More Galaxies Visible from Planet Earth (Are we all gonna die?)
Ripped off by fate, Crumby had to stay at the CB during the last dark of Moon. What a dern deal this is? No dark skies, fer me. That’s what Crumby thought.
So Sunday night, fixing to make the best of his sad situation, Crumby set up the Great Red Tube in the back yard even though high clouds were in evidence at Ogma’s setting. Those high clouds can be hard to see at night. But they can work plenty of near invisible mischief where the average amateur astronomer is concerned. Yes. Crumby could just espy some cloudy wispiness occluding the high heavens.
Later though, those clouds must have gone off somewhere else because once Crumby got set up on Leo, he espied the elusive M95 fairly easily. Well, easier than a needle in a haystack.
The trouble with M95 under the CB urban skies is that 40x does not really cut it. All Crumby can espy at 40x is that something looks odd. Like maybe there is a galactic oddity at work as opposed to mere tiny stellar points. At 60x, M95 starts to look galactic. But it takes like 100x to see M95 at the same honkingness that you can see all the other nearby brighter galaxies at 40x.
Pleased with himself for espying M95, Crumby decided to check out some Virgo galaxies. Yikes! M61 proved to be pretty dang tough. Yet M49 was easy. Hey! How about NGC 4526 located in the short leg of a nearby starry triangle. That one ought to be easy to locate, if not espy.
By then it was 2:30 AM and the cool night air was afflicting Crumby, causing his asthma to act up. Crumby was already wheezing. This shall be the last galaxy for this night.
Yes. NGC 4526 is easy even at 40x. Easy to find, easy to espy.
Yes. We are all gonna die!
So Sunday night, fixing to make the best of his sad situation, Crumby set up the Great Red Tube in the back yard even though high clouds were in evidence at Ogma’s setting. Those high clouds can be hard to see at night. But they can work plenty of near invisible mischief where the average amateur astronomer is concerned. Yes. Crumby could just espy some cloudy wispiness occluding the high heavens.
Later though, those clouds must have gone off somewhere else because once Crumby got set up on Leo, he espied the elusive M95 fairly easily. Well, easier than a needle in a haystack.
The trouble with M95 under the CB urban skies is that 40x does not really cut it. All Crumby can espy at 40x is that something looks odd. Like maybe there is a galactic oddity at work as opposed to mere tiny stellar points. At 60x, M95 starts to look galactic. But it takes like 100x to see M95 at the same honkingness that you can see all the other nearby brighter galaxies at 40x.
Pleased with himself for espying M95, Crumby decided to check out some Virgo galaxies. Yikes! M61 proved to be pretty dang tough. Yet M49 was easy. Hey! How about NGC 4526 located in the short leg of a nearby starry triangle. That one ought to be easy to locate, if not espy.
By then it was 2:30 AM and the cool night air was afflicting Crumby, causing his asthma to act up. Crumby was already wheezing. This shall be the last galaxy for this night.
Yes. NGC 4526 is easy even at 40x. Easy to find, easy to espy.
Yes. We are all gonna die!
posted by ray pistrum at Tuesday, March 16, 2010
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