[Lvas] Virgo Diamond, Saturday, 25 April 2009

[Fred Rayworth]

All,

 

Went for the Virgo Diamond as soon as it got dark enough, and using my laser pointer, found it instantly! I had done a finder chart on Megastar and superimposed the real eyepiece field of my 26mm Q-70 eyepiece and it was just a matter of point and look. The diamond was right in there, just a little off-center.

 

I've attached a drawing of my observations to go along with this narrative.

 

Sky conditions were calm, only fair seeing, and only fair transparency, which didn't seem to affect the Diamond at all.

 

At 70X, it was just a little clump of stars. By looking close, you could see the diamond shape and all four of the main stars. From my viewpoint, which isn't oriented to the cardinal directions, the two bottom stars were a bright pair, and the two top ones were a dim pair. Sort of a box tilted to the right side (or a diamond shape). The bottom right star was the brightest of the four, but just barely outdid the bottom left one. The dim upper pair looked identical in brightness.

 

When I cranked the power up to 140X with my Parks 2" Barlow, the 5th star jumped out. The four main stars looked about the same, but just brighter. The lower right one seemed to have more of an edge over the lower left one, but not by much. Just above the lower left one and between it and the upper left star of the diamond, I spotted the 5th star. It winked in and out of focus and vision, but it was definitely there. I had a nearby colleague witness it. When he first looked, he couldn't see it, but after a few minutes, it just snapped in there and he was thrilled to see it.

 

I cranked it up to 292X and though it was a bit bigger, the extra magnification really didn't do much for it. The 5th star was still there, but winked in and out just as much as the lower 140X.

 

Overall, 140X gave the best view.

 

As you can see by the drawings, the size with the extra magnification (292X) doesn't look much bigger than the 140X. It actually was slightly bigger than I drew, but  you can blame that on my artistic skills and lack of spatial perception!

 

Overall, a nice little obscure treat that most serious amateurs have probably flashed over looking for nearby galaxies, and never noticed it. 

 

Fred

 

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