Jay's Astronomical Observing Blog : I managed to get out for several hours in the West Desert of Utah. Fun driving up to the site! Anyway, had some great views and did some sketching. Of course pics out to the site (these were taken a couple days before but give a sense of the conditions). Dry, a little rutty but still an easy drive.A little muddy here, not bad, nothing the Outback can't handle! 1. NGC 2207 & IC 2163 merging Galaxies in Canis Major. Feb. 25th, 2017, 07:30pm MST; Antoniadi II, FR006; 17.5" Dob Star Catcher; 22mm T4 Nagler, 10mm & 5mm Pentax XW; Paracorr Type II. Reversed image from normal of course since I am using a dob. IC 2163 is the tine bright extension on the right and NGC 2207 is the large spiral galaxy on the left. There was a hint of structure, mottling on the left side of NGC 2207 which I have interpreted as the arms, which seem to be right in their placement. These two galaxies are actually doing a fly by each other with IC 2163 moving clockwise around the larger spiral NGC 2207. In about a billion years they will merge and form an elliptical galaxy. ...