Had a great evening at Henry Coe last night.
It was very windy before sunset but the winds died down for a while after
dark. The temperature started off quite pleasant and then dropped fairly
rapidly around 10pm. But it wasn't too cold, I wore shorts the entire
evening. I calculated the limiting magnitude at 12:30am as 6.3.
There were 8 scopes in attendence. I was using my home made 18" f4.5, with
an Enterprise Optics mirror. My current project is the the Herchel 400, but
I've completed all of the spring and summer objects, the first one on my
list wasn't going to be visible till around midnight so I decided start off
with the TAC Eye Candy list and check off the objects on it that I've never
seen. Turns out there are 77 objects on that list that I've never observed
so there were a lot to choose from.
I started off with NGC5981, NGC5982, NGC5985 (AKA Crilly's Neapolitan Trio),
then over to a nice galaxy NGC6210, at this point I noticed that NGC6543 The
Cat's Eye was nearby so I decided to check it out. I was blown away. I spent
the next 45 minutes looking at the Cat's Eye and calling everyone around me
to come take a look. Using my Nagler 4.8mm (413x) the central star was
visible with direct vision, the two lobes of the cat's eye were very obvious
with lots of detail visible. I kept saying to myself that it was the best
view I had ever had of the Cat's Eye. It wasn't until later going over my
past notes that I realized that the only other time I've looked at it was
with my 5" ETX125 Mak-Cass. In the 18" it was awesome, and has definitely
been added to my list of objects to check often.
>From the Cat's Eye I moved on to other objects on the Eye Candy list
NGC6818, NGC7009, NGC7479, and NGC281. Shortly after this Joe Fragola asked
me to come take a look at an object in his scope. It was a satellite that
was flashing. Decided it was tumbling space junk, but after a few minutes
realized it wasn't moving out of the FOV. So it was geosynchronous space
junk. But then realized it was in Draco and there shouldn't be any
geosynchronous satellites in that area of the sky. So got it in my scope as
well and spent some time watching it. It turns out it was moving slightly,
but very slowly. Strange indeed.
The wind picked up again after midnight just about the time I was ready to
get back to the H400 list. I ended up bagging 6 objects before some high
clouds started rolling in. I looked through the clouds for a little while
but finally decided to call it a night around 2:30.
All in all a great evening at Coe.
-- Craig
=====================================================================
NGC5981
Very long and skinny. A very obvious edge on galaxy. Very faint. Elongated
in the NW-SE direction. Just above a 14.6 mag star to the SE. Same FOV as
NGC5982 and 5985
NGC5982
Very bright stellar core. Slight symetrical haze visible using averted
vision. Looks a lot like a fuzzy nebula then a galaxy. Same FOV as NGC5981
and 5985
NGC5985
Large and diffuse. Brighter core visible using averted vision. Elongated in
the N-S direction. In between mag 11.5 and 12.0 stars to the NW and SE.
Hint of dust lanes visible using averted vision. NGC5982 and 5981 visible in
same FOV
NGC6210
Very bright PN. Looked like a very bright star in the 35mm Panoptic. Obvious
PN using 9mm. Really stood out using OIII filter although it was so bright
that filter was not really necessary
NGC6503
Very nice elliptical galaxy. Bright non-stellar core, extending out in NW-SE
direction 3:1. Very oblique angle, close call between it be a edge on
galaxy. Dust lanes visible using averted vision. Best object I've looked at
tonight.
NGC6543
The best view I've ever had of the cat's eye nebula. At 413x the central
star was plainly visible. There was quite a bit of wind so the image was
moving around. When there was a lull in the wind the two rings were visible
using direct vision.
NGC6818
Very bright and compact PN. Has a mottled apperance which was very
pronounced at 413x. Edges look very diffuse (not well defined)
NGC7009
Very bright. Elongated in the N-S direction. Can see why it is called the
Saturn nebula
NGC7479
Bright stellar core. Elongated slightly in the N-S direction. 13 mag star on
NNE edge. A hint of a dust lane using averted vision. Not sure why this is
on the eye candy list
NGC281
Very large open cluster. A group of stars that looks like a small SCO to the
west. In the center just about the mini SCO there is a bright triple star
NGC779
Elliptical galaxy with bright central core. Haze extends out in N-S
direction 3:1 with dust lanes visible usng averted vision.
NGC869
Less dense than it's neighbor 884 but equally as bright. Lots of stars All
of the stars appear white except for a single yellow star in the NW
NGC884
Big, bright, dense cluster. Two bright stars in the middle look like eyes.
Above one of these stars is a semicircle of 5 stars that looks like an
eyebrow.
NGC7723
Bright almost stellar core. Slightly elongated in the NE-SW direction. Hint
of spiral structure with averted vision
NGC7727
Very bright stellar core. Haze appears to be symetrical around the core.
Hint of structure using averted vision
NGC157
Very diffuse with no obvious core. Elongated 2:1 in the NW-SE direction.
Non-uniform brightness, the western side appears brighter than the eastern
side giving it a 3d effect. Very unusal. Two faint stars on the NE edge,
guessing they are mag 16 or greater since they don't show up in Skymap Pro
NGC246
I was expecting a small PN, This is huge in comparison to most PN in the
H400. It appears to be a huge bubble with 4 stars inside it. The brightness
is not very uniform. There are dark areas and bright areas. Most of the dark
areas appear near the stars that within the area of the nebula
----- End of observations -----
Received on Sun Sep 12 19:48:35 2004