[LVAS] IC 10 Search

[roger ivester]

All,  

 

Re: IC 10; Very faint galaxy located 1.4° east of Beta Cassiopeia.

 

It was a beautiful day yesterday and thought it would also be a good night to attempt IC 10. Seems as if everyone has observed this galaxy except me. I got a late start setting my scope up. Conditions were pretty good until I noticed that it was very difficult to see all of the stars in the little dipper. There was some intermittent thin cirrus clouds also. It was very calm but upon an initial star test the star images were very soft at higher magnifications and they also had that bloated appearance...the signature of poor seeing. 

 

I examined the area with the small triangle of stars at the end of a fairly bright chain of stars where the galaxy is located. I tried low power and went to a high of 114x...still no galaxy. As David described in a previous e-mail, I was looking for that brighter glow or patch typical of an extended galaxy with very low surface brightness. 

 

This reminded me of last month when on two different nights of less than idea conditions could not see NGC-891 which I have observed many times over the years. On the third night is was very easy. This has happened to me many times...IC 341, and too many other faint galaxies to list.  

 

This is similar to double and multiple star observing. On some night's, a very close double will appear as a single star and the next night with better seeing a beautiful vivid blue with a rust colored companion nestled in the primaries diffraction rings will appear. A double with a good color contrast can be a beautiful sight. 

 

I spent over two hours looking at this small region and never moving my scope any further than 1/8°. It was also pretty cold at 26° but never even noticed as I was concentrating on seeing IC 10. Thought tonight might be better but there is a winter storm warning for Friday and Saturday with the possibility of some snow and freezing rain. The high on Friday may very well stay below 32°.

 

I am just hopeful that conditions will allow me to look for this galaxy early next week before the moon becomes an obstacle.
 

Roger














 		 	   		  
_________________________________________________________________
Your E-mail and More On-the-Go. Get Windows Live Hotmail Free.
http://clk.atdmt.com/GBL/go/171222985/direct/01/
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lvlug.org/pipermail/lvas/attachments/20091217/155c6fb3/attachment.htm