[Smirnoff]

Seeing a rare forecast of "clear" (in those actual words, a novelty here in southern Vic), I decided to make use of it. Although there was a full moon, you got to make use of it, especially here. So, I made up a list of small, high surface brightness planetaries to observe, as these should be largely resistant to moonlight, and armed with my filters, I have the upper hand.

Charts showed an ideal setup for good seeing, but alas, southern Victoria is not known for its steady seeing. I was confronted with rubbish seeing. It was fun watching slightly out of focus stars get warped into all sorts of funky shapes!!!

Scope: 12" dob
Time: 11pm-1am
Seeing: 2/10
Transparency: 0/5 (full moon)


IC 418
Somewhat egg-shaped, uniformly bright disk at 283x. Completely disappears when you stare directly at it! Somewhere I heard that this PN responds well to the H-beta filter, so I decided to try it. With the H-beta, it was a definate improvement over the non-filtered view. None of that red that is supposedly visible at the eyepiece, although any hints of colour would've been washed out by the moon.

NGC 2022
Faint PN in northern Orion. At 176x, it appeared circular. At 283x with OIII filter, there was a hint of annularity, but the combo of moonlight and poor seeing made this hard to confirm. At this mag, signs of elongation became evident, in a NNE/SSW direction. Increasing power to 326x confirmed its annular form, but the interior was not completely dark. Its elongation was more appearent aswell.

IC 2165
Tiny, tiny PN in Canis Major, but distinctly non-stellar at 176x. It appeared somwhat pale bluish in colour. Upping mag to 353x with the OIII filter, I suspected annularity, with a hint of E-W elongation. Size is quoted as 9"x7" so it appears my suspicions of elongation are correct. Despite shoddy seeing, I decided to try what real high mags would do, so I stuck 5mm EP into the barlow for 566x (without filter). I was convinced that there was some annularity, and that this PN was also showing elongation. But it didnt appear to be an oval per se, but more of a "flying saucer" shape with a flat 'bottom' and domed 'top'. I'm suprised I got this good a view at this magnification, as when I tried to focus on some stars, all I got was a boling, mushy, quivering mess!!

At this point, the infamous southern Victorian cloud came tearing in off the icy ocean, ruining my plans for the rest of the night.

Tonight is supposed to be clear...