Gary Addington: Observer from North Carolina

See my attached photo of NGC 3044 made using a 4.5-inch Smart Scope from downtown Maiden, North Carolina.  To read that galaxy NGC 3044 was an 11.9 mag object, one might say that a 4.5-inch, would probably not be sufficient so “move on, nothing here.”

How, you might ask, how I, with a couple other members of the club were trying out a new gift from someone we both know. Last Friday, we picked up a new telescope….a gift, from Dr. James Hermann.  The gift was a new Unistellar eVScope 4.5 Smart Telescope.

Before proceeding with Gary’s article/post, I feel the need to share and give credit to Dr. James Hermann, for all he has done for the amateur astronomy community, not only locally, but many other places, including the desert southwest. Some supplemental information, concerning Dr. James Hermann, MD:

Dr. Hermann, has been an amateur astronomy for many years, and has donated many telescopes and much astronomy equipment to universities and colleges, astronomy clubs, and churches. Only Jim knows how much he has donated to deserving astronomy causes over the years.

Just a brief listing of some of his donations...

When Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs built an on-campus observatory, more than 30 plus years ago. Dr. Hermann donated their first dome telescope….a Celestron C-14. Later he replaced this scope with a 16-inch Richey-Chretien telescope with a Parmount Mount.

When he found out the Las Vegas Astronomical Society was wanting to build an observing complex, on Mount Potosi in SW Nevada….Dr. Hermann came through again. This is a famous mountain, for a sad reason.

Not only donating a premium ASA 14-inch RC scope and harmonic mount, but also paid for building a shipping crate, packing the scope and mount, and the shipping from North Carolina to Las Vegas. Roger Ivester

Mount Potosi Observing Complex:

Interested in reading more about this story that was featured in Astronomy Magazine?

Carole Lombard, the wife of Clark Gable, and ~26 other souls were lost, when their DC-3 Luxury-liner, hit the rock cliffs of Mount Potosi at maximum power.

The prints of the rotary engine can be seen on the side of the mountain today. Due to the rough terrain and snow, all of the bodies were not able to be recovered.

https://rogerivester.com/category/mount-potosi-observing-complex-in-southern-nevada/

It took us about fives minutes to set it up….with the hardest part being leveling the tripod.  The next step is turning it on, connecting with your smart phone or tablet, get either, by selecting from its SkyTour or typing in the name of an object.  

After a couple of warm up objects of the big names, the Orion Nebula, and a few others I suggested your April Challenge of NGC 3044.  Looking it up on my iPad and seeing it was mag 11.9.

I thought this would be a good test for the little scope.  We typed in the name and watched as the scope slewed to the object.  It spends a little time platesolving the field, 1st some movement, then a 2nd platesolve, some movement, then a slight 3rd movement and it comes to rest.  

We see nothing but stars, then the “magic” begins with a touch of the enhance icon at the bottom of the screen.  You see a second counter begin and after 30 seconds, we see a small central bar begin to show. After 1 minute we see a better bar showing and after 3 minutes, I make a picture to my phone.  

Wow, mag 11.9 low surface brightness galaxy in a 4.5-inch telescope from light polluted Maiden, North Carolina.  We went on to look at the Horsehead, Owl Nebula, and some galaxies and clusters.  This is quite a gift.  

We will use it for our public events at the observatory.  Up to 10 people can connect to the scope with their smart devices at one time and will be able to take home a digital picture of what they saw.   What an amazing scope.  

Makes me wonder if this tech upgrades to larger light buckets at a affordable price for amateurs.  Maybe like the big screen TV’s when they were first introduced, and now you can buy a 60-in for about $200.00.  

Meantime we will enjoy this little scope and allow people at our events to enjoy the night sky.  Also thanks for our test object (NGC 3044) last night.