Breezy March Sun

Afternoon Session

Good opportunities for solar observing are rare. I have to take advantage of each one, even if conditions aren't ideal. Such was the case on March 18th when gusty wind threatened to blow my laptop light shield box off the observing table. Wind speed diminished a bit in the afternoon, so I risked poor seeing and began imaging at 3:15 pm, EDT.

Several sunspots and filaments were distributed across the solar disc as you can see in the 11-panel mosaic below.

Significant prominences were located only in the lower right quadrant displayed in the next 7-panel mosaic.

Individual sunspot groups show well in the next two close views. First, single umbra sunspot 4030 appears near center. Curious, dim, triple umbra sunspot 4028 is to the lower right. (Click on images for a larger view.) The enlarged image shows a complex of magnetic arches to the upper left of sunspot 4030. The triple umbra in 4028 resembles a dog face!

The second close view shows a diagonal string of complicated sunspot structure above center. Running from upper left to lower right along the diagonal line are sunspots 4031, 4025, and 4022. Solitary umbra 4021 is below center. 

These images look unexpectedly decent in spite of episodic periods of bad seeing.

Galaxies in Virgo

Plus Extras

Three relatively dark moonless nights happened in late February and early March. Annoying neighbor lights were mostly off during this time, so it was a good opportunity to fire up Seestar and gather more galaxies for my Messier collection. I ended up adding eight Messier galaxies in Virgo to the other 94 Messier objects I've previously captured. Virgo contains a rich distribution of galaxies. Images below show six Messier galaxies together with companions sharing the same field of view.

First is giant elliptical galaxy M87, the brightest galaxy in Virgo. Unlike prettier spiral galaxies, M87 looks like a fuzzy ball. Elliptical galaxies have less overall angular momentum (rotation) than spiral galaxies and thus don't flatten into a disk shape. A massive black hole exists in M87's center. An incredible picture of this black hole can be viewed at this link: https://science.nasa.gov/resource/first-image-of-a-black-hole/ . 

In all the following images I'm disappointed that background sky isn't very black. Light pollution is probably the cause. I can't darken the background without also losing faint galaxy details. The following M87 image is a 25-minute exposure.

The next picture identifies three other galaxies near M87.

Two more elliptical galaxies, M59 and M60, are shown in the next picture along with six other galaxies in the same frame! See them all labeled in the second image below.

Very nice face-on spiral galaxy M61 and three companions appear next. These galaxies are labeled in the lower image.

Tilted spiral galaxy M90 with two dim companions is next. Once again, labels follow. 

The previous three galaxy portraits are 30-minute exposures. The next image is a 60-minute exposure using Seestar's mosaic mode to capture 13 galaxies in one frame! This particular group is named Markarian's Chain after the astronomer who discovered their common movement. Labels identify the galaxies. Unfortunately, I should have centered this field of view more carefully. One remaining member of the chain is missing off the upper left edge. Perhaps I'll try again soon.

Finally, I include one extra image of edge-on galaxies in Canes Ventatici. The largest galaxy is NGC4631 with small companion NGC4627 nearby. The oddly shaped galaxy near bottom is NGC4656 which appears to have a hook-like feature on its left end. The hook is actually another galaxy, NGC4657. See labels below.

At this point I've imaged 102 of the 110 Messier objects. The remaining eight are located in Ophiuchus and Sagittarius. It may be a few months before these constellations rise high enough for convenient imaging.

Galaxies in Coma Berenices

Plus One Nebula

The clear evening of February 21st was a good opportunity to try Seestar's new mosaic mode on the Seagull Nebula in Canis Major. The following 60-minute exposure barely captures the relatively faint elongated Seagull Nebula running vertically down the image's left side. The brighter circular nebula on the right is NGC2327 which features a dark lane cutting into the center that ends on the bright blue star that powers NGC2327. It took much longer than 60 minutes to obtain this image because so many individual constituent frames were rejected due to poor tracking.

As temperature dropped to 27 degrees, I pointed Seestar to galaxy M85 in Coma Berenices. (All galaxy images below are the result of 30-minute exposures.) M85 is the brightest uppermost galaxy in the next image. The bright star just left of M85's nucleus is a foreground star within our own galaxy. Below and left of M85 is galaxy NGC4394.

On February 25th skies were clear and moonless again. I set out to capture the remaining five Messier galaxies in Coma Berenices. Galaxy M88, shown in the next image, is a tilted spiral. A pair of foreground stars appear on M88's lower edge. Three other dim galaxies are arrayed on a diagonal line beginning near the left center edge and stretching down to the lower right. In order, from upper left to lower right, they are NGC4516, IC3478, and IC3476.

The next image below shows face-on barred spiral galaxy M91. Near image bottom is another galaxy, NGC4571. 

Nearly edge-on spiral galaxy M98 is centered in the next image.

One spiral arm appears less tightly bound in face-on galaxy M99 shown next.

Finally, another face-on spiral galaxy, M100, shares the field of view with at least five other galaxies. Near the right edge is edge-on galaxy NGC4312. Near the left bottom edge is galaxy NGC4379. Just left of M100 are two dim galaxies: NGC4322 above slightly brighter NGC4328. The last dim galaxy is NGC783, well separated from M100 to the upper right. Enlarge the image by clicking on it to better see these faint galactic neighbors. 

It was fun to see face-on spirals emerge as exposures continued! Coma Berenices is home to many galaxies! After these two February observing sessions my Messier collection now includes 94 members with only 16 more needed to complete the collection. Galaxies in Virgo are the next obvious targets. These should add eight more to my collection.