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<STRONG>Bunny,</STRONG><BR>
<STRONG></STRONG> <BR>
<STRONG>I feel the same. We are fortunate indeed to have someone as well known as Sue French to be a part of the OC.</STRONG><BR>
<STRONG></STRONG> <BR>
<STRONG>I have also thought about asking James Mullaney author of "The<EM> Cambridge Double Star Atlas" </EM>with Wil Tirion.</STRONG><BR>
<STRONG></STRONG> <BR>
<STRONG>Roger</STRONG><BR><BR>
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Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 18:49:44 -0800<BR>From: bunnynua@yahoo.com<BR>To: lvas@lvlug.org<BR>Subject: Re: [LVAS] FW: May Observer's Challenge<BR><BR>
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<TD vAlign=top><FONT face="lucida console, sans-serif">Fabulous!<BR></FONT><BR>--- On <B>Wed, 3/10/10, roger ivester <I><drivester@hotmail.com></I></B> wrote:<BR>
<BLOCKQUOTE style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: rgb(16,16,255) 2px solid"><BR>From: roger ivester <drivester@hotmail.com><BR>Subject: [<SPAN>LVAS</SPAN>] FW: May Observer's Challenge<BR>To: lvas@lvlug.org, "Dr. James Dire" <jdire@gardner-webb.edu>, "Dr. Don Olive" <dolive@gardner-webb.edu>, "Tom English" <trenglish@gtcc.edu>, "Frank Barrett" <frankb@celestialwonders.com><BR>Date: Wednesday, March 10, 2010, 4:06 PM<BR><BR>
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<BR>> From: scfrench@nycap.rr.com<BR>> To: drivester@hotmail.com<BR>> Subject: May Observer's Challenge<BR>> Date: Wed, 10 Mar 2010 11:03:01 -0500<BR>> <BR>> This month's Observing Challenge was for NGC 4631 and its little companion<BR>> NGC 4627. However, I've always enjoyed viewing these two together with the<BR>> NGC 4656/57 pair, so I decided to sketch the combination.<BR>> <BR>> I first logged these galaxies in 1985 while looking through the 36-inch<BR>> Cassegrain under beautifully dark skies at MIRA (Monterey Institute for<BR>> Research in Astronomy). Needless to say, they were gorgeous.<BR>> <BR>> This time, I used my 130mm f/6.3 refractor at my semirural home in upstate<BR>> New York. The sky is hardly pristine so close to Schenectady. A light<BR>> pollution map places me in an orange zone, but I have the decided advantage<BR>> of no glare from local lights.<BR>> <BR>> The seeing and transparency high in the sky were good during my sketch, but<BR>> only fair at the altitude of the targets around 10 PM EST. I chose a<BR>> magnification of 117x with a wide-angle eyepiece. This is highest power at<BR>> which all four galaxies would share the field of view.<BR>> <BR>> NGC 4631 is very, very pretty and highly textured. It's brightest at its<BR>> widest part, which is a little east of center, and along most of its<BR>> northern flank. A faint star is plainly visible resting on the Whale's back.<BR>> NGC 4627 can be seen with direct vision but shows up better with averted.<BR>> <BR>> NGC 4656 is considerably fainter and has two bright patches, one at the<BR>> northeast end and a much larger one northeast of center, both mottled. The<BR>> latter has bright spot on its west-southwestern edge. The galaxy's hook and<BR>> NGC 4657 are faintly visible with averted vision. <BR>> <BR>> More and more stars are popped out as the galaxies slowly climbed the dome<BR>> of the sky, but I only added a few of them to the sketch. The sketch is<BR>> mirror-reversed and done with sketching pencils on a blank 5 x 8 index card.<BR>> I used Microsoft Picture Manager to change the image to white on black and<BR>> made small adjustments to the contrast and brightness so that all four<BR>> galaxies would show on my monitor.<BR>> <BR>> I wanted a closer look, so I boosted the power to 164x, but the galaxies no<BR>> longer shared the field. NGC 4627 was then easily visible with direct<BR>> vision as a small oval tipped north-northeast. NGC 4657 was also a bit more<BR>> apparent and elongated north-northwest to south-southeast. <BR><BR>
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