Observations made in the constellation Virgo

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Observations made in the constellation Virgo:

M87 (Galaxy, in Virgo)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars   Location: New River, West Va., USA
Light pollution: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat May 28 04:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1238

In my previous log, I claimed I had seen Comet Temple 1. I now believe what I had seen was actually the giant galaxy M87. Panning through star atlases, it has come to my attention that the comet is presently in the Virgo region. Just off from this region is the Coma Berences Galaxy Cluster with M87 being the brightest and the largest. At @ 65 million light years, it is recorded in various books of mine as being easily visible in binos. Also, pictures in these books shows that it is a giant orange sphere due to it's stars being very ancient. It is predominatly populated by Orange Giant type stars. With what I have read and seen, I must alter my log. Sorry for the misinformation.

Comet (Comet, est. mag 9, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Joe Caggiano (e-mail: jcaggiano@mindspring.com)
Instrument: 70-mm binoculars   Location: New River, West Va., USA
Light pollution: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sat May 28 04:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1237

Went White Water Rafting down in West Virginia this weekend. The trip was phenominal! I decided to take my 70mm binos just in case the sky was clear. Was I ever so glad I had. The view was perfect. The town we were in was in the New River Gorge located 500 miles south of Philadelphia. I have never seen such a dark sky. There were so many stars I was actually having a hard time finding the constellations due to so many being visible. Limiting magnitude was probably better than 6.5. Using just the binos, I found more galaxies in 3 minutes than I have with my 6" telescope since it was bought over a year ago. Starting out in the Big Dipper, I "immediately" spotted both M81 and M82. Both were slanted at opposing 45 degree angles from one another with M81 on the right and M82 on the left. I could clearly see the spiral structure. I have tried time and again to see this pair from my home in Pennsylvania but to no avail. After catching my breath, I moved on to M101. This was another target I had tried in vain to seek for over a year. Also spotted this one immediately. At first glance, it appeared to have a rectanglular form. By using averted vision I picked up its elongated whirlpool shape. It was dim yet still easily visible. It's size was massive. Oddly enough I had completely forgotten to check for M51 (DOH!) I completed my viewing with Comet Temple 1. Viewing the star that appears to be Virgo's "Heart" I spotted an orange fuzzball (yes, I actually saw it's color!!!) that was a near perfect circle as if the comet was heading straight for me. There was no noticeable tail as if the comet was going to a particular side. Just a hazy large orange glow. My brother confirmed the color and the near perfect circle as if it waqs a planetary nebula in time exposure pictures. Next year we are planning to run a white water trip down the lower river basin. I think I will pack my 6" scope when we do. All in all, probably the best night of observing in my life!!! All this time I thought my telescope did not have enough aperature. All I really needed was an completely dark sky.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.3, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue May 10 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1228

This evening, My friends Steve Borer, Mike Dzubaty and I also observed Jupiter with Steve's six inch dob. The great red spot was at the edge of the planet on the way to rotate off. In the short time we had to observe it we were not able to make out any color in it. Also, the south temperate belt has become much fainter than the north temperate belt. The NEB is also twice as thick as the SEB.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.2, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri May 6 00:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1226

This Evening, I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK. The north equitorial belt now looks much more thicker than the south equitorial belt. The SEB seems to be losing some of its mass. There also seems to be gaps in the SEB. I also was able to observe three other belts on Jupiter.

M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) (Galaxy, in Virgo)
Observer: Akarsh Simha (e-mail: akarsh_simha@fastmail.fm)
Instrument: 8-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Apr 17 16:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1328

An extended object, since it is viewed edge on from earth. Brightness at center is seen and extended haze spreads like arms in either direction. Looks like a hazy star at first sight.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.5, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Apr 14 00:10:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1218

This Evening, I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK. The great red spot was almost at meridian. The GRS has a pinkish look to it. It is also surounded by a dark line that seems darker on the topside of the GRS. Also, two of Jupiter's moons were closely paired along side the planet.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.5, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 6-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: fair
Time: Tue Apr 12 01:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1217

This evening, my friends Mike Dzubaty, Steve Borer and I observed Jupiter with Steve's 6" dob. A shadow transit was occuring on Jupiter when we were observing it. The shadow, either from Io or Europa, was at meridian right in the middle of the south equitorial belt. After a while, the shadow moved past meridian. Io and Europa were right next to Jupiter. We also observed Saturn which looked sharp and clear with the Cassini division showing nicely.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.5, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 12-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Wed Apr 6 00:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1215

This evening, my friends Mike Dzubaty, his son Mike, Steve Borer and I observed Jupiter With Steve's 12" dob. The north equitorial belt had some obvious festooning. In addition to the two major belts, we could see two of Jupiter's fainter belts, the north temperate belt and the south south temperate belt. We could not see the south temperate belt this time aruond. So far out of the three fainter belts of Jupiter, the south south temperate belt is the brightest with the north temperate belt the second brightest and the south temperate belt being the faintest of the three miner belts.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.4, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Mar 26 03:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1190

Last night, I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK. As jupiter approaches its April 3rd opposition, I am able to see more details on Jupiter's face. In addition to seeing the north and south equitorial belts, I can now see the north and south temperate belts and the south south temperate belt. All three belts look like small pencil lines on the face of the planet. The south south temperate belt is the easiest to view. The north temperate belt is the hardest to view because it only goes about one third of the way accross the planet. The south temperate belt looks a little dimmer than the south south temperate belt.

This evening, I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK at 121X. The first thing I noticed was the north equitorial belt looks smoother than it has in a long time. The south equitorial belt looks to be about 80% as thick as the NEB. The south temperate belt is getting easier to see as Jupiter draws closer to opposition. I still can't see the north temperate belt.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.3, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri Mar 18 03:00:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1186

This evening, I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK. In addition to the north and south equitorial belts, I have been seeing a third belt in Jupiter's southern hemisphere. At first I thought it was the south temperate belt. But after looking at a map of Jupiter which shows all of its belts, I think I am observing the south south temperate belt which is closer to Jupiter's south pole than the south temperate belt. I still can't see the north temperate belt which I have seen for the last three years before this year.

Jupiter (Planet, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Sriram.M.Gubbi (e-mail: sriram_gubbi@yahoo.co.in)
Instrument: naked eye   Location: Bangalore, Karnataka, India
Light pollution: light   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Tue Mar 15 00:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1207

this bright planet along with spica(alpha vir),during the midnights of winter appeared contrasting.even it's galilean satellites (io,europa,ganymede,callisto) were also visible through my scope.

This evening, I observed Jupiter at 160X. Besides seeing the north and south equitorial belts, I was able to observe the south temperate belt. It has been two or three years since I saw the south temperate belt. Meanwhile, I could not see the north temperate belt at all. In the previous three years, I was able to see the north temperate belt fairly often.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.3, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Feb 20 05:30:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1177

I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK at 123X. One of Jupiter's moons was just emerging from behind Jupiter. For a while, Jupiter looked like it was connected to its moon which I believe was Io. After a while, they began to seperate. On the planet itself, I can still only see the north equitorial belt and the south equitorial belt as well as the polar hoods. As Jupiter gets closer to its April opposition, I expect to see more planetary details.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -2.0, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Sat Feb 5 04:55:00 2005 UT   Obs. no.: 1174

Last evening, I observed Jupiter with my 127mm MAK at 123X. It looks like the north equitorial belt is a little thicker and darker than the south equitorial belt. There was noticable festoons on the NEB and I think there was a festoon on the SEB. I was not able to see any other belts this time.

Jupiter (Planet, est. mag -1.8, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 127-mm other   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: light   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Thu Nov 4 10:30:00 2004 UT   Obs. no.: 1086

This morning, before dawn, I arose to observe the very close conjunction of Venus and Jupiter and the fairly close conjunction of Saturn and the moon. Venus was about six tenths of a degree above Jupiter. It was like a car turned over sideways with its headlights on. Directly over my head, Saturn and the moon were sise by side. This is the first time in my life that I have seen two conjuctions at once involving the moon and planets. I then observed Jupiter and Venus with my 127mm MAK. It looks to me like Jupiter's north equitorial belt is much brighter than the south equitorial belt. On Venus, I saw some darker clouds along Venus' equator. It looks like some active weather is starting to develope on both planets. The only thing I was a to observe on Saturn was its south equitoial belt.

Asteroid (Asteroid, est. mag 7, est. to be in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: binoculars   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Tue May 20 02:00:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 813

Tonight, my friend, Joe Cseh and I did some binocular astronomy at his house. We observed Asteroid Vesta in 10X50 binoculars. Vesta has an orange tint to it. We also shocked ourselves by being able to view M104, the Sombrero Galaxy from his light polluted front yard in binoculars. We also observed a number of binocular double stars.

Asteroid (Asteroid, est. mag 5.9, est. to be in Virgo, Est. RaDec 12h41m, +9d12')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Lewisberry, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: poor
Time: Thu Mar 27 03:00:00 2003 UT   Obs. no.: 794

I revisited asteroid 4 Vesta on Thursday morning after the skies cleared. The brightest minor planet was located west of a line between Epsilon and Delta Virginis, just south of Rho Virginis (see http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/iau/Ephemerides/Bright/2003/00004.html for an emphemeris). Before the fog rolled in I did a bit of Messier galaxy hopping (M49, M58, M59, M60, and M61) since Vesta is currently located in the heart of the eastern portion of the Virgo Cluster. Observed earlier were Jupiter, M81, M82, and NGC 2903. The seeing was rather mediocre so I used only 162x.

M104 (Sombrero Galaxy) (Galaxy, in Virgo)
Observer: Michael Amato (e-mail: abigmick@aol.com)
Instrument: 20-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: West Haven, Connecticut, United States
Light pollution: none   Transparency: excellent   Seeing: excellent
Time: Sun Mar 17 04:00:00 2002 UT   Obs. no.: 631

M104, the sombrero galaxy has a large bright central core.The rim around the core does make it look like a sombrero in the 20" dob. There is a large dust lane that cuts across the middle of the bulge.

NGC5846 (Galaxy, in Virgo, Est. RaDec 15h06.4m, +01d36' )
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: fair
Time: Fri May 25 02:40:00 2001 UT   Obs. no.: 554

Conditions: Seeing: 5/10, Transparency: 5/10, Temperature: 63 d F Location: ASH Naylor Observatory (http://www.astrohbg.org), located 2miles northwest of Lewisberry, PA Telescopes: 5" f/5 finderscope, 8" f/10 Celestron C8 SCT, 12.5" f/6.5 equatorially mounted Cave Newtonian, 17" f/15 equatorially mounted classical CassegrainOculars (17"): 55mm University Optics Ploessl (118x), 40mm U.O. MK-70 (162x), 32mm U.O. Koenig-II (202x), 25mm U.O. MK-70 (259x), 17mm Pro-Optic Ploessl (381x) Thursday evening was my night to teach the ASH introductory observational astronomy class. Before I began the lecture I showed the students the large, naked-eye sunspot that I had viewed earlier in the week using the old ASH orange tube C8 at 79x (26mm Tele Vue Ploessl). The weather forecast that night was not good and clouds began to obscure Sol as the students took their turns at the eyepiece. I started my talk on deep-sky objects, the Milky Way, and cosmology and before I knew it I had successfully enlightened (or bored) the group for almost two hours. Much to my surprise when Bob Young, the chief instructor arrived, the clouds had disappeared and we were treated to a view of the young crescent moon and Mercury in the west.Bob said that there was a swath of clear sky in the GEOS image and left to open the French dome. We proceeded to observe a shrinking Mercury (381x) and then the moon (162x) through the 17" classical Cassegrain. Next I prepared the Culver roll-off building and showed the class M3 at 52x (40mm MK-70) and 154x (13mm Tele Vue Ploessl). Although the sky continued to remain mostly clear all the students soon left, so I began to hunt down one of the very few Herschel 400 objects left on my list. First I had a quick look at M57 and M5 at 162x. From M5 I star-hopped a short distance westward into Virgo. At 02:40 UT I grabbed some ancient photons from NGC 5846 (H-128-1), a fairly bright (magnitude 10.0) and large (3.0'x3.0') E1 elliptical galaxy located in eastern Virgo about one degree southeast of 119 Virginis. (The Herschel 400 manual lists the galaxy at magnitude 10.5 and a far too small 0.9'x0.9') NGC 5846 appeared somewhat oval, possibly due to the fact that a very close companion galaxy (NGC 5846A) is almost superimposed upon it, and had a stellar nucleus. I used magnifications of 118, 162, 202, and 259x to view this object. There's a great photo of NGC 5846 and the four much fainter companion galaxies, none of which I was able to see, in the NSOG.

NGC5054 (Galaxy, in Virgo, Est. RaDec 13h17m, -16d38')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch refractor   Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: good   Seeing: fair
Time: Sun Apr 29 06:11:00 2001 UT   Obs. no.: 552

NGC 5054 is a SA(rs)bc pec I-II galaxy that was the second most difficult of the Herschel 400 objects for me to see to date. (The hardest being NGC 6118, the so-called Blinking Galaxy in Serpens Caput.) It was extremely faint and diffuse and appeared amorphous and fairly large. NGC 5054 was barely visible through the 17" at magnifications of 118, 144, 202, and 259x. The NSOG lists the magnitude at 10.9 and the size at 4.8'x2.8'. The surface brightness is a rather dismal 13.6 magnitude.

NGC4546 (Galaxy, in Virgo, Est. RaDec 12h36m, -03d48')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 20-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Colebrook, PA, USA
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sat Apr 14 03:03:00 2001 UT   Obs. no.: 546

Using the Y-shaped asterism that appears on page 112 of the Uranometria 2000.0 I was able to log two new Herschel 400 galaxies, NGC 4546 (3:03 UT) and NGC 4550 (3:35 UT), on a not so unlucky Friday the 13th. NGC 4546 (12h36m, -03d48') is a tenth magnitude elliptical galaxy that is fairly small and circular, with a bright stellar core. To the north lies NGC 4500 (12h36m, +12d13'), an eleventhmagnitude elliptical galaxy that is small, roundish, and had a bright nucleus. NGC 4550 is located 0.5 degree south of M89. (Nearby NGC 4557 was also circular but had a uniform brightness.) Magnifications of 127, 159, 203, and 302x were used on NGC 4546 and 127 and 203x on NGC 4550. Other galaxies observed while in that neck of the cosmic woods were M58, M87, M89, M90, NGC 4557, NGC 4564, and the Siamese Twins, NGC 4567 and 4568.

NGC4660 (Galaxy, in Virgo, Est. RaDec 12h44.5m, +11d11')
Observer: Dave Mitsky (e-mail: djm28@psu.edu)
Instrument: 17-inch equatorial reflector   Location: Harrisburg, PA, USA
Light pollution: moderate   Transparency: fair   Seeing: good
Time: Wed Jun 21 02:54:00 2000 UT   Obs. no.: 532

NGC 4660 lies to the immediate south of M60 and to the southeast of M90. This Herschel 400 elliptical galaxy has a rather high surface brightness (12.8) and was thus surprisingly bright through the eyepiece. NGC 4660 was round, had a bright inner regionand a fainter outer halo, and formed a triangle with two faint field stars thatare located to the south and northeast. Magnifications of 118, 144, 162, and 259x were used.

M87 (Galaxy, in Virgo, Est. RaDec -)
Observer: Eero Holmstrm (e-mail: holmerkki@altavista.net, web: http://angelfire.com/music/holmerkki/index.html )
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Pernajan kirkonkyl, Pernaja, Finland
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Apr 9 00:50:00 2000 UT   Obs. no.: 524

Quite nice! At 120x the galaxy looked much like an unresolved globular cluster. As is typical for an elliptical galaxy, the surface is completely featureless. Three of M87's satellite galaxies were also visible : NGC4476, NGC4478 and NGC4486A.

M84 (Galaxy, in Virgo, Est. RaDec -)
Observer: Eero Holmstrm (e-mail: holmerkki@altavista.net, web: http://angelfire.com/music/holmerkki/index.html )
Instrument: 8-inch Dobsonian reflector   Location: Pernajan kirkonkyl, Pernaja, Finland
Light pollution: light   Transparency: good   Seeing: good
Time: Sun Apr 9 00:45:00 2000 UT   Obs. no.: 528

M84 and M86 were very bright. NGC 4438 and NGC 4435 were visible nearly blended into each other immediately next to them, NGC4438 being the larger of the two. NGC4388 was also visible.

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