information concerning one of our observing objects. The Virgo Diamond. 

The fifth star is easily seen in this image, and the nebulosity that I saw was only scattered light from my optics. 

We may very well have an image to show very soon...I hope. 

Thanks again Tom,

Roger  

From: drivester at hotmail.com
To: lvas at lvlug.org
Subject: FW: [Lvas] FW: Virgo Diamond
Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 11:30:54 +0000

To all member of the LVAS,

Tom English from herer in NC sent me this most enlightening e-mail regarding the "Virgo Diamond". 

Enjoy...roger ivester 

> Date: Wed, 1 Apr 2009 01:02:27 -0400
> From: trenglish at gtcc.edu
> To: drivester at hotmail.com
> Subject: Re: FW: [Lvas] FW: Virgo Diamond
> 
> Roger,
> I looked up the Virgo Diamond on the Sloan Digital Sky Survey and Wikisky tonight. An SDSS image is attached. This is a very neat little group.
> Go to Wikisky (http://www.wikisky.org/), zoom out from M31 (the default view), drag the view around until you find Virgo, then zoom in on the appropriate coordinate. If you move your mouse over an object it will give you information. 
> 
> The diamond is clearly seen in these interactive surveys, and the westernmost star is a double, giving 5 stars. 
> Looking for this 5th star is certainly a greater challenge than looking for extra stars in the Trapezium (but don't tell BoB!)
> 
> The northernmost star is TYC 4948-53-1 (12h33m18.96s, -0d38'32.3", m=10.892)
> The westernmost star (the double) is USNOA2 0825-07771246 (12h33m17.88s, -0d38'59.1", m= 12.1)
> The southernmost star is USNOA2 0825-07771362 (12h33m19.61s, -0d39'15.7", m=13.7)
> The easternmost star is USNOA2 0825-07771459 (12h33m20.79s, -0d38'50.5", m=13.45)
> 
> The TYC star was measured by the Hipparcos mission, thus explining its precise magnitude measurement. I looked it up at the Hipparcos web site, and found that its parallax had been measured to be 64.8 milliarcseconds, putting it at around 50 light years from us. Here's the Simbad page for the star: http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-basic?Ident=TYC+4948-53-1
> -t.e
> 
> E-mail correspondence to and from this sender may be subject to the North Carolina Public Records law and may be disclosed to third parties. 
> 
> 

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