At 1:15 AM -0700 9/30/03, Brian Z wrote:
>Earlier in the evening, David Winstrom
>had came by and told me about an object on the "AINTNO" list that
>sounded like we may have a shot at. It was an 18.5 mag globular in
>the Andromeda galaxy known as G132. He had a good finder chart and I
>located the field pretty quickly. We tried for over 2.5 hours to see
>this little glob with no lasting success. Both David and I felt we
>had glimpsed it just briefly on a couple different occasions but not
>enough that we felt comfortable claiming it as a successful
>observation. The mind can play tricks on you, especially when you
>know the field and exactly where the object "should" be. Too often
>you hear of observations that are just plain suspect given the
>aperture of the scope and magnitude (or type) of object being
>observed. David and I did hold two different stars that were fainter
>than 18th magnitude that were in that same field, so I think with
>darker skies it will be possible. We tried powers up to 1500x but
>found that around 600x gave us the best view. I thoroughly enjoyed
>the search. Thanks for the suggestion David. Called it quits around
4:00.
Hi Brian,
I enjoyed reading your report and want to thank you again for the
2.5 hours of 30 inch Starmaster time spent hunting G132 in M31 on
Friday night at Calstar. Anyone who will spend that much time with
different eyepieces, hoods, magnification chasing an object is an
astronomer after my own heart!
I still think that G132 in M31 is indeed a doable object on the
Barbara Wilson "Aintno" List
(http://www.angelfire.com/id/jsredshift/aintno.htm). When I first
saw it listed as near impossible object number 78 on her list, I
checked the photometry of G132 in Barmby's up to date list for M31.
Although previously estimated at a visual magnitude of 18.64 (one of
the fainter known globs in M31), G132 is now listed at visual
magnitude 18.15 based on current photometery. (compare table 1 and
table 3 in http://cfa-www.harvard.edu/~pbarmby/m31gc.html ). G132 is
clearly labeled in the Hodge M31 atlas, and fortunately is not nearby
any bright stars. Having seen stars to at least 16.7 under good
conditions in a 14.5 inch scope, and having chased down 60 odd globs
or so in M31 with the 14.5 inch "small eye", I think G132 will
definitely fall to 30 inches of aperture. Indeed, I think we both
saw something at the right place at the ragged edge of averted vision
Friday night, but only when the seeing would steady up enough to snap
in the faintest stars in the field. Not quite enough to
definitely log G132, but I think steadier seeing would give a
sustained view, and a serious claim to an "Aintno" observation.
Great to meet you, and thanks again for the time and comraderie on
the ladder and scope Friday night. What a view to see that big
Starmaster pointing straight up and chasing M31 across the zenith !
-David Kingsley