{"id":2149,"date":"2015-03-30T23:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-03-30T22:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost:8888\/wordpress\/?p=2149"},"modified":"2018-01-09T14:00:16","modified_gmt":"2018-01-09T14:00:16","slug":"march-2015","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.popastro.com\/deepsky\/march-2015\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2015"},"content":{"rendered":"

This month, four section members sent in a total of 9 observations comprising 3 drawings and 6 images.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Mike Wood,<\/strong> observing from Debenham, used his 180mm Takahashi Mewlon Dall – Kirkham reflector to observe and draw open cluster M47,\u00a0 which is in the constellation of Puppis.\u00a0 At about 1600 light years from Earth, there are around 50 stars in M47;\u00a0 the estimated age of this cluster is 78 million years.\u00a0 The brightest star is magnitude 5.7.<\/p>\n

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M47<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This was for many years a “lost” Messier object;\u00a0 in 1959 T.F.Morris, a Canadian astronomer changed the signs of Messier’s M47 coordinates and found that the new coordinates exactly matched those of open cluster NGC 2422!<\/p>\n

M47 is not far in the sky from M46, another open cluster which is both much older and distant.<\/p>\n

The next sketches are planetary nebulae NGC 2440\u00a0 NGC 2438.\u00a0 Both are in the constellation of Puppis.\u00a0 NGC 2440 is considered to be about 4000 light years from the Earth, and has an apparent magnitude of 9.4.\u00a0 The central star is designated HP 62166, and with a surface temperature of about 200,000 o\u00a0<\/sup>K is one of the hottest known white dwarf stars.<\/p>\n

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NGC 2440<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

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NGC 2438<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

NGC 2438 is a little closer to us at 3000 light years, and looks to be within open cluster M46, but does not share the cluster’s radial velocity.\u00a0 The white dwarf at the centre of NGC 2438 is magnitude 17.7, and its surface temperatue is about 75.000 o<\/sup>K.<\/p>\n

Mike used a 20” Dobsonian telescope and a magnification of 311x to observe the two planetary nebulae.<\/p>\n

\u00a0 Steve Norrie<\/strong> of Fife submitted this image of the Leo Triplet;\u00a0 three galaxies in Leo about 35 million light years from the Earth.\u00a0 Also known as the M66 group, M66 is at the bottom left of the triangle formed by the three galaxies, with M65 at the bottom right and NGC3628 at the apex of the triangle.\u00a0 They have apparent magnitudes of 9.7, 10.3 and 9.3 respectively.\u00a0 Steve used a Skywatcher EDR 80 refractor, and an astro – modified Canon 600 D DSLR.<\/p>\n

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Leo Triplet<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Mark Beveridge<\/strong>,<\/strong> observing from Aberdeen, sent in two images of spiral galaxies in the constellation of Canes Venatici.\u00a0 Here M94; of interest because it has two ring structures, both are sites of new star formation.\u00a0 It is about 16 million light years from the Earth with an apparent magnitude of 8.9.<\/p>\n

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M94<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Next is M63, also known as the Sunflower galaxy.\u00a0 This magnitude 9.3 galaxy is about 37 million light years away from us.<\/p>\n

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M63<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

Ian Papworth<\/strong> of Bedfordshire used a Celestron Nexstar 6SE f6.3 telescope and a ZWO ASI 120mm mono camera plus colour filters to produce images of M63, described above;\u00a0 M81, also known as Bode’s galaxy, in the constellation of Ursa Major and M13, a globular cluster in the constellation of Hercules.\u00a0 With an apparent magnitude of 6.9 M81 is about 12 million light years from the Earth, and has an active nulceus, which has a 70 million solar mass black hole at its centre.\u00a0 M13 is about 22 million light years from the Earth, has an apparent magnitude of 5.8 and contains about 300,000 stars.<\/p>\n

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M63<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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M81<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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M13<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dave Finnigan<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This month, four section members sent in a total of 9 observations comprising 3 drawings and 6 images. Mike Wood, observing from Debenham, used his 180mm Takahashi Mewlon Dall – Kirkham reflector to observe and draw open cluster M47,\u00a0 whichRead more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2149","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","category-reports"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t