Hello there!
As members of the Sardinian Amateur Astronomical Association, we can make use of the 40cm Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope of the Cagliari Observatory, located almost 20 km away from the city, on the top of a hill. Yesterday night we got a clear sky, even if not 100% perfect. Between 11.00pm and midnight I had the possibility to manage the telescope...
so I decided to point some planetary nebulae.
First object that I've pointed is the classic M27 in Vulpecula; I was not able to see the central star.
M57 was amazing, the central star was clearly visible, and the nebula showed two colours, red to the edge and clearly blue on the centre.
I tried to see NGC 7293 in Aquarius, but the telescope is too big for it, so nothing was visible.
NGC 7009 in Aquarius was very nice, the two lateral "jets" were clearly visible and, indeed, the entire nebula resembled the shape of Saturn.
NGC 6826 in Cygnus is almost unknown to many amateur astronomers; I can say without any doubt that this is one of the most beautiful planetary nebulae in the sky. You can make a joke with this deeply blue object: when you look the central star, you will not be able to see the nebulosity, and when looking the nebulosity, no central star seems to be there.
NGC 6543 in Draco is the Cat's Eye Nebula, well-known because of the wonderful Hubble's image. It lies close to the northern ecliptic pole, so in the southern hemisphere is visible only between the tropic and the equator. The central star was detectable without any difficulty.
NGC 7026 in Cygnus is the last object that I saw; it is a faint nebula that lies close to a 8th magnitude star. No central star was detectable.
I hope next week the weather will be good enaugh to continue my planetary nebulae survey.
