some galaxies in UMa

HI all--

Finally got a decent night at my home in Petaluma, 39degF, clear and calm, LM 5, seeing decent, maybe 7/10. Looked at a few galaxies near the bowl of the big dipper, new ones for me, in my 16"; eyepieces a 16mmT5 and 11mmT6. I was happy with the detail I could see despite my semi-suburb location.

ngc 2950, 1 deg W of 29upsilon-UMa, small, bright, almost stellar, maybe 1 arcminute wide.

ngc 3079, 8 deg W of beta, very nice! edge-on, extended 135deg about 8 arcminutes, central bulge, hint of dust in AV?, mag 12 or 13 star embedded in NW tip.

ngc 3359, NW of alpha, a 2:1 oval, maybe 7 arcmin long, quite faint. In the 11mm detected a central bar. (I was very happy with that observation. Not knowing the galaxy beforehand,I came in and checked the DSS image--it's a pretty dramatic SB type.)

ngc 4041 and 4036, roughly 5 deg NNW of delta UMa, a lovely pair aligned north/south. about 20 arcmin apart, 4036 is to the south, elongated 80 degrees, 3:1, bright core, about 4 arcmin long. 4041 is of similar brightness but rounder, more diffuse.

ngc 4605, 6 deg NNW of epsilon, magnificent! elongated 120 degrees, 3:1 or maybe 4:1, lens shaped, 7 arcmin long, and definitely fatter at its western end.

ngc 3738 and 3756, a nice pair, arranged nw/se, in line with the mag 6 bowl star sao 28064 (W of gamma). 3756 is larger and dimmer, more elongated, about 2:1 roughly N/S, mottled. 3738 brighter and rounder. A nice chain of 5 mag 9 or 10 (?) stars links them in a graceful arc.

Well then some high clouds blew in from the south, and I finished the night with a good view of Saturn at 360X, the crepe ring very evident, cassini a solid gap all around, and nice shading on the orb itself, little enceladus at western elongation. Overall a great 2 hours of observing.

Best regards
George

I too went through the Messier galaxies in Ursa Major/Canes Venatici plus NGC 4490 and 4244 last night berfore the clouds rolled in. My aperture was five times smaller, but my LM was 5.5. I wrote here once that open clusters are more varied targets than galaxies, but now I begin to doubt...

The highlight of the night was M51 where I could see two bright cores, two separate halos of different sizes and a black space between them at 40x, and also conclude that the bridge connecting them (I knew about it but couldn't see it) couldn't be on the Western side, but could be on the Eastern side (which turned out to be correct). Another great view was The Silver Needle, NGC 4244, quite ghostly and very long at 40x. It reminds of NGC 891 but looks much larger.

Dmitri