Last Wednesday I looked in a telescope at the Virgo-Coma galaxy cluster for the first time. It was a religious-like experience.
I was away at a skiing trip; according to the weather forecast, the only clear night would fall on Tuesday when the Moon sets at 2 a.m. The evening was clear indeed, so I set my alarm watch on 2.15. The cabin where we stayed is located by a beautiful lake, no lights, no cities around.
I was out at 2.30; it was very cold, -20C (well below zero Farenheit; ice on the lake made loud rumbles), but transparency was good; whlie I could easily see my gear, limiting magnitude was at least 6.15 in Coma (much darker near zenith).
I was using a copy of a close-up chart from Uranometria, navigation was easy. I went through all the Messier galaxies in Virgo and Coma, and there was a lot of small NGC galaxies sprinkled around them. M84/86 were bright, slightly different in size and had concentrated cores. I could barely see 4387/88 that form a nose and a mouth to M84/86. 4435/38 next to them stared at me from the darkness some 60 Mly away (I finally understood why they are called The Eyes). Then I followed Markarian's chain: 4458/61 were small and pretty obvious; I saw half a dozen other galaxies on the way to M88 and M91, but I don't remember the details because it was far too cold to even think of making notes. The elliptic glow of M88 was placed against an asterism that looked like a mirror image of mini-Aries. After that I roamed at the perifery of my chart (M98, 99, 100, 89, 90, 58). M87 was very bright, if I may say so about a distant galaxy in 80mm; I could see its neighbours 4476/78. Then I proceeded to Coma with the help of another chart from U2K where I found M85, and then hopped from 17 Com via small galaxies 4494 and 4562 to the long, not-so-faint and elegant 4565.
After that transparency began to deteriorate; halos appeared around bright stars. Using Karkoschka, I found M60, 59, 85, 98 and, with some struggle, M49 and 61. My hands could hardly move, and I was very happy to get inside; it was 3.35 a.m.
Even though I didn't see much detail in any of the galaxies, it was an awe-inspiring night. When you've learned how our Milky Way is laid out, on a dark night you can see the structure of our own galaxy with naked eye; but here - I could see the structure of the Universe!
Dmitri
I was away at a skiing trip; according to the weather forecast, the only clear night would fall on Tuesday when the Moon sets at 2 a.m. The evening was clear indeed, so I set my alarm watch on 2.15. The cabin where we stayed is located by a beautiful lake, no lights, no cities around.
I was out at 2.30; it was very cold, -20C (well below zero Farenheit; ice on the lake made loud rumbles), but transparency was good; whlie I could easily see my gear, limiting magnitude was at least 6.15 in Coma (much darker near zenith).
I was using a copy of a close-up chart from Uranometria, navigation was easy. I went through all the Messier galaxies in Virgo and Coma, and there was a lot of small NGC galaxies sprinkled around them. M84/86 were bright, slightly different in size and had concentrated cores. I could barely see 4387/88 that form a nose and a mouth to M84/86. 4435/38 next to them stared at me from the darkness some 60 Mly away (I finally understood why they are called The Eyes). Then I followed Markarian's chain: 4458/61 were small and pretty obvious; I saw half a dozen other galaxies on the way to M88 and M91, but I don't remember the details because it was far too cold to even think of making notes. The elliptic glow of M88 was placed against an asterism that looked like a mirror image of mini-Aries. After that I roamed at the perifery of my chart (M98, 99, 100, 89, 90, 58). M87 was very bright, if I may say so about a distant galaxy in 80mm; I could see its neighbours 4476/78. Then I proceeded to Coma with the help of another chart from U2K where I found M85, and then hopped from 17 Com via small galaxies 4494 and 4562 to the long, not-so-faint and elegant 4565.
After that transparency began to deteriorate; halos appeared around bright stars. Using Karkoschka, I found M60, 59, 85, 98 and, with some struggle, M49 and 61. My hands could hardly move, and I was very happy to get inside; it was 3.35 a.m.
Even though I didn't see much detail in any of the galaxies, it was an awe-inspiring night. When you've learned how our Milky Way is laid out, on a dark night you can see the structure of our own galaxy with naked eye; but here - I could see the structure of the Universe!
Dmitri
