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Originally Posted by ngcles
Hi PGC & All,
An excellent report and I particularly enjoyed the sketches. The one of the Saturn Nebula (NGC 7009) is exactly how I remember it looking in my 31cm at x363. It is a really beautiful object and stands high power well.
Good observation of NGC 6818 too. Here is an observation I made of it from home back in 1996 with 25cm. It was a night of average to poor seeing (5) and I rated the transparency at 6 (so mag 5.1 stars would have been visible) and I've recorded the temprature as 1 deg C at about 1am -- that's about as cold as it ever gets here in sunny Engadine:
x138 21' TF x181 15' TF mag 9.2 size 22" UHC Bright blue. Intense colour. Fairly evenly illuminated with hints of a darker centre. Not a well populated field for a a Milky Way constellation. 2 mag 9*s on E edge of the field. mag 13 *s nr the nebula. 30" W one and the other SE another W Hard edged. Est size 20-25".
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Hi Les, thanks for replying and noting your own observations, it's good to see others' take on my observed objects
Yep NGC 7009 is one of teh best PNe in the sky. My personal favourite though is the Ghost of Jupiter, unbeatable for colour and detail. NGC 6818 would have to be one of the best PN's for high power viewing, its incredibly bright and compact.
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Well done in picking up NGC 7424 from suburbia it is a very LSB object as you note. Here is my note of an observation made at Mudgee 9 years ago with 31cm. I rated the transparency that night as 9 -- an exceptionally good night indicating that mag 6.6 stars were visible:
x186 26' Tf. Mag 10.5 Size 9'. A very, very LSB eg found between a couple of mag 11 *s SW-NE sep by 15'. Big 6' - 7' halo which is roughly round. Very LSB halo with diffuse ill defined edges. Grows in brightness weakly to the centre with a small 30" circular core nucleus. Quite nice!
So I'm not really surprised you only saw core. I should have a go at this one with the larger aperture -- I think this just might show some indications of spiral structure with more light.
I also enjoyed your description of Jupiter -- particularly of the detail in the Ez festoon structures. Over the last few years I think there have been a smaller number of really big, obvious festoons in the Ez on Jupiter, but a larger number of these finer filamentary ones that only cooperate when the seeing is really good. Not that the number of blue features on the S edge of the NEB or the N edge of the SEB has diminished -- I don't think it has. In fact the N edge of the SEB seems to have more bluish features than I've seen in quite a while.
I was watching Jupiter (with the public) that night too at Sydney Observatory using the Meade 40cm LX200 and the 29cm f/15 refractor. The seeing was good but nothing to get carried away about. It is rarely good in the domes -- they suffer from bad seeing due to both poor design of the building and the fact that you've got 20 people standing around the 'scope with you. The double shadow transit was really nice to see.
Also very good and highly detailed observations of NGC 288 and NGC 1261 well done. Thanks very much for taking the time to post them.
Best,
Les D
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1261 is a nice cluster, I was a bit surprised. I guess after 7 years of using a 4.5" newtonian, I'm not used to them appearing anything more than dust kitties
