http://www.skyandtelescope.com.au 63LARRY MITCHELL
outsidethefieldofviewtogetagoodlookatthegalaxies.
Thatwaseasytodo,giventhe4.9-metrefocallengthof
the scope and Jimi’s favoured orthoscopic eyepieces, which
minimisethenumberofair-to-glasssurfacesthatcancause
lightscatterfromabrightobjectjustoutsidethefield.
NGC7714wasprobablyabarredspiralgalaxybeforeit
beganinteractingwithNGC7715,andNGC7715wasmost
likelyaspiral.Nowthey’reintheprocessofmorphingintoa
single,almostcertainlyelliptical,galaxyastheirinteraction
pullsstreamsofstarsbetweenandawayfromeachother.
Thesetwogalaxiesweretheeighthobject(s)weobservedSONE HAND FOR THE LADDER... and one for the scope. It takes a bit of courage to climb a 5-metre orchard ladder to observe with a
gigantic telescope, but the view through the eyepiece is always worth it.on our first night. It was around 12:30 a.m., the sky
conditions were decent, and we had settled into a good
observing rhythm. When Jimi asked, “What’s next?” and I
replied, “How about Arp 284 in Pisces?” I heard a murmur
of assent. After moving the ladder out of the way, Jimi
commanded the scope to slew to the proper coordinates, then
pushed the ladder back into place and climbed up to centre
the galaxies in the field of view. He also swapped in a higher
power eyepiece.
We took turns going up the ladder and describing to the
other two what each of us was seeing — when we weren’t too