Re: Virgo galaxy cluster as a naked-eye object?

M81 is visible naked eye under extremely dark skies.  I've done it once at Lassen about 20 years ago...under mag 8.0 skies.  Perhaps if GSSP reachs mag 8.0, we should try it.  The skies over at Adin has potential as long as the water vapor stays farther north while bringing the dry air over it.
 
Alvin
 

--- On Wed, 5/27/09, apierce@No-Spam <apierce@No-Spam> wrote:

From: apierce@No-Spam <apierce@No-Spam>
Subject: Re: [TAC] Virgo galaxy cluster as a naked-eye object?
To: "TAC mailing list" <tac@No-Spam>
Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 12:33 AM

Here's a little experiment for people other than Jay Freeman or Stephen
O'Meara.  Regular guys like me, who have seen M33 and Uranus with the
unaided eye, but no deeper. Look at the central Virgo area with 50 mm
binoculars or a finder -- roughly 50 times more light gathering power than
the unaided eyes. Impressive?  No, I didn't think so. Those particular
galaxies are not super bright individually nor are they exactly on top of
each other. M104, and M49, the brightest galaxies in Virgo, don't count,
they are both outliers.  Now imagine the same view 50 times fainter. I
think you'd have better luck with M101 or M81/82.

Andrew Pierce

> A friend of mine with modest experience as an amateur astronomer
> reports hearing it said in the amateur community that the integrated
> light of the galaxies of central Virgo is visible to the naked eye
> on exceptionally dark and clear nights.
>
> I have found no reference to any such observation by searching the
> web.  Can anyone shed any light on this report or its possible source?
>
> My friend was sufficiently knowledgeable to establish that no, they
> were *not* talking about the Coma Berenices star cluster.
>
> --  Jay Reynolds Freeman
> ---------------------
> Jay_Reynolds_Freeman@No-Spam
> http://web.mac.com/jay_reynolds_freeman (personal web site)
>
> ---
>
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