These are our observations in Gemini

• Two month's worth of galaxies in one session!

  This article was originally posted on Dale's Chippingdale Observatory Blog (now sadly gone) as After galaxies in Gemini - James.

  On Jan the 2nd I got my chance to catch up with the galaxies in Gemini that the fog thwarted me on in my last blog post.

  These are the December 2016 Galaxy(s) of the Month as suggested by Owen Brazell of the Webb Society. I star hopped with my narrow field of view (FOV) to Pollux (beta Geminorum) and from there to NGC 2487 and its close companion NGC 2486.

  

  A nice pair but they didn't just 'pop' on the monitor, once again I had to work hard with settings, timings etc on the camera and also on the monitor to bring out the detail in the galaxies, spiral structure in NGC 2487 and the two dark regions and extended nucleus in NGC 2486. I'm beginning to think that my mirror has lost to much reflectivity and requires recoating as I'm just not getting that 'WOW' anymore.

  When I looked up these galaxies for info on the Webb Society web site I noted that it had been up-dated and Owen had added a new Galaxy of the Month for January 2017, or to be more precise a group of galaxies with NGC 2289 being the primary member. With the group also being in Gemini I saw no reason not to track them down.

  Currently being in southern Gemini I hopped up past Castor and onto the busy little group which fitted nicely into the Watec's narrow FOV. There were lots of stars in the field I have certainly seen plenty of less rich designated clusters! Once I had added the stars I sketched in the five galaxy members. In the orientation of my sketch with N down they are from the top as follows NGC 2290, tiny NGC 2288, NGC 2289, with NGC 2291 at the lower centre and the N-S elongated NGC 2294 to the lower left.

  

  Not a bad observing session, the SQM meter read 20.53 which for my location these days was a bit above average.

  Dale Holt - 3 January 2017

• A Haul of Deep-Sky Sketches

  This is the best haul of deep sky sketches that I have had for quite some while!

  The two planetary nebulae NGC 2022 and NGC 22371/2372 are 're-visits' I have sketched both of these before but years ago with my old 350mm Newtonian and Watec camera, the level of detail is significantly higher in these new sketches.

  

  

  ARP 186 was a challenge, especially seeing the slender trunk like projection/arm there are also another 3 small faint galaxies in the field, these I have not identified.

  

  Some nice detail can be seen in NGC 1924 a rare Orion galaxy and a first observation for me, note also a faint unidentified galaxy to the upper right of my sketch and what appeared to be another spiral directly below the main galaxy, again unidentified.

  

  NGC 1964 in Lepus was disappointing until I went out into the observatory and saw just how low the scope was pointing into the murky glow in London's direction!

  

  Finally a first visit for me to a lovely galaxy trio in Gemini, another constellation not normally associated with galaxy hauls.The largest spiral which I believe is NGC 2389? shows some great detail.

  

  Dale Holt - (8 January 2016).

• NGC 2371 / NGC 2372 in Gemini

  I was delighted to see some more detail recently in this lovely and very interesting planetary nebula, which I will recount to you. At long last the poor weather relented and I managed to use my telescope for what turned out to be almost an 'all nighter'.

  Tuesday 08 December 2015 was forecast to be clear well in advance and so many local astronomers got out to enjoy the night sky. I turned my 600mm f4.5 dobsonian onto a good range of objects including this Planetary Nebula (PN) in Gemini, sometimes called The Peanut because it is bi-polar, hence the reason why it was given two NGC names. Conditions were not particular good; the darkness was only SQM 20.79 which is very poor for this site, but transparency was average to good. Seeing was poor.

  I spent thirty minutes studying this interesting planetary, starting at 01:35 UT early on Wednesday morning (night of 08/09). With a magnification of x 340 (Ethos 8mm) and then x570 (Ethos 4.7mm), the overall shape was of a pear drop. For once, the nick name peanut is accurate. Of the two brightest patches the Southern end was slightly brighter and smaller. The opposite end, Northern, was broader forming the wider base of the pear drop, with some much fainter nebulosity extending Westward. Fainter nebulosity filled the space between them with a slightly brighter band joining the two lobes on the Eastern edge. I then tried adding a UHC filter to the 8mm Ethos. Almost immediately I thought I could see some additional nebulosity outside the 'normal' planetary. After some minutes I was sure I could see very faint but definite curved bands on the West and East sides of the main body, with a clear gap between the 'pear' and the bands. They appeared to follow the curve of the planetary as if forming parts of a shell. The East section was larger - longer and wider at the South end with a much wider section going Eastwards. The West section also had a 'T' piece at the South end but much smaller. These shells were very faint and required AV2 to see (averted vision, but is held steady). I also noticed that the band joining the two parts of the bi polar planetary was very slightly brighter in the middle. The central star was prominent throughout.

  I made a couple of sketches and the enclosed one illustrates, as best I can because I am not an artist of any sort, the view at x340 with the UHC filter. The outer shells are more prominent in the sketch than I saw them.

  

  I have looked at this planetary many times over the years with various instruments but I have never seen the outer shells before now, and neither did I know of their existence. The following day I checked my usual (printed) sources and none mentioned this feature. However, an internet search revealed a DSS image of the the shells in exactly these positions.

  

  Image Credit: Digital Sky Survey (DSS).

  Pleased! It was a great night and I also enjoyed another great planetary and five Hickson Groups including Copeland Septet. Roll on the next clear skies.

  David Reynolds (16 December 2015).

• Messier 35 and NGC 2158 in Gemini

  Image Courtesy of David Davies, Cambridge, UK. For more images from David please visit his Flickr Photostream.

  David's Observation Notes.

  Hello everyone,

  I guess many of you have been as frustrated as I am with the poor weather and seeing. I've also been frustrated by a few technical problems.

  I got out on 4 March under a bright moon just one day from full. The plan was to capture some H-alpha on the Jellyfish Nebula (IC 443) but first I could not resist the temptation to have a go at the open cluster M35 in Gemini nearby. I first attempted M35 with a DSLR four years ago, almost to the day, so it was nice to have another go. Here is the result.

  The image is a straightforward RGB capture with 25 minutes of each colour in 5 minute subs. There were some background gradients, caused by the moonlight, to deal with and and sky background was quite noisy. This image is a crop from the original.

  M35 is lower right of centre and is 2800 light years away, the small open cluster of golden stars in the centre is NGC 2158 which is more than 9000 light years further away than M35.

  Image details

  Telescope

  Skywatcher ED80 plus x.8 reducer/ flattener.

  Camera

  QSI 583 plus Lodestar off axis guider./dd>

  Mount

  EQ6 controlled by EQMOD

• The NGC 2275 Galaxy Group

  

  Notes

  The sky was very poor, magnitude 3ish (SQM 19.3), but this was my second attempt so I thought that I had better sketch as time is passing!, I made this sketch using the 505mm mirror and Watec 120n+ video camera.

  Dale Holt - (24 February 2015).

• 20 Gem (STF924): a comparative observation

  I look forward to double of the month not only because it will be worth observing but it provides a focal point for observing other nearby doubles.

  

  

  Notes

  20 Gem (STF 924) is a real gem (pun intended) and although they are half a magnitude difference at first glance they appear equally bright. In the 180 Mewlon they are definitely white but not a clear sparkling white. The view in the Mewlon was nice with mag 11 stars just visible, and fainter ones noted using AV but as 20 Gem is so easy to locate, I quickly found it with the 20" Dob - the view went from nice to being "alive". The dob view just sparkled as mag 13 stars popped out all over the place. Both of the pair now looked a definite off white and a nearby star was clearly orange, another star had a hint of red. Going back to the Mewlon the view was disappointing after the Dob sparkle. I have attached two drawings, one with the Mewlon and the other with the Dob.

  Mike Wood - (7 February 2015)

• Observations of the NGC 2275 Group

  Object

  NGC 2275

  Constellation

  Gemini

  Location

  Suffolk

  Date and Time

  7/2/2015 19:30–20:30

  Instrument

  500mm Dobsonian

  Eyepiece

  8mm Televue Ethos (x294)

  Conditions

  SEEING(1-5) 3, NELM 5.4–5.5.

  

  Notes

  NGC 2274 and 2275 immediately obvious at x129. Both galaxies looking equally bright. At x208, 2274 hints at being brighter, which becomes definite at x 338. Difficult to see more than an extended circular core for each galaxy. No hint of nearby UGC 3537.

  Mike Wood - (7 February 2015)