Recent Observations and Sketches:

Jupiter

A couple of sketches of the big sunspot group.

Another sketch of the big sunspot group.

Sketches and Notes from White River trip, 2000 Sep. 27 (UT).

Spiral galaxy NGC 253.


NGC 6181: Spiral galaxy in Hercules. High surface brightness. Small and round at 50x; much improved at 136x where it is elongated with a bright nucleus and an outer halo with a hook at one end.

NGC 7027: Emission nebula in Cygnus. Much like a planetary. Intense blue color at 136x; quite small. Possibly stellar central point in a confusion of bright nebulosity. Brightness falls off abruptly over an oval shape. Hint of dark lane on preceding end.

NGC 7048: Planetary nebula in Cygnus. At 136x, appears at first like a comet tail connected to a field star, but takes on an annular appearance. At times a star was suspected in the brightest part of the nebulosity.

NGC 7217: Spiral galaxy in Pegasus. A mid-size galaxy, high surface brightness. Bright,
non-stellar nucleus seen at 136x; outer extensions hint of spiral structure.

Stephan's Quintet: At 94x, all five members identified with help from September S&T
photo and sketch. Order of difficulty, from most to least difficult:
7319
7317
7318A&B (appear merged, but I saw elongation in both appropriate directions before I looked at the magazine photo)
7320




NGC 7332/9: Galaxy pair in Pegasus. 7332 bright and oval with bright nucleus. 7339 dimmer, very elongated, evenly illuminated.

NGC 7448/7454: Galaxy pair in Pegasus. 7448: cottony texture; clumpy nucleus. 7454 dimmer, evenly illuminated, thin and elongated.

NGC 7479: Galaxy in Pegasus. Elongated; slight brightening toward center; brighter also on one side, but no conspicuous spiral structure. Sits between two stars.

NGC 2371/2: Planetary nebula in Gemini. Object divided into two halves, like the chromosomes in a dividing cell. One half appears to have a star or perhaps a bright clump in it; the other is more irregular.