These are our observations in Hydra

• Messier 68 in Hydra

  I keep a list of the Messier objects that I image and M68 is listed as being too low to observe. It reaches around 10.4 degrees of altitude at my location at which point it is skimming just above the branches of the trees at the end of the field behind my observatory. It is visible above the trees for barely an hour. Last night presented an opportunity to try to observe it, but the sky had become very dark with haze and only a few of the brighter stars were visible by eye. Nevertheless, I had a go.

  I've recently rediscovered the power of binned exposures with my QSI camera, giving an effective pixel size of 10.8um and an ideal image scale of 1.3"/pixel on my 8" RC telescope. My previous experiments with binned exposures were mixed and I stopped using the technique.

  Messier 68 is a globular cluster discovered by Charles Messier in 1780. Messier found it to be unresolvable, but William Herschel first resolved it into stars in 1786. M68 is a rich cluster of around 100,000 stars; it lies at a distance of 33,000 light-years and is around 106 light-years across.

  

  This image is the result of just 10 minutes of exposures each of RGB, 5 x two minutes each, binned 2 x2, as M68 cleared the tops of the trees briefly. Despite atmospheric dispersion, poor sky transparency, horrible seeing and a severely attenuated blue component, I am happy to share the image. I suspect that it is rarely observed in the UK.

  Image Details

  • Telescope: 8" Ritchey-Chretien
  • Camera: QSI 683 with Astrodon RGB filters
  • Mount: Skywatcher EQ8.

  David Davies - (24 March 2022).

• Galaxy Observations

  Three sketches from Friday night, inspired by the Webb society web page NGC 3344 in Leo Minor and NGC 2289 in Hydra, both very interesting and beautiful galaxies so thanks for the inspiration.

  

  

  I also made another observation in Hydra whilst I was visiting, an interesting tadpole like duo NGC's 2292 and 2293.

  

  Dale Holt - (22 March 2020).

• Arp 245 in Hydra

  The February 2020 galaxy of the month is one of the most intriguing pairs in the Herschel catalog, although when I observed these two with my old 12-inch three years ago I could not see any details.

  I am attaching a new sketch that I made with my 20-inch, observing from our dark site in the Appalachian region of Pennsylvania (SQM 21.5, seeing 2").

  

  The sketch was made at 250x, and I also examined the field at higher and lower magnifications. The arm in NGC 2993, the connecting material, and the RFGC remained invisible. I blame reflection from fresh snow, which was noticeably brightening the sky even though we had excellent transparency.

  The sketch on black paper was finished at the telescope.

  Ivan Maly - (15 February 2020).

• IC 504 group in Hydra

  I was looking forward to this month’s challenge, because the chosen galaxies were IC galaxies. It is always interesting and a challenge to explore IC galaxies as a change to NGCs. Noting that they are magnitude 13 galaxies meant I would need a decent night. The night 20th March presented a NELM of 5.5 and for GB skies a night with slightly lower humidity levels.

  I headed for IC 504 first as it is the brightest and immediately picked it up – x181. At x470 it clearly had a core, which I describe as a “soft core” – bright central area and gradually fading further out. IC 504 sits at the end of a delightful curve of mag 11/12 stars – useful to locate the galaxy as well as a “pretty sight”.

  Putting the 13 ethos back in I was able to just locate IC 505 and IC 506 using AV, but it required a magnification of x294 to be certain of their position. At x470 I could detect a small, tight core in IC 505. Lying between these two galaxies is a delightful collection of mag 14 stars.

  Just for interest I wondered if the 3 PGC galaxies would be detectable (all magnitude 15+). PGC 23509 is at the other end of the star curve from IC 505 and with concentrated viewing I spotted a faint patch of fuzz. Next up I was able to locate PGC 23493, using averted vision (AV2). Finally after much squinting I kept getting hints of PGC 23510 (AV3).

  

  The following night, under similar conditions I was observing with Andrew Robertson, using his driven 600mm Dob. The observation went something like this: Andrew at the eyepiece, myself on the ground.

  Mike: see the line of curved stars at the top of the fov

  Andrew: yep.

  Mike: look to the left of the curve.

  Andrew: got it.

  Mike: look to the right of the curve.

  Andrew: got it.

  Mike: now look to the far right of the fov.

  Andrew: got them both.

  Mike: see the brighter star in the centre of the fov and look a little below..., Yep got it before I finished my sentence.

  Mike: now look below 504 and..., Yep got it was heard again before I finished my sentence.

  So in the space of 5 minutes Andrew saw all 6 galaxies, whereas it had taken me the best part of 30 minutes teasing them out in my 500mm Dob. It just goes to show the considerable greater light gathering of a 600mm Dob over a 500mm Dob.

  After this enjoyable adventure, we wandered off to the Twin Quasers in Ursa major – now that did take a bit more effort, including using AV but wonderful to see an object 8.7 billion light years away.

  Mike Wood (and Andrew Robertson) - 23 March 2017