*A COOL SEPTEMBER NIGHT

DS091207 RECENT OBSERVATIONS
by David Knisely

DATE: September 12, 2007, 0130 to 0300 hrs UTC.
LOCATION: Rockford Lake, Nebr. 40.227N 96.580W, elev. 1400 ft (427m)
INSTRUMENTS: NexStar 9.25 inch f/10 SCT: 59x, 73x, 98x, 118x, 169x,
235x, 297x, 479x
8 inch f/5 Newtonian (owner: John Lammers): 32x, 42x, 51x, 64x, 102x,
129x, 207x.
CONDITIONS: Clear, Temp: 57F (14C), Wind: E. 1-3 mph
UNAIDED-EYE ZENITH LIMITING MAGNITUDE: 6.8
SEEING (above 45 deg. altitude): 1 to 1.5 arc sec. (Antonaidi II).

OBJECTS OBSERVED: Jupiter, NGC 6302, NGC 6522, NGC 6528, Barnard 86, M6,
M7, M8, M20, M22, NGC 6565, NGC 6578, NGC 6589, NGC 6590, IC 1283, M24,
M16, M17, NGC 6741, M57, NGC 6960-79-92, NGC 7000, IC 5070, NGC 6888 IC
1318, NGC 7331, NGC 7335, NGC 7330, Stephan's Quintet, M45, M74, M77,
NGC 1499, NGC 1514, IC 405, NGC 2174, M42

OBSERVATIONS: After several weeks of marginal weather, we finally got a
nice break with beautifully clear skies and rather seasonable
temperatures. As I was preparing my equipment in the late afternoon, my
friend from Fairbury, John Lammers, showed up at my door with a van full
of "new telescope fever". He and another club member Brian Sivill have
been working on modifying his old 8 inch f/5 into a new and powerful
rich-field Dobsonian, and from the looks of things, they have succeeded.
In any event, we loaded up things and went to have dinner at a local
restaurant before heading out to Rockford Lake southeast of Beatrice. We
got to the site just after sundown, and needless to say, his Dob was set
up much faster than my scope was. We did the usual pre-dark sight seeing
with a slightly fuzzy Jupiter showing 5 to 7 belts low in the southwest,
followed by the close colorful double star Epsilon Bootis. Once it got
nice and dark, it was clear it would be a great night, as later, I noted
that I could see the Gegenschein and hints of the Zodiacal band. In the
course of the night, we did a lot of eyepiece and filter comparisons,
along with a full checkout of how his new scope behaved, so that final
modifications could be completed the next evening by Brian.

I started my viewing down south in the southern Milky Way. I thought I
might just catch the "Bug" nebula NGC 6302, but it was so low that all I
saw was the central star and a fuzzy diffuse elongated glow around it.
We did the usual shots of the "twin globulars" in Sagittarius: NGC 6522
and 6528, which both easily fit in the one degree field of my 40mm Mk-70
Konig. John got them in his scope as well, but with a 2.3 degree field
at 32x, he got in a lot more as well. The star fields in the area are
incredibly rich, with many fine dark lanes and smaller dark nebulae in
the area. The clusters are not really identical, as the western one (NGC
6522) is somewhat larger than 6528. Both looked a little granular at
169x, but only NGC 6522 showed very many stars and was still largely
unresolved. We also hit the "ink spot" of Barnard 86 next to the small
open cluster NGC 6520, and it appeared to be noticeably oval with some
interesting irregular outer structure rather than more typical view of
just a darker spot.

John did some eyepiece comparisons on M6 and M7 before moving on to the
Lagoon and Trifid Nebulae. I lent him my 2" DGM Optics NPB filter and we
were stunned by the view. Both M8 and M20 were visible in the 2.3 degree
field of his 32mm Burgess eyepiece, and M8 was just gigantic when
compared to "little" M20. Indeed, M8 looked to be a little over a degree
in length, with some tenuous wispy outer structure. When I put the NPB
filter back in my 9.25 inch SCT, I could see incredible structure. While
some may like the contrast which the OIII gives to this object, I just
like the brightness and extreme extent which the narrowband NPB filter
tends to give. Indeed, at times, I thought I could detect just a little
pink in some parts of M8. On M20, I borrowed John's 20mm Nagler, and the
three irregular dark lanes and nearby reflection nebulosity came out
unusually well. The NPB filter helped, but the object looked very nice
even without a filter.

We wanted to get John's scope on M22 at 101x, but after a few
frustrating attempts we discovered that his Telrad had been well out of
alignment. I don't know how many times that the little fuzzy spot
"companion" globular NGC 6642 kept showing up in the field every time I
put M22 in the center of the three red Telrad rings! We finally got the
Telrad properly lined up with where the scope was pointing and John was
a happy camper. The big cluster is noticeably oval, and that really
showed up well in John's scope along with being fairly well resolved
even at 101x. I slewed the NexStar to M22 at 169x, and the view was
simply glorious, with a tremendous number of stars nearly filling the
field of my 14mm Ultrawide.

After a few more sight-seeing diversions, I got down to business. I just
love tracking down small obscure planetary nebulae, and Sagittarius is
just loaded with them! My first target was little NGC 6565, a 14 arc
second faint spot of light that was tough to see at 59x without the OIII
filter. It blinked fairly well, so it wasn't long before I identified
which "star" in the field wasn't really a star. 235x showed the disk
fairly well, although the object is fairly faint. It did seem to show
hints of annularity with a brighter center, but seeing down that low
wasn't good enough to try a lot more power.

Next was little NGC 6578, a real stinker that sits right next to an 11th
magnitude star. When the OIII filter was used, what looked like a single
star became a clear double, as the star dimmed and the planetary nebula
began to look nearly as bright as the filtered star. 235x showed a faint
slightly diffuse disk perhaps nine arc seconds in diameter.

I pushed the scope to the north and ran into what looked like a large
rather faint diffuse nebula. Indeed, it was several: the emission nebula
IC 1283 and a pair of adjacent reflection nebulae: NGC's 6589 and 6590.
I first noted the glow around the 9th magnitude central star of NGC 6589
even without a filter, and filters did not help it much. NGC 6590 was
fainter but about the same size (perhaps 3 or 4 arc minutes across). To
the northeast was the large diffuse glow of IC 1283, and this one *was*
helped by filters. It was perhaps 15 arc minutes in diameter and not
quite circular, anchored by a 7th magnitude star. The edges were
somewhat irregular, and the southwestern side appeared almost as if a
vague dark lane or darker cutoff ran down towards the two reflection
nebulae. To my surprise, this one was helped most by the H-Beta filter,
although the NPB and OIII also improved the contrast. Thus, I later had
to add yet one more object to my filter survey project. We put John's 8
inch RFT on it with the H-Beta, and the object was easily visible
although fairly faint.

I used John's 8 inch at low power to show him the dark nebulae in and
around the Small Sagittarius Star Cloud M24. We played around with
filters in his scope on M17 and M16. John was really Impressed with M17
in the NPB filter, as the faint outer loop was clearly visible running
to the east and then back around to stop north of the main "swan"
complex. The OIII filter provided more contrast, making a dark area just
west of the neck of the swan look more prominent, but overall, I kind of
liked the view in the NPB Just a bit better. In my NexStar 9.25, M16
showed its usual faint "fuzzy mushroom" shape with notable dark
inclusions along the western and northern sides. The dark finger that
contains the "Pillars of Creation" was just barely visible with averted
vision near the center of the object as a tiny darker bar that connected
to a slightly darker region that ran to the southeast across the nebula.

I went farther north into Aquila to check on a planetary nebula which
was under discussion in the AMASTRO mailing list: NGC 6741. Again, this
was a rather small faint target only about eight arc seconds across, and
was located in a fairly rich starfield. It blinked fairly well with the
OIII filter, and the filter was still of some use even at higher power.
The object appears stellar at powers under 200x, and even at 297x was
only a tiny disk. I did kick things up to 480x, and the object seemed
slightly oval with a brighter middle. John had M57 in his scope and with
the NPB and OIII filters was able to see hints of the outer tattered
shell which surround the main ring.

We had some fun up in Cygnus with some of the "usual suspects". with the
wide field of John's 8 inch, the North America Nebula became an obvious
target. However, when John tried to find it, he ended up on the Veil by
accident, as his scope was getting temporarily unbalanced with his
heavier eyepieces. In the 2.3 degrees of field, both arcs could be seen
in their entirety, but not quite at the same time. With the OIII filter,
the detail was very nice, and even Pickering's Triangle and another
faint patch of nebulosity were visible. Once finally on the North
America Nebula, the shape of NGC 7000 was very easy to see, with the
brightness spine in "Mexico" really standing out well. The Pelican
nebula IC 5070 was also seen, although the shape didn't really resemble
the bird all that much. The NPB filter gave a very nice view of both
objects, but the OIII still provided the edge on contrast. I moved the
scope to the south to find the "Crescent" Nebula NGC 6888, and noted it
almost immediately. It showed a faint but rather complete oval area of
haze with some hazy detail in the interior. The northern edge of the
oval was the brightest, appearing as a distinct arc that ran most of the
way around the northern and western edges of the nebula before fading
along the southeastern side. In my NexStar 9.25 using the OIII filter, I
could see some hints of patchy detail along the arc, and a faint wisp of
light could be seen running from the main arc to the 7th magnitude
central star and perhaps a bit beyond.

One thing I had wanted to try in John's 8 inch f/5 was the large faint
multi-component emission nebula IC 1318, otherwise known as the "Gamma
Cygni Complex". I had previously observed it in my 10 inch, but with its
limited field of view and higher power, I had not gotten a good survey
of all of its many segments that are within 2.5 degrees of Gamma. The
nebulae are mainly H-Beta objects, so in went the H-Beta filter. I was
surprised at how well it all appeared, as there were numerous large
patches and puffs all over the place. However, the real surprise came
when I put in the NPB filter. WOW! While the contrast was not as high as
in the H-Beta filter, I could see larger areas of nebulosity over a huge
region. Perhaps the brightest areas were about a degree east of Gamma
and separated by a dark lane, but the segment about a degree to the
southeast was nearly as bright and quite large. This nebula is
definitely going to get another look!

John went back to playing with open star clusters for a while, so I went
after a few galaxies. NGC 7331 in Pegasus was nice, appearing at 59x as
a diffuse elongated oval of haze with a small noticeably brighter core.
Kicking the power to 98x really helped things as the galaxy gained some
contrast. The outer haze seemed larger and better defined with some very
faint mottling, while the western side of the galaxy was flanked by a
narrow dark lane. Off the eastern edge were two small companion
galaxies: NGC 7335 and NGC 7340. NGC 7335 was the brighter and larger of
the two, although both were rather small and faint. Of course, with
Stephan's Quintet only half a degree to the south-southeast, I just had
to make a stop there. Four of the five galaxies were fairly noticeable
but still quite faint. At 98x, I had trouble distinguishing the two
parts of NGC 7318 from each other, so my tally stood at four confirmed
galaxies instead of the five that are really there.

We put John's 8 inch RFT on the Helix (NGC 7293), and at 32x with the
OIII filter were greeted with a giant version of M57. The big fuzzy
donut was rather easy to see, but in my NexStar at higher power, the NPB
filter gave nearly as good a view as the OIII. John put his scope on the
Double Cluster and it blew us both away, as the 2.3 degree field nicely
framed the group including the outer halo of faint stars that envelopes
both clusters. We took a break for a while and then resumed with the
globular M2, which my NexStar did a fairly good job at resolving,
although the core was still somewhat tight and slightly hazy.

We spent quite a lot of time on M31 with John's scope. It showed the big
galaxy very well at 32x, but to see the dark lanes well required a bit
more power. His scope showed the fainter northeastern arm of the galaxy
better than I have seen in a while, along with the more patchy
southwestern arm and the NGC 206 star cloud. M33 was also quite good,
with faint but very patchy spiral structure visible again at somewhat
higher powers, although 32x did show the faint outer halo which makes
the galaxy nearly a degree across. We then put the "Silver Coin" galaxy
NGC 253 in his scope. That one again showed its best detail at between
102x and 207x, as it was littered with mottling. I put my NexStar on it
and studied the object for quite a while. Indeed, it was nice to have
John's eyepiece selection, as in our club, he is known as "Have
Eyepiece, Will Travel". His 20mm Nagler and 2x Powermate did a bang-up
job on NGC 253, as it gave me a 20 arc minute field at 235x. I could see
a huge amount of fine patchy detail, including a short dark lane along a
segment of the northwestern side. I also used that 20mm Nagler on M74,
and for once, I could see a little of its spiral structure, although it
wasn't quite as visible as that in M101. I also tried M77, and at 169x,
the inner spiral structure was visible with averted vision around the
bright star-like nucleus. However, at 59x in my NexStar, we both thought
we could see a hint of nearly circular ring-like arcs surrounding the
inner parts of the galaxy.

I was getting just a little tired and John had to be in Lincoln the
following afternoon, so we decided to end up with only a few more
objects. We put his scope on the California Nebula with the H-Beta
filter, and did see two large fat filaments which make up much of its
structure, although the field of view still wasn't enough to get the
whole thing in. The Pleiades were stunning in his scope (no filter),
with the Merope Nebula was fairly obvious. Indeed, there were hints of
other areas of nebulosity, including a sort of strand which went north
of Maia.

I showed John M1 at 235x, but he wasn't all that impressed, despite the
fact that I though the view was pretty good. I then let him have a look
at "the Crystal Ball" nebula, NGC 1514, and with both the NPB and OIII,
it showed a faint fuzzy sphere with brighter arc-like patches on the
northwest and southeastern sides. We picked up the "Skull", the large
faint planetary NGC 246, and while it looked nice in the NPB, it showed
a little more contrast in the OIII filter despite being somewhat
fainter. John was going up and down the Milky Way in Auriga looking at
all the open clusters when I interrupted him to try, "The Flaming Star"
nebula IC 405. This one is also an H-Beta object, but I guess I should
have called it the "flaming out" nebula, as I saw less of it in his
scope than I thought I might. I guess field of view wasn't what it
needed, as it was only a bit of faint glow right next to the variable
star AE Aur. I found NGC 2174 more interesting, as I could see that one
in northern Orion even without a filter. It was best in the NPB,
appearing as a circular glow with rather tattered edges. We finished off
with a view of M42 in John's scope with the NPB filter. The whopping 2.3
degree field showed the entire sword and all the nebulosity including
the faint southern loop and the nearby "running man" nebula. I could
even see faint pinks in parts of M42 itself. We packed up and went home
happy that we got one of the best nights out under the stars we had had
since the Nebraska Star Party. Clear skies to you.

--
David W. Knisely
Prairie Astronomy Club: http://www.prairieastronomyclub.org
Hyde Memorial Observatory: http://www.hydeobservatory.info/

**********************************************
* Attend the 14th Annual NEBRASKA STAR PARTY *
* July 15th-20th, 2007, Merritt Reservoir *
* http://www.NebraskaStarParty.org *
**********************************************

David Knisely wrote:

DS091207 RECENT OBSERVATIONS
by David Knisely


WoW, Thanx for sharing !!

I've saved this to show a friend who wants to
get a telescope soon. What a nice report. Almost
feel like I was there. Driving to Hands On Optics
tomorrow, my friend wants a LightBridge 12"
but they only have a 10" in stock. This will
be his first scope, though he has been around my
C 8, C 11, and DS 10 since I got them.

Who knows, he might get it
(10" LightBridge)





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AM