This is a very difficult object visually, very faint surface brightness, due in-part to its large size and attenuation from outer spiral arms.The following image was made using my 32-inch f/6.5 telescope, with ASI 6200 camera. Total of 40 subs 5 minutes each,of Lum, R,G,B filters, and then 50 minutes of H alpha as well to bring out the surprisingly large number of H alpha regions you can see. Processing in Pixinsight, used especially modern processing techniques of Starnet 2, that allows “removing” foreground stars to enable processing the faint background, then adding the stars back in. (without this, nearly impossible to process properly).
Roger Ivester: Observer from North Carolina
IC 342, is a faint galaxy in Camelopardalis, and can be very difficult for the visual observer, due in-part to the low surface brightness and large size, requiring a dark sky with excellent transparency.
I made all observations with a 10-inch reflector from my moderately light-polluted suburban backyard. On a 5.0 NELM night, I located and observed this galaxy rather easily. A chain of six stars, with an orientation of NW-SE, lies a few minutes SW of the faint core.
This galaxy is best observed with low to medium magnification. I used 114x for the following pencil sketch. The 10-inch presented IC 342 as little more than a large faint glow without structure. A faint and small core could be seen with averted vision, with the absence of visible detail being attributed to the lack of a dark site, which reduced the contrast significantly.
On a night of lesser seeing and transparency, I was unable to see this galaxy with my 102mm refractor.
James Dire: Observer from Illinois
IC 342 is one of the most unique galaxies in the heavens due to its orientation, size and brightness. It’s a face-on spiral galaxy approximately 20 arc-minutes in diameter and glows at mag 9.67. Because of its size, brightness and orientation, it’s very hard to see visually. It spans only 1/3 the distance across as the face-on spiral M33 in the constellation Triangulum, which is 35 times brighter.So M33 is easier to see in a telescope.
IC 342 has about the same total luminosity as M100, a face-on spiral galaxy residing in Coma Berenices, however, since it spans three times the diameter as M100, but M100 is much easier to see visually.
The only face-on spiral galaxy with the same angular size that comes to mind is M101 in Ursa Major. However, M101 is 5 times brighter, so big light buckets reveal M101’s spiral arms with much greater ease.
IC 342 lies in the northerly constellation Camelopardalis. It is slightly southwest of the midpoint between two mag. 4.5 stars, Gamma Camelopardalis and BE Camelopardalis. The two stars are 5.75° apart.
To see IC 342 in its splendor requires a long exposure with an astronomical camera. The galaxy is classified as a weakly barred and loosely wound spiral galaxy.
The Hubble classification SABc. (S means spiral, AB means weekly barred, and c means loosely wound spiral arms). In barred spiral galaxies, the spiral arms usually originate at the ends of the bar. On IC 342, there appear to be two spiral arms originating from each end of the galactic bar. The arms tend to fan out as one traces them away from the bar. My image of IC 342 as following, was taken January 6, 2010 at the Wildwood Pines Observatory in Earl, NC.
I used an SBIG ST-2000XCM CCD camera, operating at -20°C, attached to a 190mm (7.5-inch) f/5.3 Maksutov-Newtonian telescope. The exposure was 60 minutes.
Sue French: Observer from New York
“Deep-Sky Wonders” P-15.
“….105mm scope at 28x, this pretty galaxy is a vaporous phantom spangled with faint stars. It appears oval, its long dimension running north and south with a 12′. From a dark-sky site with his 105mm refractor, noted observer Stephen O’Meara has been able to trace out IC 342’s three main spiral arms.”
The following pencil sketch was made using a 10-inch reflector at 88x.
Christian Luginbuhl and Brian Skiff: “Observing Handbook and Catalog of Deep-Sky Objects”
“….Large galaxy is relatively easy to see in small apertures at low powers. In 6 cm it is a faint blob north of a loose clustering of stars.”
“…25 cm a string of six stars runs SE-NW through where the object is seen in 6 cm.”
Warren D. Ivester: (1913-1986) Ruby Whisnant Ivester (1919-2006)
My Daddy loved sports cars. The following blue convertible is a Fiat 124 and the orange one (second photo) is a very rare Datsun Fairlady.He also had a couple more European cars, which was another Fiat and a French Peugeot.
Warren Ivester: “Circa 1976” driving his 1965 Datsun Fairlady1500 Roadster. A very rare car with a high-performance 4-cylinder (1,488cc engine) twin-carburetors and a four-speed transmission.
My Dad had an engineering mind with an ability to improvise a mechanical fix when he didn’t have the necessary parts. This was especially true as related to cars which were always his passion. In the early days, I remember him cutting copper-shims and placing underneath engine bearings rather than using new bearings. However, this was a common practice during the early years and even into the 60’s.
Helping my Dad at our home garage:
The garage was a very humble building with a dirt floor and comprised of a conglomerate of salvaged materials with a small coal burning stove.
While my Dad was rebuilding an engine or doing some serious engine work, I would try to help. And one of my jobs was to grind valves and valve seats in head blocks, when necessary. I would use a tool with a suction stopper on one end, attached to a wooden handle, using a variety of abrasives.
Born in 1913, my Dad grew up on a farm in the foothills of North Carolina when most roads in the area were dirt and things were far different than today. Those were the days of Ford T’s and later A-Models.
When my Dad was born it was only 10 years after the Wright Brothers made their first flight in December 1903, lasting only 12 seconds. And one year after the Titanic sank on April 12th 1912.
Working on the family cotton farm:
He would later begin working as an auto-mechanic, and would work for himself at times and then at many different garages over the coming years.
The story of the Savannah River Nuclear Facility:
My Mom told me on numerous occasions….Dad had an offer to work at the Savannah River Nuclear Facility, but decided against it. This facility was being built in the early 50’s to produce and fabricate nuclear weapons, primarily tritium and plutonian-239. Some “seriously dangerous materials” for sure! I can’t remember or be sure as to why he didn’t take the job, but was not due to the plutonian-239.
However, if my Dad had taken this job, it would have for certain changed the trajectory of my family, and It could have been beneficial to the family finances for sure.
It could have been really good for me also: As I needed my own bicycle, a serious astronomical telescope, a Lionel electric train, and other essentials that kids needed in those days. 🙂
Moving the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse:
When engineers were trying to figure out how to move the Cape Hatteras Lighthouse further inland, away from the ocean, I remember my dad having his own thoughts. The Outer Banks of North Carolina are very unstable land masses and constantly changing. His thoughts were as following, and I remember hearing him say the following, on a number of occasions.
“……it needs to be lifted up using the same principle as moving a house, then installing a massive rail-system underneath. The rails would extend the entire distance to be moved, or to its new and final resting location. The lighthouse would have to be moved very slowly, maybe only inches a day, which would allow very close monitoring of the process.”
Well…this was pretty much the exact way the famous lighthouse was moved.
I made the following photo in April 1982 of the lighthouse in its original location, before being moved. Note how close the lighthouse was to the beach and ocean. Moving this massive structure was definitely an engineering marvel.
My Mom was the mother to six-boys and a wonderful mother she was.
She was very intelligent, excellent in math, very artistic, beautiful handwriting and well read in so many subjects. And this was many years before the internet. She would purchase one encyclopedia every month from the Shelby Winn-Dixie. We would get our groceries at Winn-Dixie, on either Friday nights or Saturday afternoons and most of the time I’d go. Our house was about 15 miles from Shelby, and we called this…going to town.
We received the National Geographic magazine, for about ten years, from about 1960 to 1968. With the addition of our grocery store encyclopedia’s, what more could we possibly need to learn about everything? My Uncle Boyd and Aunt Shelley who lived in Virginia gave the National Geographic magazines, to me and my brothers, in those early years. I remember being excited when the magazine came to our FFA (Future Farmers of America) concrete pedestal mailbox, each and every month. One of my brothers made the mailbox at Polkville School, and brought it home on the school bus.
How my Mom saved me from going to prison when I was 9 years old!
I sent off for a free stamp coin collection, or maybe it was all for a dime I’d sent them. Then I started receiving more and more (worthless) international stamps and more and more books.The company was located in Garden City, New Jersey. I then received a bill for $35. But, what to do? I just ignored the letter, but a month or so later they sent me a serious legal letter.
They advised me to seek legal counsel, as they would be sending their attorney to meet with me and my attorney in Shelby, NC, within the month. But my stamps/coins and books were suppose to be free…or covered by the dime I’d included in the envelope!
I showed the letter to my mom, and it scared her to death!
She quickly looked in our “savings” drawer and counted out $35 and put in an envelope. I’ll never forget the both of us cramming the stamps and books into a box with the money. Yes…cash in an envelope and sending to a bunch of shysters in New Jersey!
Relief! My life was saved!My Mom just couldn’t let her her youngest son go to prison for $35. The real criminals were the folks at the stamp and coin mail order company. (Note: Many years later, a law was passed by Congress, that allowed people to keep anything they didn’t order.) And I didn’t order boxes of books stamps, cheap aluminum coints and worthless books! Considering inflation, the $35 would be equivalent of $366 as of 2025. And my family needed this money!
When I was in about the 1st-4th grades (~1960-1963) she would work at a sewing company in Cherryville, and would ride with some of her friends in the area, who also worked there. My Mom would never have a drivers license. During periods when she was not working, she loved to watch soap operas, which she called “the stories.” She would talk with a few of her local friends on the telephone about the stories as if they were real. One thing for certain….she loved her family.
My mom also taught me so much about the Bible when I was really young, which inspired me to read the Bible, and my belief in Jesus Christ. I would begin to read the Bible on a regular basis, and had a couple that were given to me by my church. However, my favorite was a small Bible given to me at Polkville School, by the Gideons. Somehow at 11 or 12 years old, I managed to memorize the entire 34th Psalm. This is an amazing Psalm that says so much.
I remember so well, my Mom reading to me: Luke 16:19-31 KJV: She talked with me about Hell and eternity and said: “Can you imagine, constant torment that never ends?” Even at a very young age, this for sure caught my attention!
My Dad standing in the backyard during the summer of 1984:
An interview and documentation as following by Chadwick Ivester: His elementary school assignment (4th grade, nine-years old in 1981) was to interview an older person that was significant in their life. Chad chose his grandfather.
Page 2:
The following is the story for easier reading. Only a few spelling changes were made and paragraphs for easier reading.
I would consider this an historical document: Roger
Warren Ivester was born on Feb. 4th, 1913. The first school he attended was White School and then went on to Casar School. He started when he was six years old in 1919. He walked about a mile and a half to school in weather conditions as rain, sleet, or snow.
Later in 1926 Casar School got a 1925 Ford T-Model Bus. White School was a single room building that was stem heated. It used coal to heat. Then when he went to Casar School, the school had two rooms and was heated by the same stem heater. The desk were made of steel frames with tarnished wood.
The subjects he had were spelling, arithmetic, writing, and english, they had spelling books, arithmetic books, and writing books. For lunch he usually had fried pies, baked sweet potatoes, or some biscuits and ham.
Demerits were given for disipline, and if you got five or six, you would have to clean the chalkboard, wash windows and ceiling lights, and for strong boys, they would have to dig up big rocks and cover them back up.
The sports they played usually played was called Round-Town Ball which was simular to baseball. They were never given any homework to do. Warren went to school until the 9th but it went to the 11th. He made A’s and B’s and he liked school very much. The reason why he quit school was to drive the school bus for the school. He got paid 7 dollars a month, he said it would have been better making 7 dollars than no money at all.
The length of the school year was 6 months and vacation was six months. There were usually about 60 to 75 students enrolled in school and he was the smartest of all.
I pulled the following photo of (Leonard Nimoy) “Spock” and his “Orange-Tube” 8-inch Celestron Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope, from Phil Harrington’s vintage telescope advertisement post.
This is the telescope, that changed the world of amateur astronomy, with its introduction in 1970.
Amateurs wanted a more compact and portable telescope, and the 8-inch Schmidt-Cassegrain f/10 fit the bill. I’ve owned two SC scopes over the years, but for me, I still like the simplicity of a Newtonian Reflector, despite the bulk and weight.And should a problem present itself, there is always an “easy fix” maybe not so much so with a Schmidt-Cassegrain or Maksutov-Cassegrain.
However, the Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope is the choice of telescope for many amateurs, for their own personal reasons. I’d suggest mostly for portability, and astrophotography.
Newtonian Reflectors:
It’s my opinion, a 10-inch “equatorially mounted” (solid tube) reflector, is the largest reflector that can/could be considered portable. And that’s a stretch, as I have a very heavy 10-inch EQ reflector (solid tube) so this is based on my experience.
However, this is not the case for a Dobsonian design, as many take 20 to 25-inch Newtonian’s, and sometimes “even” larger to star parties on a regular basis. But for me, I was always happy for someone else to bring such a large telescope. 🙂
My experience with a 20-inch Dobsonian:
I’ll never forget being at a star party near Blowing Rock/Boone, North Carolina, and climbing a “really” tall ladder, to observe through a 20-inch Dobsonian. To make things worse there was a 15 to 20 mph wind, and “of course” in total darkness. I couldn’t wait to get back on ground, and decided my 10-inch reflector was all I needed! I just never thought astronomy should be a hazardous hobby, even greater than road cycling!
I’ve always preferred the simplicity of both a Newtonian and refractors:
For me, growing up looking at big Cave Newtonian’s (advertisements) and other brands, with massive German design equatorial mounts, was what an astronomical telescope should look like.
We can never escape our early years, and thoughts.
Roger Ivester
The following is an excerpt from Wikipedia, concerning Tom Johnson and Celestron telescopes.
…..Johnson, who had a strong interest in amateur astronomy, originally created Celestron as the “Astro-Optical” division of Valor Electronics in 1960.[2][3] Around 1960, Johnson had been looking for a telescope which could be used by his two sons, but found no such child-friendly models on the market at the time.[2] Johnson built a new telescope, a 6-inch reflector telescope, by himself, in 1960.[2] He was visiting his brother in Costa Mesa, California when he came upon his nephew, Roger, trying to grind the 6 inch diameter lens he purchased from the clearance table at a local hobby shop. Roger was tired of the project and offered the lens-grinding kit to his uncle. Thomas Jasper took the kit home and after several days of hand grinding, he invented a machine that would grind the lens for him. Thus, by accepting the lens grinding kit from his nephew, Roger L. Johnson, “TJ” (as the family called him) created that first lens of many.
Johnson’s interest in telescopes soon became a full-fledged business.[2] Johnson’s new company, Celestron, which descended from the “Astro-Optical” division of Valor Electronics, soon began selling more sophisticated Schmidt–Cassegrain telescopes in models ranging from just 4 inches to 22 inches.[2] However, the Schmidt–Cassegrain telescope proved difficult to mass-produce because the models needed Schmidt corrector plate, an advanced aspheric lens, which could be hard to manufacture.[2] To solve this production problem, Johnson and the company’s engineers invented a new type of telescope, the Celestron 8, in 1970.[2] The Celestron 8 was more compact, affordable and easier to manufacture than traditional telescopes, like the Schmidt–Cassegrain.[2] Johnson’s new telescope proved very popular in the amateur astronomy and educational industries, allowing the hobby to rapidly expand and reach more consumers.[2]
7 And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure. 8 Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. 9 And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.
7 …..Therefore, in order to keep me from becoming conceited, I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. NIV
My thoughts concerning the “Thorn In The Apostle Pauls’ Side” as following: Roger Ivester
Could the “thorn in the Apostle Paul’s side” have been mental and his inability, therefore, as a human lacking the ability to forgive himself? Could Paul’s thorn have been guilt, due to his murder and torment of Christians. Mental pain and guilt can be more punishing than physical pain. Despite the supernatural event and his conversion on the road to Damascus…the thorn in his side remained.
Was Paul continually “tormented” by Satan, saying…? You have tortured and even murdered many followers of Jesus Christ. Who are you to profess faith in Jesus Christ, when his followers hate and fear you?
Disclaimer: This theory and conjecture is based on my own simple understanding of the Bible, and mine alone. Never will this humble servant pretend to understand or know “definitively” the many hidden meanings of the Bible.
…..years ago, a sentence from a Gideon’s KJV Bible had a profound effect on my ability to share that which I do not know or understand, concerning theBible: “It involves the highest responsibility, will reward the greatest labor, and will condemn all who trifle with its sacred contents.” Source:Gideon’s International.
Information compiled and personal thoughts by Roger Ivester
Saul’s conversion on the road to Damascus…blinded by Jesus.
Several months ago, it occurred to me that I needed a more organized system of filing my pencil sketches and notes. I was just filing my 5 x 8 sketches in plastic boxes, without having a directory, and having to look through hundreds of sketches to find the one I might be looking for. I have spent about sixteen hours to-date, and with many more hours to go.
I am using a laminator, lamination plastic, a paper cutter, plastic page protectors, and plenty of 3-inch loose leaf notebooks. When finished, there will be a directory in front of each notebook, then a master list to find the notebook needed, and then the page number.
This is a preliminary post, and I will be adding more information when the task is finished. At this point, I havefive complete notebooks.I have all of my sketches digitized for the past fifteen years, but nothing like a “hard-copy.”
Four books now completed, with the fifth, just beginning. There is no way, I can laminate all of my sketches, and notes, as they are in different formats, journals, and too many small 3 x 5 cards to count.
Maybe a thousand or more small note cards ( 3 x 5) filed in plastic boxes, by constellation. So they are just fine, and easy to locate…the object I might be looking for.
The following are the books to-date with Debbie’s hand holding.
Richard Nugent and Bruce Berger saw the galaxy from Maine at +45º N latitude.
Pencil Sketch as following by Bertrand Laville from France, using a 25-inch Reflector:
Image by Mario Motta:
The data was collected in 2019, counting the number of subs, I have 70 min both Blue, and red filters, and 60 minutes Lum Filter. Green filter was only 40 minutes, likely it began to set in the west too low and could not get more.
This was taken with my 32-inch scope from Gloucester MA, with a ZWO ASI6200 camera.
Processed in Pixinsight
Image by James Dire:
Date/Location
November 15, 2009 Wildwood Pines Observatory, Earl, NC
Camera and Settings
SBIG ST-2000XCM CCD Camera -10°C
Telescope
Orion 190mm Maksutov-Newtonian f/5.3
Mount
Parallax HD150
Exposure
60 minutes (6 x 10 min)
Processing
CCDOpts, Image Plus 3.0, Photoshop
Other
Mag. 7.1 spiral galaxy in Sculptor. 26.9 x 4.6 arc minutes.
Pencil Sketch by Roger Ivesterfrom North Carolina:
14.5-inch reflector at 125x, from a local dark-site in North Carolina at +35º N latitude on October22nd 1995. I made thefollowing sketch using a white charcoal pencil on black card stock.
South is up, and East is to the right.
Pencil Sketch by Sue French from New York at +43º N latitude:
Comments:Comments Off on NGC 253 – Galaxy In Sculptor: It’s Far South -25º South Declination Deters Many Amateurs From Observing. However, It’s Possible To Be Observed From Anywhere in The Continental US.
Stiction: Physics = “The friction which tends to prevent stationary surfaces from being set in motion”
I have an older Meade “medium duty” equatorial mount. It’s been a while since I’d last used this mount. Unfortunately, while pointing the telescope, the RA and Declination shafts were “jerky” or sticking, when attempting to hand-move the mount. This is called “stiction.”
This mount has teflon/nylon split bearings, and over the past 30 years, knowing that a petroleum based lubricant can attack plastics, nylon and teflon, I have disassembled and used paraffin.
It occurred to me to use some Mobil 1 synthetic motor oil in a tiny plastic dropper, might just be the perfect lubrication.
I removed the counter weights, and flipped the RA and Dec shafts in all angles, and dripped small drops of Mobil 1 synthetic into the RA and declination lock down holes, which would allow permeation of the internal surfaces.
The Meade Medium Duty mount seems to now work beautifully.
Supplemental: The path of totality, also included other popular sites for research groups, including Pinehurst, North Carolina, as well as Newberry, South Carolina, among many others.
The following is a photo of the historic marker for the event in Pinehurst. Unfortunately, there is no such marker, or even the general area is not known where the various groups observed from in Wadesboro, at least to my knowledge. Roger
British Scientific Team at Wadesboro: Photo from the “NC Collection’s Photographic Archives”
The following information….again, provided by Tom English:
British Astronomical Association Eclipse Party at Wadesboro, NC, May 1900, courtesy NC Miscellany, UNC Libraries.
L-R: Rev. John M. Bacon, Gertrude Bacon, Nevil Maskelyne, George Dixon, and three women, not specifically identified, but most certainly Miss E. K. Dixon, Mary Elizabeth Woolston, and Ada Mary Maskelyne, the magician’s wife.
The BAA set up their station adjacent to the Princeton party led by Charles A. Young, at a site along what is now Brent Street in Wadesboro. Maskelyne, a famous London magician, brought his kinematograph and used it to make the first successful movie of an eclipse – the device is in front of him in the photo.
The Bacons had taken an earlier version of this camera to India in 1898 and used it to film that eclipse, but the film was stolen before it could be developed. John Mackenzie Bacon was a noted aerialist who once observed a the Leonid meteors from a balloon. His daughter Gertrude was also an aeronautical pioneer and a writer. Her biography of her father, Record of an Aeronaut, includes an account of the Wadesboro trip.
George Dixon was an organ designer, and Miss Dixon is likely his sister. There was one additional member of the BAA party not shown in the photo (perhaps he took the picture?) – David Hadden of Alta, Iowa, who joined them on eclipse day.
Hadden was a pharmacist and a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society who contributed solar observations to thePublications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific and Popular Astronomy. The BAA account of the Wadesborough trip and the eclipse can be found in the official BAA report of the 1900 eclipse, compiled by Walter Maunder.
The US Naval Observatory Station at Pinehurst
A. N. Skinner, Professor of Mathematics at USNO, spent 2 days in April 1900 in Southern Pines, NC, searching for an observing site. He eventually selected Pinehurst, after James W. Tufts, of Boston, MA, who owned several hotels and cottages in Pinehurst, invited the USNO to set up their station there. C. D. Benbow, the general manager of the Tufts properties, worked out the details. The Lenox Hotel was kept open for the party. (Pinehurst was a resort destination for northerners in 1900, but by May the “season” was over and the accommodations were closing down.) Their observation site was 800 feet southeast of the Carolina Hotel which is still a popular Pinehurst resort.
Skinner & USNO Assistant Astronomer Theo I. King arrived in Pinehurst on 3 May. They sighted a meridian line that evening. The next day they staked out a plan for the expedition site structures. Their apparatus/instruments arrived on the 8th and the rest of their observing party shortly after, and the group got to work setting up their station, so that all was in order several days before the eclipse. A temporary telegraph line was established on the 12th so that they could get noon time signals from the USNO. Drills were conducted several times per day during the 3-4 days before the eclipse.
The primary focus of the USNO observing plan was spectral studies of the chromosphere and corona, and large format imaging of the corona using a 40-ft focal length camera. A similar 40-ft. instrument was set up at the Naval Observatory’s other station in Barnesville, GA. In addition to a team of USNO staff, the station included observers from Johns Hopkins, Yale, the University of Wisconsin, and Cincinnati Observatory. Details about the observers and equipment for these stations (and others) can be found in the expedition reports.
Nearby, in Southern Pines, a less technical eclipse party of observers from Carleton College (Northfield, MN) and Guilford College (Greensboro, NC) were stationed on the peach farm of Mr. John Van Lindley, a Guilford College Trustee. H. C. Wilson, the assistant editor of Popular Astronomy, which was published out of Carleton, was the primary astronomer at this site, and his report of the expedition in the June issue was the first formal publication of results from the May 1900 eclipse.
Comments:Comments Off on The 1900 Total Solar Eclipse From Wadesboro, North Carolina, And Also A Transcribed Report Of The Attendance By The Citadel, The Military College of South Carolina: All Information And Data Provided By Tom English.
After years of wondering if I could see globular cluster (NGC 5139) Omega Centauri and galaxy (NGC 5128) Centaurus A from my home at a latitude of (+35º 18′) so I gave it a try on April 26th 2009.
My poor southern view required that I go to a dark-site on the southern rim of the South Mountains, only thirty minutes away. I met with longtime friend and expert amateur Steve Davis, who brought a Meade 12-inch Dobsonian, which was invaluable in also seeing galaxy Centaurus A.
The 12-inch also provided an excellent resolve of “Omega Centauri” despite the telescope optical tube being almost parallel to the ground!
Theoretical limiting horizon calculation from Western North Carolina at +35º North Latitude:
(90º-35º) = -55º theoretical limiting south latitude.
Omega Centauri south latitude: -47º 28′
My limiting southern horizon @ -55º (-) -47º = Only 8º above my theoretical southern horizon, and again…which puts my telescope tube almost parallel to the ground!
I made the following sketch using a 102mm f/10 refractor, on the same night and location The NELM was ~6.5 at the zenith and with a good view of the southern horizon. However, the excellent seeing overhead did not transfer to the extremely low southern view as expected, at only 8ºs about my limiting horizon. The globular appeared fairly dim, mostly round, well-defined edges with some brighter members sparkling in the interior with averted vision. I also noted many faint outliers enveloping the cluster.
When observing with the 12-inch f/5 reflector the globular cluster was well resolved. Despite observing at a fairly dark-site, I was looking over distant lights and layers of atmosphere which diminished the view significantly the galaxy was not visible with my 102mm refractor.
Observing galaxy “Centaurus A” with a 12-inch f/5 reflector: My notes read: Difficult! A very small smudge with a stellar nucleus. Regardless, of the poor view of Centaurus A, I was happy.
102mm refractor: Rough field-sketch of globular cluster Omega Centauri as following using a chalk pencil on black card stock: Date 4-26-09 @ 1:00 AM EDT off Jack Moore Mountain Road.
Pencil sketch as following using a 12-inch f/5 reflector:
James Dire Image from Barking Sands, Kauai, Hawaii
Omega Centauri from Naples, Florida using a C-14 telescope by Mario Motta:
In close proximity is galaxy, NGC 5128, known as Centaurus A, also with a C-14 telescope from Naples by Mario Motta:
Fred Rayworth of Las Vegas, saw Omega Centauri from Cathedral Gorge, Utah@ +37º 49′ 20″
“I saw Omega Centauri just over the hood of a truck on the horizon. I had a chance to see it at Death Valley, California when we went to the airport, but never caught it.”
+90º North (-) +37º 50′ = (-) 52º 50 mins or limiting southern horizon
So: -52º 50′ (-) -47º 28′ = ~ 5º 22 mins above the horizon from Cathedral Gorge.
Larry McHenry: Observing from West Virginia
Globular cluster NGC 5139 “Omega Centauri.”
Location: Calhoun County Park in central West Virginia. Setup on a ridge of about 1100 ft in elevation. (more about Calhoun at: http://stellar-journ…calhounpark.htm
At the time of observation, NGC 5139 had an elevation of about 3.5º above the horizon.
First a wide-field “finder” image of NGC 5139 (Omega Centauri) using my Canon 100mm video lens & ASI290MC camera.
Here’s the main EAA observation of Omega Centauri, again thru the trees, from 4/28/22 at 12:28 AM.
(8-inch SCT @ f/6.3 on an Atlas German equatorial mount , ZWO ASI294MC camera with L-Pro filter, 20 second subs, no dark or flat frames, not guided, live-stacked using Sharpcap for 80 seconds).
Due to the short exposure time, we were able to see the dark feature called the “Eye of Omega”, which is possibly a dark molecular cloud that is in front of the cluster in our line-of-sight. This is generally only seen visually, as most images are longer exposures to pull-out more of the cluster stars.
Myself (L) Tom English in the center, and Dobson. I can’t remember, but I think someone local knitted Dobson the funky hat, which he wore most all of the time during his visit.
We had a get-together and dinner at one of the local astronomy club members home.
Dobson and Tom English during a solar observing session. Best I remember, Dobson didn’t think it was a good idea to observe the sun with a solar filter.
A letter that Dobson wrote to my wife, after he returned to San Francisco. He wanted to tell her about a movie he had seen.
rogerivester.com 
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