The night was clear and calm and not too cold. Nevertheless, it had one glaring imperfection—the moon. Now, I wouldn’t call the moon imperfect, but, for a stargazer, the moon can often be an irritation on an otherwise perfect stargazing night.
And since it was springtime, I was getting impatient for a good night of stargazing, for spring is the season to view the hosts of galaxies in the heavens. Even though, through a telescope like mine, galaxies are colorless, usually with little or no detail visible, there is something enchanting and mysterious about them. Those dim, glowing, far-off patches of millions upon millions of stars draw one outside to view them whenever opportunity presents itself.
According to my planisphere, the moon would set at 1:00 a.m. on March 27. So I set my alarm accordingly. It is not very ideal to wake up in the middle of the night and drag oneself outside into the cool night air when a warm bed feels so much better. But desperation drives men to do strange things, and I was desperate to view galaxies after almost a year of not seeing them. Of course, some galaxies are visible all year round, but nothing compares to seeing the multitudes that are visible in the spring.
I jumped out of bed before I could change my mind, and stumbled sleepily outside to set up my telescope in the corner of the yard.
First I attacked Leo the Lion and the galaxies therein. Leo holds several fine groups of galaxies. None are very bright, but being in groups like they are makes them fascinating to view. At 130 power, the galaxies of one group usually don’t all fit into one field of view, so I have to move the telescope around a little to see all the galaxies of each group. I discovered another faint group of three or four galaxies that were not marked on the sky map, but they were located very near to a galaxy that was marked, namely NGC 3607. Probably the brightest galaxy in Leo is a loner marked as NGC 2903.
Now I moved northward to the constellation Ursa Major, the Big Bear. Many people are familiar with at least part of this constellation, the Big Dipper. On the north side of the constellation are two large and bright galaxies, M81 and M82. M81 appears as an oval disk of bright, glowing light. When I say “bright,” I don’t mean bright like the moon. For those who are familiar with seeing the band of our galaxy, the Milky Way, across the sky, M81 is slightly brighter than that. Right nearby is a smaller dimmer galaxy, NGC 3077. On the other side of M81 is M82, even brighter, in my opinion, than M81, and more fascinating, because of its odd appearance. It lies almost directly edge-on, so it appears flat and wide, with dark streaks running through it. M82 is one of my favorite galaxies.
Then I turned to the southern side of the Big Bear toward another galaxy even more interesting than M82. M51, the Whirlpool Galaxy, is actually a double galaxy, for it appears to have another galaxy connected to it by one of its spiral arms. Usually spiral structure is visible in M51, making it especially beautiful. However, tonight I could hardly see it.
I was beginning to discover that the night sky was not as perfect as I had at first thought. The atmosphere felt heavy and moist, and the sky was not as sparkling clear as I like, though a casual observer wouldn’t have noticed anything amiss. But I was still having fun and had no desire to stop yet.
The night was perfectly still and peaceful, with no breeze whispering through the pines across the lane. One of the neighbor’s beef cattle lowed restlessly at intervals. Farther down the valley, somewhere deep in the woods, an owl, which sounded like my birder brother’s imitation of a Barred Owl, hollered joyfully. From across the ridge on the two-lane highway came the only man-made sound, the roar of a semi truck. All these night sounds, coupled with the sights of these enchanting galaxies, create memories that time cannot easily erase.
As I searched for M51, I moved too far southward and came across a bright but average-sized, face-on galaxy. According to the map, it was M94. The only noteworthy detail about this galaxy was its core, which appeared large and bright. Between M51 and M94 is M63. I glanced at it and moved on to M106, brighter and more beautiful.
The cool, moist night air was making my hands cold, much to my dismay. I began to realize I would have to cut my stargazing session short, or wear gloves. And wearing gloves would take all the joy out of stargazing, for I am not a fan of wearing gloves, and never do unless I have to.
Now I came to my favorite galaxy of all, NGC 4565. The first time I saw it, which was last spring, I was totally enchanted by its appearance. I imagine it was mostly because I discovered its beauty for myself and not by reading about it or seeing a photograph of it.
This galaxy is edge-on, rather wide, with a dark dust lane running its entire width, which almost gives it the appearance of being split in two. However, tonight, because of the heavy atmosphere, this dark dust lane was difficult to observe.
Before going back inside, I decided to view the globular star cluster M3. I can still remember how awed I was by this object when I viewed it one night last year after a night of viewing galaxies. Now as I viewed it, it was even more beautiful than I remembered it, a bright ball of countless thousands of stars. Toward its center, the stars are so tight and compact that they can’t be seen individually. It just looks like a mass of glowing light. Objects such as these are almost enough to take your breath away. Globular clusters probably appear especially beautiful after an hour of viewing galaxies, since galaxies are noticeably dimmer with no individual stars visible at all.
Though M3 is so beautiful, M13, the Hercules Cluster is even more beautiful. But M13 is not visible in the evening skies until summer.
As I prepared to go inside, I happened to notice the zigzagging line of stars which forms the constellation Hydra, the Water Snake. In this constellation is a pretty bright blue planetary nebula, NGC 3242. Whoever gave it its name, the Ghost of Jupiter, had quite an imagination, for I can see no resemblance whatsoever between it and Jupiter, unless it is the size. Jupiter is peach-colored with reddish bands. This nebula is the standard color for planetaries, blue. It does have some detail in it, but nothing that would make one think of Jupiter. Nevertheless, tonight I got my best view of it ever. In plain words, it was pretty!
I went back to bed feeling thankful that once again I had the opportunity to view some of the less common objects in creation, galaxies. Not that galaxies aren’t common, for astronomers claim millions exist. But how many people on Earth get to see them? Definitely not those who choose to sleep the whole night!