Another clear, cloudless, and cold (-10 Celcius) night, but add some wind in and it’s bitter cold outside. Again, to observe Leo, I had to face the street, and so stray light from the streetlamps probably washed out the contrast a bit. I face the town too, so there’s light pollution from there too.
M65, M66 – These galaxies are about 2.5 degrees below theta-Leo (Chertan, the lower star that marks the inner side of the hind quarters), and about equidistant from Iota-Leo. In the finderscope, I start at Delta-Leo and pan over to Theta-Leo, and keep going a couple degrees to Eta-Leo (magnitude 5 star). Then, pan down to M65 and M66. They appear as a couple of smokey smudges. The center is not much brighter than the rest which is a bit strange for a galaxy, right? They both appear in the 25mm EP at the same time.
M65, M66 and some other dude - Image via Wikipedia
The other galaxy is NGC 3628, which I didn’t know was there so I didn’t look for it. Some other time!
M105, M96, M95 – M105 galaxie is almost 2 degrees from Kappa-Leo, which is about 2/5 the distance between Chertan and Regulus (Alpha-Leo), closer to Chertan, below the lion’s ‘tummy’. I started with Theta-Leo, and panned toward Alpha to find Kappa-Leo. Once there, I panned down about 1.5 degrees to a magnitude-7 star, which is near M105. Using the 25mm EP, I panned to M105 and saw two galaxies. One, M105, the other NGC 3384, which I wasn’t expecting. These galaxies are so close they practically overlap! I panned over to M95 and M96 – round smokies with bright centers. They both fit in the 25mm EP as well – but just.
M105 and NGC 3384 - Image via Wikipedia
M95 and M96 - Image via Wikipedia
M64 – By this time I’m pretty cold! This galaxy was on my list my previous session but I didn’t get to it for lack of patience. I found Alpha-Com in the spotting scope, then panned up about 5 degrees to 35-Com (magnitude 5, the brightest star in the vicinity). Then I looked through the 25mm EP and panned left to the galaxy. This is AKA the Black Eye Galaxy. When I’m less cold, I’ll take more time observing it.
I took a peek at Saturn again (again, nice) and the nebula in Orion, which was spectacular (again)!
Deeby's Astronomy Log 