In the jungle, the mighty jungle
It's been a while since I was able to get out last. The only really clear night in the past month was unfortunately the night of the full moon. But tonight was cold and quite clear, so even though I'm tired as hell, I had to at least try for something.
Leo is moving into prime viewing territory when I get home from work after midnight, so I figured I'd try my starhop off of Denebola into the Realm of the Galaxies again. I got lost the first try because I'd forgotten just how bright that red T is (actually, only the star at the vertex is noticeably red) but fortunately my new paid-for version of SkyMap has many more stars and I was able to get reoriented quickly with its help. Start at Denebola, then past the red reversed square-root sign, then a long gap, then a dim lateral pair, then the white star that marks the start of the bright T. I scoured the area for M99 (dim at mag 10.4) and M98 (dimmer) but couldn't see anything. I briefly looked up in the area of M100, past the left top of the T, but still nada. Finally, past the orange star at the bottom of the T almost a field of view away is a wide dim vertical pair. To its left (eastish) is a close horisontal pair, and about the same distance again is a star of roughly the same magnitude paired at roughly the same distance with M84. I found that star easily enough, and there was definitely something just below my foveal-vision limit there. In averted vision it looked like a star, or maybe a wide double, but it was in the exact spot M84 is so I'm giving myself credit. M86 should be a little further to the east, with no good marker stars but near enough to be easy to locate; however, I saw no sign of anything else. I wandered a little further down (south) to try and find M87 but I hadn't familiarized myself with those stars enough so I got lost right away. And I'm damn tired, so it'll have to wait.
Wim-a-way: M84
The lion sleeps tonight: M86, M98, M99, M100
Leo is moving into prime viewing territory when I get home from work after midnight, so I figured I'd try my starhop off of Denebola into the Realm of the Galaxies again. I got lost the first try because I'd forgotten just how bright that red T is (actually, only the star at the vertex is noticeably red) but fortunately my new paid-for version of SkyMap has many more stars and I was able to get reoriented quickly with its help. Start at Denebola, then past the red reversed square-root sign, then a long gap, then a dim lateral pair, then the white star that marks the start of the bright T. I scoured the area for M99 (dim at mag 10.4) and M98 (dimmer) but couldn't see anything. I briefly looked up in the area of M100, past the left top of the T, but still nada. Finally, past the orange star at the bottom of the T almost a field of view away is a wide dim vertical pair. To its left (eastish) is a close horisontal pair, and about the same distance again is a star of roughly the same magnitude paired at roughly the same distance with M84. I found that star easily enough, and there was definitely something just below my foveal-vision limit there. In averted vision it looked like a star, or maybe a wide double, but it was in the exact spot M84 is so I'm giving myself credit. M86 should be a little further to the east, with no good marker stars but near enough to be easy to locate; however, I saw no sign of anything else. I wandered a little further down (south) to try and find M87 but I hadn't familiarized myself with those stars enough so I got lost right away. And I'm damn tired, so it'll have to wait.
Wim-a-way: M84
The lion sleeps tonight: M86, M98, M99, M100
posted by Pete in Space at 3:20 AM
0 comments
