Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Coma Cluster revisited

We got back from Paducah about 7:30 tonight after a visit with the folks in their new digs with sister Dorothy. It looks like the carpenter is about ready to start on the new addition to her house to get them some elbow room. It was another clear, cool night so I set up the 8" outside and went back to Coma Berenices and the Coma Cluster. It was behind the bird feeder again but I managed to tease it out this time. In between 31 and 41 ComBer there is a small triangle of three 7th and 8th mag stars with an apex pointed at an asterism that looked to me like a radio telescope or sat dish on a pedestal. Abel 1656 appeared as a textured cloud near the vertex of the triangle closest to 31 ComBer. I could tell it was 'something' as it moved with the star field when I nudged the scope. I was not able to see any real detail but the 'cloud' is fairly large, at least as large as the three star triangle. It probably won't be my favorite target, at least with an 8" scope, but I'm satisfied that I was able to see anything at all! It would be nice to be able to see some of the many many galaxies in this cluster with a larger scope. I quit after about an hour after glancing at Mars and scanning around Corvus a bit.

No comments: