Smoky Skies
On the evening
of June 2, 2019 I imaged another 12 objects; galaxies actually. There
was a complicating factor in this observing run; smoke. According to
the local weather caster, this is smoke carried by the jet stream
from Canada to Georgia.
This references the fire .
Haze, smoke, water vapor, and high cloudiness all contribute to
making observing of fuzzy objects … well, challenging to say the
least. You loose contrast, which means it is more difficult than it
would normally be to separate the faint, cloud-like objects from the
cloud-like atmosphere. I decided to let the images I took “count”
as part of my images in the Herschel 400 list (which, as of last
night, is at 325) for several reasons: 1) sometimes you just have to
play the card you are dealt; you can't change the weather. 2) with my
eyes, what I imaged is FAR better than anything I could have seen. 3)
with the past year health wise, I may not be around or have the
ability to image for much longer and I have to image this part of the
sky when I it's available.
Many of the
galaxies on the list are just so so; they look a lot like a fuzzy
star that's elongated. Others show more structure; knots of stars,
the arms of the galaxy, etc. Thus they are more interesting,
visually. The first image I took last night was that kind. The image
contains lots of galaxies, behind the smoke. But, two are visible;
NGC4526 (towards the top) and NGC4535. This is a pair I would like to
come back to and image in color, minus the smoke.
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| NGC4526 and NGC4535 |
