Herschel 400 progress

[edward-fraini]

Made some progress this year.
I am at 351 and in a holding pattern. the remaining ones will not be up till spring and summer. With an all nighter at TSP I can wrap it up. Lesson learned is when you start it might be best to sort by RA and begin with as far west an RA as you can....think Messier Marathon, same approach. When completed it will be a three year effort on and off.

EdF

[stephen-jones]

Well Ed, I made a nice push on my Herschels again this weekend and got myself to 292. All 108 I have left are between Leo Minor and Bootes in RA. With some decent assistance from the weather this spring, you and I may both be celebrating completion at TSP.

[stephen-jones]

Uh oh. So I've got 292 objects logged, but when I count up all the objects I didn't check off in the book, I get only 107... That adds up to 399... I think I've lost track of an object somewhere. I don't suppose there's any kind of oddity involved, like double objects such as NGC 4038/9 counting twice, is there?

[chris-ober]

You got it.
Dupe is 2371/2372 (double-lobed planetary)

[edward-fraini]

I seem to remember Steve Goldberg getting his Herschel pen at a recent meeting. I would also note that he star hopped to all but the last 25 or so on his way to completing the program. Quite a feat indeed!

EdF

[stephen-jones]

I seem to remember Steve Goldberg getting his Herschel pen at a recent meeting. I would also note that he star hopped to all but the last 25 or so on his way to completing the program. Quite a feat indeed!

EdF

I believe I've star hopped to all of mine so far, since that's generally my standard mode of operation.

You got it.
Dupe is 2371/2372 (double-lobed planetary)

Thanks Chris! You are correct. And since I've already observed that one, that means 107 to go is the correct number as I have now seen 293!

Sent from my SM-G930P using Tapatalk

[rene-gedaly]

New favorite galaxy: NGC 5907, the Splinter Galaxy in Draco. Just about fainted when I saw it in the C-14 late evening, early morning Mar 3/4 2017. I haven't stayed up past 4 a.m. since Steve Fast ran the Messier Marathon.

I'm up to 114 Herschels but using goto now. Still, the tricky (and time consuming) part is verifying that I'm truly seeing what I think I'm seeing. I've been using the Night Sky Observers Guides for that because of all the great drawings.

Today my Herschel 400 Observing Guide arrived. O'Meara's descriptions and navigation pointers are so intuitive I could go back to star hopping on the f/5. I doubt I will, though. The C-14 is a dream and I have other uses for the f/5, like the Asterism List, no goto allowed. Looking forward to using O'Meara's Guide to help me differentiate between all the Virgo galaxies. Have a few UMa to finish up, too.

Trying very hard not to think about how the optics could be better.

[stephen-jones]

5907 is definitely a nice one. Gotta love those bright edge-on galaxies. Next time you're using the C14 try NGC 3628 (the third wheel of the Leo Trio with M65 and M66)... got a very nice dust lane.

[edward-fraini]

Karla and I got in a good night March 25th at a cabin near Bandera. We are up to 394. Got stymied by 6118, just could not see it in the field of view. If you Google " what is the hardest Hershel to observe?" the answer is.....right 6118. Surface brightness is only mag 13.8. Wondering if anyone on this string has logged it and if so where and what equipment did you use? Steve G responded to me that he actually logged it at Columbus back in 2010. I suspect the skies where a bit darker then. Other than 6118 we have a few left overs that should not be hard its just finding a situation to observe them as this part of the year they come up in the early morning hours.

Slowly but surely we are getting there.

EDF

[chris-ober]

It's in my log from July 2013 using my C11 out at Columbus.

Seeing - 6 (1-10) Trans - 5
Celestron C11 f/10
Meade UWA 14mm. 200x
TeleVue Nagler 2 20mm. 140x

Extremely faint. Small. elon e-w? Barely detectable tonight. Few field stars. Mag 6 star on edge of field in 20mm
July 5, 2013, 11:10p