2025 February 5

Deep Sky Update – January 2025

Well, although now having roundly failed my New Year resolution, I will try to pick things up for the rest of the year. By way of excuses I have been very busy in January with preparing for National Astronomy Week and arrangements for our BAA Orkney Weekend in September. There is an update on this on the website now, and in the next BAA Newsletter.

Also I have had to rearrange the professional speaker for our Section Meeting on March 22. Unfortunately Albert Zijlstra will have been away at a conference in Vancouver and will not have returned in time for our meeting. However I have been able to secure Professor Rob Jeffries from Keele who will give the keynote talk on “Determining Stellar Ages”

I hope you did not suffer from Storm Eowyn – although it was “a bit blowy” here on Orkney we missed the worst of the winds that hit Scotland. And Orkney is used to strong winds so there is usually little actual damage.

We have had a few new members join the section in recent months – welcome to you all and please get in touch if there is any advice or help you need, or just to say “Hello!”.

Deep Sky Section Meeting 22 March 2025

Although it is a while off still, please do book to attend the meeting as soon as you can. The ‘members’ price is £15 which covers the lunch costs only, so I hope you will think the meeting will be good value.
The link to the booking site is on the webpage:

Planetary Nebulae Preprint

Jeremy Shears kindly forwarded this preprint of a chapter on PNe for the Encyclopedia of Astrophysics on ArXiv
It is an interesting read.

January Object of Interest

NGC 1924, a galaxy in Orion near M42, was the main target, with the pair IC 412 and 413 being a secondary target for a bigger challenge.

Many thanks to Iain Cartwright, Alan Thomas, Ivan Walton, David Davies, and Paul Leyland who all captured nice images of this small target. Also thanks to Mark Fairfax who captured this nice image using a Celestron Origin. Mark also caught IC 412.

I was also pleased to receive a visual observation of NGC 1924 from Lee Macdonald though it was slightly outwith the normal window for the challenge – he observed it 20 years ago in December 2024 from Newbury! And really nice to see a sketch from a logbook!
Lee writes “ a visual observation of the galaxy NGC 1924 in Orion that I made just over 20 years ago, on the night of 2004 December 17/18, from Newbury, Berkshire.

I can confirm that this object is visible in an 8-inch class telescope, though I found it to be near the limit of visibility with my 222mm reflector. Perhaps it would be an easier object from a darker and/or more southerly site than Newbury. “

Jim Latham observed on Jan 24 just after storm Eowyn and writes: “NGC 1924 I’ve seen before, a dim fuzzy patch, but surprising for its proximity to M42. IC 2124 and IC 412 were rather impressive though, forming a tight triangle with a mag 12 star, and holding high magnification well (x460); IC 414 was also close by.”

Object of Interest for February

February’s target is selected by Jim Latham as a visual challenge, it seems to be fairly routine for imaging but perhaps you have new kit that might like a run-out on it. The target is NGC 2359, Thor’s Helmet, in Canis Major. It lies about 9 degrees east of Sirius, so it should be not too hard to find. Even on the meridian Sirius is rather low for me on Orkney, but those in more southerly latitudes and a good southern horizon will fare better.

Deep Sky Picture of the Month

This month’s POTM is of Messier 78 by Graham Winstanley from Lincs. And although a Messier object, it does seem to be rather rarely observed.

And Finally

I hope you have a good February observing. The days are certainly drawing out now.

Clear, dark skies,

Callum