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(IAAC) Obj: ngc 2419 (Intergalactic Wanderer) - Inst: 20" f/5 dob newt
Observer: Lew Gramer
Your skills: Intermediate
Date and UT of Observation: 1997-10-30/21, 06:15 UT
Location: Miles Standish State Forest, MA, USA (41N, elev 30m)
Site classification: rural
Limiting magnitude: 6.5 (zenith), intermittent cirrus and fog
Seeing: 7 of 10 - pretty good, but variable down to 4
Moon up: no
Instrument: 20" f/5 Tectron truss-tube dob Newtonian reflector
Magnification: 70x, 210x, 420x
Filters used: None
Object: ngc2419 (Intergalactic Wanderer cluster)
Category: Globular cluster (possibly extragalactic)
Constellation: Lyn
Data: mag 10.4 size 4.1'
RA/DE: 07h38m +38o53m
Description:
Readily found by sweeping N from Castor, past the pretty multiple
omicron Gem, to two very ORANGE stars mags 5-6 in Lynx, separated
NW-SE by just over a degree (HD62647 and HD61294). Just over 0.5o
from the NW orange star is a bluish mag 7 pair. n2419 is an irreg-
ular, unconcentrated haze at 70x, just NE of this pair. No detail
is apparent, and the object intermittently will require averted
vision even to be seen. At 210x, some hint of "lobes" in the halo
can be seen, and clumpiness begins to appear near the indistinct
core as well. At 420x, in moments of excellent seeing, probable
stellarings seem to appear at seemingly random points, and there
is an apparent brighter concentration of haze just N of center.
At such a high power under good conditions, more distinct lobes
of haze can be seen in the halo, NW and E of what APPEARS to be a
poorly concentrated core. [Surely the joy of viewing this gc lies
mainly in the challenge of seeing it, as well as in the knowledge
of n2419's bizarre nature: a faint, lonely object drifting away
from us at a nearly extragalactic distance of 300,000 light years!
For those not blessed with Southern Skies, this is certainly one
of the most distant globular clusters visible as extended objects
from earth - a lonely wanderer indeed.]
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Karen Simmons & Lew Gramer dedalus@alum.mit.edu http://www.tiac.net/users/lewkaren
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